From a musical point of view, Céphale et Procris uses the same tragédie lyrique ingredients Lully had conceived twenty years earlier, and includes a prologue written to the glory of the king and five acts. Despite the libretto’s shortcomings, however, Jacquet was able to make the best of her task. Notable examples of her abilities are the psychological depth she gives Aurore, and the shattering emotion of Procris and Céphale’s arias.

Céphale et Procris’ failure had a definite effect on Jacquet. She never again attempted an opera, and thirteen years passed before she would write another work destined for the public. In the meanwhile, though, she began to explore the sonata, a genre then completely unknown in France.

The Sonatas

Sébastien de Brossard copied out her first compositions in 1695 (four trio sonatas and four sonatas for violin and basso continuo), and dubbed them “delicious”. Like the sonatas of her contemporaries Marc-Antoine Charpentier, François Couperin, Jean-Fery Rebel and Sébastien de Brossard, whose works also date from the last years of the seventeenth century, Jacquet’s sonatas do not contain a fixed number of movements. They include from five to eight movements, most of which are linked together and generally alternate (though not systematically) between slow and quick sections. Like the Italian sonata da chiesa, all of Jacquet’s sonatas open with a Grave; like Corelli—who inspired French composers—Jacquet concluded some of her sonatas with a short Adagio. François Couperin, Jacquet’s cousin, may also have served as one of her models; like him, she mixed elements typical of the French style (graceful melodies, unfettered use of form, underlying dance structure) and the Italian style (tonal shapes in themes, expressive slow movements, harmonic investigation) in her works. Instrumentation is varied in the sonatas: sometimes a single violin is heard; at other times the trio writing is reminiscent of Couperin. The bass viol also takes over the solo role at times, as in the pieces of Charpentier and Rebel.