This avenue of research offers a cross-discipline (re)investigation and (re)assessment of the entire musical production line in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. It also traces its progress, from conception and composition (history & theory) through to performance, transmission and circulation (practice, technique & epistemology). It includes identifying the parameters involved in the production of music, from conception and formulation through to materialisation, studied globally and in context. It also researches into how it works as a rhetorical vehicle to impress, glorify and touch the emotions. Beyond the study of musical repertoire, this approach will also improve understanding of the particularities of the musician’s craft in France towards the end of the Ancien Régime.