Michel Richard Delalande

Delalande taught music to the daughters of Louis XIV, and was director of the French chapel royal from 1714 until his death at Versailles in 1726.

Delalande was arguably the greatest composer of French grands motets, a type of sacred work that was more pleasing to Louis XIV because of its pomp and grandeur, written for soloists, choir and comparatively large orchestra.

His earlier versions show adherence to French Baroque style, but the later revisions incorporate more Italian melismatic lines and greater attention to polyphonic counterpoint.

Finally, in 2006 the definitive "Thematic Catalogue of the Works of Michel-Richard de Lalande (1657-1726)" by noted British musicologist Lionel Sawkins came out which runs to 752 pages containing over 3,000 music examples and details of performing requirements and of all source materials, as well as with comprehensive indexes and thematic locators.

Vocal Instrumental Delalande was an expert organist and harpsichordist, and yet has left not a single note of keyboard music.

Delalande is portrayed wearing the insignia of the order of Saint-Michel , with which he was conferred in 1722, but his features appear much as they were two decades earlier.
Michel Richard de Lalande, after painting by Jean-Baptiste Santerre , engraving by Thomassin