[1] In 1683 the then fifty-year-old "Sun King" Louis XIV commanded that a competition be held to select four rotating seasonal choirmasters to replace the retiring Henry Du Mont and at the Chapelle royale.
Of the 35 applicants, four were selected: Michel Richard Delalande, then the late Lully's assistant Pascal Colasse; Guillaume Minoret a minor figure from Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois; and finally Nicolas Goupillet, from Meaux.
And yet Goupillet clearly could compose when he had to, since the second stage of the original competition in 1683 secluded the applicants in Paris and had them all write grands motets to Psalm 31 Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates.
In any event the king was not too hard on Goupillet and awarded him a modest pension and a canonship at Saint-Quentin, Aisne.
During the 9 months of the year when he was not required in Paris, Goupillet returned to work with Pierre Tabart at Meaux.