In the extensive output of French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier, best-known for his Te Deum (Carus 21.032), the Marian antiphons occupy a special place among his smaller church music works. He devoted himself to these over a period of almost 25 years while working in the Italian-influenced circle of the Duchess Marie de Lorraine (known as Mademoiselle de Guise), and later in the service of the Parisian Jesuits firstly at the Collège Louis-le-Grand, then at the Church of Saint Louis.

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