'lessons of darkness'; sometimes spelled Leçons des ténèbres) is a genre of French Baroque music which developed from the polyphonic lamentations settings for the tenebrae service of Renaissance composers such as Sermisy, Gesualdo, Brumel, Tallis, and Tomás Luis de Victoria into virtuoso solo chamber music.
[citation needed] The tenebrae service uses the text of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, originally deploring the Siege of Jerusalem (587 BC) and subsequent desolation of the city, but applied allegorically to the three days of mourning for Christ between his crucifixion and resurrection.
Philidor's catalogue indicates that Delalande's three surviving virtuoso solo Leçons de ténèbres were composed for such occasions.
The following represents the typical French baroque schema set by Marc-Antoine Charpentier,[2] which follows the order of the Roman Breviary of St. Pius V as it was promulgated after the Council of Trent in 1568.
The characteristic style of the Leçons de ténèbres is defined by the trend to soloist virtuoso performance, for one or two vocalists with basso continuo, and introspective and melismatic music – specifically in the melismas on the Hebrew letters introducing each Latin verse.