Known today primarily for his grand motets Delalande also wrote atleast twenty works for the stage. The Ballet de la jeunesse is an important earlyexample of opera-ballet antedating Campra's L'Europe galante by more than a decade. At the center of this Divertissement is an immense and highly organized double chaconne of sixty-two variations each eight measures long. The manuscript reproduced in this volume is a magnificent example of the calligraphy of André Danican Philidor l'aîné.

Barbara Coeyman: