| This study explores performance practices used in French choral music of the late Baroque era, using In convertendo (ca. 1713; rev. 1751), a grand motet by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683--1764), as the exemplar. As the foundation of the project, the author created a new edition of the motet (which is included in an appendix to the document) from primary source material.;The document is divided into two major sections, History and Performance Practice. After a brief overview of Rameau's life and career, the first section summarizes the development of the grand motet genre from the early works of Eustache Du Caurroy (1549--1609) through the contributions of Rameau. The second section discusses the following topics: the various agrements and their usage; matters of meter, tempi, and dynamics; conventions of rhythmic alteration; issues of pitch and instrumentation; and the use of the historical French Latin pronunciation for this repertoire. The document concludes with a chapter describing the author's edition of In convertendo and detailing the editorial procedures employed in creating it. |
