Messe des morts à grand orchestre dédiée aux mânes des compositeurs les plus célèbres

In 1813, when the French Institut was preparing to elect a successor to Grétry, Martini requested to be considered as a candidate, supporting his application with a list of works, the last of which was a “Messe des morts, recently composed (in print)”. Although the Tablettes de Polymnie had already described him, in 1811, as the composer of a requiem, Martini was concealing the age of this score to make himself seem more current, probably with a view to enhancing the status of his application. Prudently “dedicated to the spirits of the most famous composers”, without stating their names, the Messe des morts was published by Leduc at the start of the French Restoration, when Martini had finally taken over the Chapelle du roi, a position he had been given in the closing years of the Ancien Régime. Due to this post, he had the privilege of putting on a performance of a “messe de requiem”  by his hand at Saint-Denis on 21 January 1815, when the remains of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette were moved to that basilica. The work was revived a year later in the same place to celebrate the anniversary of the martyr king, on the decision of Louis XVIII. Lack of time between the fall of Napoleon and the ceremony in January 1815 meant that it was highly likely that the composer, then aged 74, put on a performance of the Messe des morts he had composed under the French Empire, perhaps lengthened by three motets today held at the National Library of France in manuscript form (De profundis– Adagio– A custodia). This Messe des morts for three soloists (soprano, tenor and bass), chorus and orchestra is particularly noteworthy for its demanding solo bass part: from the vocalises of the Liber scriptusto the use of a speaking trumpet in the Oro supplex, Martini shows the influence of Italian music on French sacred works at the turn of the century.