This study offers a glimpse into the musical and social changes that came about in France at the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. The French cantata, which united French and Italian musical styles, was stimulated by these changes and David Tunley's book places its repertoire in the wide context.

The first edition of this book is the classic study of one of the most popular musical forms in early eighteenth-century France, not only because it documents and examines its considerable repertoire for the first time, but also because it places the genre in the wider context of both French and Italian baroque music styles. In uniting the two national styles the cantata was one of the major influences in transforming the seventeenth-century French classical tradition in music into a style that owed much to the Italian baroque, yet retained a distinctive gallic expression. As well as its musical interest, the French cantata provides an arresting example of the influence of society upon music, and the book commences with a chapter that views the emergence of the form in its social setting. Cantata texts enjoyed a vogue as poetry and this literary aspect is also dealt with in a separate chapter. This new edition incorporates research by the author and other scholars over the twenty years since the first edition, reflecting today's growing interest in French baroque music. It also features a new chapter dealing with the French cantata in performance.