Part 1: Vocal music in France: Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre : biographical essay ; The sacred cantatas of Elisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre : an introduction ; Representing Jacquet de La Guerre on disc : scoring and basse continue practices and a new painting of the composer ; A new Rameau cantata ; Performing Rameau's cantatas ; Towards a chronology of Rameau's cantatas ; Declamation and expressive singing in recitative ; 18th-century French and Italian singing : Rameau's writing for the voice ; On performing 18th-century haute-contre roles ; Basses and basse continue in the Paris Opéra orchestra, 1700-1764 ; The dramatic role of the chorus in French opera : evidence for the use of gesture, 1670-1770; The Paris Opéra chorus during the time of Rameau ; 'Inclina Domine' : a Martin motet wrongly attributed to Rameau ; Preface to Francois Martin, Petits Motets for One and Two Solo Voices and Instruments ; Bach's music in France : a new source -- Part 2.The viol and violin in England: A 17th-century source of ornamentation for voice and viol : British Museum ms. Egerton 2971 ; Carl Friedrich Abel's solos : a musical offering to Gainsborough? ; Books on old violins and 19th-century playing from the bequest of T. Wesley Mills ; Tempo gradations in Purcell's sonatas ; Violin playing in late 17th-century England : Baltzar, Matteis, and Purcell ; Ornamentation in English lyra viol music : slurs, juts, thumps and other 'graces' for the bow ; Ornamentation in English lyra viol music : shakes, relishes, falls, and other 'graces' for the left hand

Explores some of the written and unwritten performance conventions that applied to French and English music of the 17th and early 18th centuries. Using composers' own notations, marks added by 18th-century performers, historical treatises, and pictorial evidence, Cyr investigates both vocal and instrumental genres, including opera, cantatas, instrumental chamber music, and solo music for the viol and violin. Some of the performance conventions remain controversial, such as the use of gesture by the French opera chorus, and others are still little-known, such as the use of the double bass for rhythmic and harmonic support in early 18th-century French opera. As many of these essays demonstrate, French Baroque music allowed performers a wider latitude of nuance and expression than is often assumed today