The instrumental passages, far from being mere preludes, interludes or postludes, also bear witness to the marked sensitivity of the future sub-master of the Chapelle Royale at Versailles.
André Campra (1660-1744), a Provençal composer and renowned Maître de Chapelle at the cathedrals of Toulon, then Arles, Toulouse and Paris, wrote this Requiem Mass probably shortly after his arrival in Paris in 1694, while directing the choir school at Notre-Dame. Composed for a service in memory of Monseigneur François de Harlay, Archbishop of Paris, in November 1695, this mass is part of a period when Campra's religious music was reaching full maturity: the traditional polyphony is treated with the same expressiveness as the solo arias, which already heralded the composer's taste for opera - it was at this time that he began writing his opera-ballet L'Europe galante.
