Before Versailles, the epicenter of power in the Kingdom of France was the Louvre - a genuine theater of ceremonies where music was duty-bound to impress with it's magnificence. In the reign of Louis XIII, the air de cour and ballet mobilized the elite of composers such as Moulini�, Gu�dron and Chancy. The most famous of them, Boesset, guided the polyphonic air inherited from the Renaissance towards a more intimate conception: far from the sumptuous splendors to come in the shadow of the Sun King, it is a rich array of delicately chiseled miniatures that the combined talents of the Ensemble Correspondances give us the opportunity to hear today.