Requiem For A King – Music of Jean Gilles and Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Requiem For A King – Music of Jean Gilles and Marc-Antoine Charpentier

BURLINGTON BAROQUE

Friday, October 30th, 2026

St. Albans, Vermont

Burlington Baroque presents the rediscovered Funeral Requiem Setting of Jean Gilles (1668 - 1705) featuring internationally acclaimed festival Artists-in-Residence L’Harmonie des saisons Baroque Orchestra and the Burlington Baroque Festival Singers, directed by Eric Milnes.

Jean Gilles’ Messe des Morts, the most frequently performed Requiem in 18th-century France, will receive its regional premiere in two upcoming performances: Friday, October 30, at 7:30 p.m. at Holy Angels Church in St. Albans, and Sunday, November 1, at 4:00 p.m. at College Street Congregational Church in Burlington.

Forgotten for more than a century and a half, Gilles reemerged from obscurity in the 1950s, largely through the rediscovery of this Funeral Mass. Born in Tarascon on January 8, 1668, he began his musical life at the Cathedral of Saint-Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence as assistant to director of music Guillaume Poitevin, whom he later succeeded. In 1697, Gilles settled in Toulouse, serving as director of music at the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne until his death on February 5, 1705, at age 37. Although his career was brief and devoted entirely to sacred music, his works were celebrated throughout the 18th century.

The date and circumstances of the Requiem’s composition are unknown, but the work became one of the 18th century’s most frequently performed pieces of sacred music and secured Gilles’ posthumous fame. A commentator wrote in 1756 that “of all the Requiem masses, the one written by Gilles has always been looked upon as the best.” The work was performed at official funeral observances, including memorial services for Jean-Philippe Rameau in 1764 and Louis XV in 1774, and entered the repertoire of the Concert Spirituel in 1750.

Audiences should not miss this rare opportunity to experience the timeless grandeur of this glorious masterpiece in live performance.