Jean-Paul C. Montagnier – författare

Regarded as the 'first Czech woman composer of importance' by the Grove Dictionary in 1954, Julie Reisserová's name has since virtually disappeared from the musical and musicological landscape. Reisserová, one of Albert Roussel's most famous Czech students during the interwar period, was not only a successful composer in her time, but also an active feminist. Her music was generally well received and performed by prestigious musicians. The only comprehensive study of her life and work, published in 1948, was written by Jiřina Vacková. If Vacková was able to investigate the personal archives of the diplomat Jan Reisser - Reisserová's husband - before they were seized and/or destroyed by the communist regime, her book remains hagiographical. This Element draws up a new biographical sketch of the artist, reviews Reisserová's thoughts on the status of women composers between the wars, considers the reception of her six surviving scores, and examines her style.

Regarded as the 'first Czech woman composer of importance' by the Grove Dictionary in 1954, Julie Reisserová's name has since virtually disappeared from the musical and musicological landscape. Reisserová, one of Albert Roussel's most famous Czech students during the interwar period, was not only a successful composer in her time, but also an active feminist. Her music was generally well received and performed by prestigious musicians. The only comprehensive study of her life and work, published in 1948, was written by Jiřina Vacková. If Vacková was able to investigate the personal archives of the diplomat Jan Reisser - Reisserová's husband - before they were seized and/or destroyed by the communist regime, her book remains hagiographical. This Element draws up a new biographical sketch of the artist, reviews Reisserová's thoughts on the status of women composers between the wars, considers the reception of her six surviving scores, and examines her style.

This is the first ever book-length study of the a cappella masses which appeared in France in choirbook layout during the baroque era. Though the musical settings of the Ordinarium miss' and of the Missa pro defunctis have been the subject of countless studies, the stylistic evolution of the polyphonic masses composed in France during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been neglected owing to the labor involved in creating scores from the surviving individual parts. Jean-Paul C. Montagnier has examined closely the printed, engraved and stenciled choirbooks containing this repertoire, and his book focuses mainly on the music as it stands in them. After tracing the choirbooks' publishing history, the author places these mass settings in their social, liturgical and musical context. He shows that their style did not all adhere strictly to the stile antico, but could also employ the most up-to-date musical language of the period.