ormiston (asker) Oct 7, 2019:

thank you all for your conscientious work and enlightening contributions!

Charles Davis Oct 5, 2019:

@ Yvonne Many thanks! I've done so.

Yvonne Gallagher Oct 5, 2019:

@ Charles I agree with you so please put an answer. I would be inclined to use "cantor" though, even when not a church setting, as it immediately tells us this is a sole singer leading responses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor_(Christianity)#targetTe...

Charles Davis Jul 24, 2019:

"Antoine Moulinié, dit l'Aîné, frère d'Étienne, fut un célèbre chanteur (basse-contre) de la musique de la Chambre de Louis XIII, d'Anne d'Autriche et de Louis XIV."
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=yt-KBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT1858&l...

"Moulinié [Moulinier, Moulinière, Molinié], Etienne
(b Languedoc, c1600; d Languedoc, after 1669). French composer. As a child he sang in the choir of Narbonne Cathedral. In 1624 he came to Paris, where his elder brother Antoine (d Paris, 8 Aug 1655) was a singer in the king’s chamber."
https://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.a...

Ph_B is right: in court language "in ordinary" is the equivalent of "ordinaire", as I argued in the previous question he has cited.

Charles Davis Jul 24, 2019:

chantre In this Catholic Church this is not a chorister but a cantor (aka precentor), a solo singer who leads the responses and commonly acts as choirmaster:

"Dignitaire qui remplit l'office de maître de chœur, qui entonne et préside au chant dans un monastère ou une église."
https://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/chantre

However, Antoine Moulinié, Étienne's elder brother, held the post of chantre not in a church but at court. Had it been in the Chapel Royal it would probably mean a cantor, but it was in the Chambre du roi, the Privy Chamber. and in this context I believe it simply means a singer. Again, I don't think it means a chorister; it implies (to me) that he was a soloist. Nowadays chantre is not used in ordinary language as a synonym of chanteur, but it was standard in français moyen and although it was becoming archaic by the seventeenth century, since chantre had become an ecclesiastical term, it was still in use. Court terminology is often archaic for its time.

Ph_B (X) Jul 24, 2019:

"in Ordinary" was (still is?) used at the Court of St James's: http://courtofficers.ctsdh.luc.edu/CHAMBER2.list.pdf or http://thepeerage.com/index_royal.htm This is also useful: https://www.proz.com/kudoz/french-to-english/history/6543298...

Simon Charass Jul 24, 2019:

@ Marco. Excellent finding!

Marco Solinas Jul 24, 2019:

"ordinaire" vs. "extraordinaire" This wiki entry defines a "chantre ordinaire" as "permanent chorister" in contrast with an "interprète extraordinaire": "À vingt ans, il est admis comme clerc à la Sainte-Chapelle du Palais, et, trois ans plus tard, comme chantre ordinaire (choriste employé de manière permanente, par opposition à un interprète « extraordinaire »)". See https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Formé

Marco Solinas Jul 24, 2019:

To Asker Does this help? https://books.google.ca/books?id=kiYxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT228&lpg=P...