Our program is very closely linked to a prestigious and relatively well-preserved building: the Palace of the Popes, built mainly by Benedict XII and Clement VI, and in particular the chapel of St Peter in which all the solemn liturgies were concentrated. On certain important occasions, the crowd followed the many processions and was allowed to attend the liturgies. We then crowded to better see the richly decorated vestments of the cardinals, the brilliant decorations adorning the altar and the choir, the magnificent papal cathedra behind the altar, and to listen to the extraordinary and new polyphonic compositions of the cantors, housed in their enclosure. particular to the east of the chapel of St Pierre.

The Palace of the Popes quickly became a fundamental artistic center, ideally placed halfway between Rome and Paris, for which worked, and in which lived the greatest artists of this time: musicians, painters, poets, sculptors, architects. Within the Curia, "the papal chapel" is an institution created by Benedict XII in 1334 to replace the Roman "Schola cantorum", which did not follow the pope on his many trips. It includes from the start 12 chaplains. This group of singers will acquire considerable fame during the fourteenth century [...] These chaplains were the best singers in the Western world.

The main genre with which we are concerned here is the polyphonic mass. The habit of singing the Ordinary of the Mass in polyphony will develop considerably in the second half of the century, on the initiative of the papal chapel.