Messe de Saint-Louis-des-français

On leaving Paris after a performance of his Messe à la mémoire de Lesueur, Gounod took advantage of the opportunity he was given in Rome to write a mass in honour of the king. Whereas the mass performed at the church of Saint-Eustache had been restrained in tone and tinged with archaism, this mass boasts a more modern use of language informed by a desire for eloquence. The vocal style is characterised by its determined rhythmic and melodic patterning, apart from the initial lament of the Gloria, which is sung by solo tenor underpinned by murmuring divided strings and kettledrum. Gounod was to use this style again in his Messe de sainte Cécile. The expressive role given to the instrumental timbres and the orchestral interjections clearly show that Gounod was not yet familiar enough with liturgical texts simply to set them to music: he seemed bent on enhancing them to bring out their message; even if this meant taking liberties with the liturgy. Such as the gradual, overlapping, introduction of the word “Christe”, which removed the break between the Kyrie and the Christe. Or, in the Credo, when the basses chant “Credo” until the Judicare, while the tenors sing the Resurrexit. After frenetic rehearsals, Gounod conducted his mass for three men’s voices, soloists and orchestra on 1 May 1841 at the church of Saint-Louis-des-Français. For Vienna, he altered the allocation of the solo vocals (in Rome, the soprano and alto parts had been taken by children and men singing falsetto) and replaced the solemn prayer for the king (Exaudiat te Dominus, for five solo voices) with a new offertory Christus factus est.