Michel-Richard de Lalande was the most influential and talented composer of sacred music at the court of Versailles in the 17th and 18th centuries. Among the French composers of his generation, he made the largest contribution to sacred music for female voices, at a time when such music was generally considered the preserve of male voices. Among the pieces he composed, the Leçons de Ténèbres and the Miserere are undoubtedly the most technically sophisticated and the most eloquent in their expressive power. They were composed “for the Ladies of the Assumption and sung by the De la Lande sisters to the admiration of all of Paris.”

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Through the use of chromatic ostinato bass lines in the basso continuo, the expressive silence of the long pauses, and the great care he took with the texts set to music, these Leçons de Ténèbres reflect a composer at the height of his success.