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It is often noted that the venue for musical performances shapes the structure of the musical composition. In the Renaissance, Palestrina and Allegri wrote music specific for the massively vaulted ceilings of the Roman churches and the princely Popes who presided there. In Versailles, the music had to fill the long, gold painted, intricately decorated Hall of Mirrors with a dignity and grandeur suited for the likes of King Louis XIV and his family. From the perspective of modern sensibilities, the courtly life of French aristocrats in the 17th century was, in the least, pomposity on display.