Even after Neo-Gallican reforms revised and suppressed traditional liturgical melodies, plainchant was still sung in almost all parishes as well as the Chapelle Royale of Louis XIV and Louis XV in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France. At this time, plainchants were still employed to enhance the solemnity of the service and provide a way in which composers of secular music could create sacred-sounding music. Plainchants were incorporated into polyphonic music in several ways, including the use of psalm tone intonations, Gregorian intonations, short quotations from chant to emphasize key words, and cantus firmus. Often, plainchants could be anticipated in orchestral introductions. These practices may have been influenced by the chant sur le livre, a French convention of improvising around a plainchant. Aside from emphasizing the sacred aspect of a composition, quotations from popular chants could convey the meaning of the text to those who did not speak Latin, or certain chants could be utilized for political allegory in order to reflect the grandeur of the King.

Works: Jean-Baptiste Lully: Dies Irae (116-18); Henri Madin: Dixit Dominus (130-31); Antoine Blanchard: Jubilate Deo (130-35).

Sources: Dies Irae (116-18); Graduale romanum (Sanctus) (121-35).

Index Classifications: 1600s, 1700s

Contributed by: Randy Goldberg