François Couperin

François Couperin (10 November 1668, Paris – 11 September 1733, Paris) was a French composer, organist, and harpsichordist. He was one of the most significant representatives of the French musical Couperin dynasty and was widely known in his own time as “Couperin the Great” (“Couperin le Grand”).

He began studying music under his father, Charles Couperin, and after his father’s death took over the post of organist at the Paris church of Saint-Gervais. After achieving major success, he later became a court organist, and subsequently also a court harpsichordist. In 1693–1695, together with other musicians of the royal court chapel, he pursued legal action against the Menestrandise to secure the right to teach music without joining that old corporation. In 1730 he retired, passing his position to his daughter, Marguerite-Antoinette.

Couperin’s principal output was written for harpsichord and comprises more than 250 pieces of varied character, often given attractive programmatic titles such as “The Mysterious Barricades” (Les barricades mystérieuses), “The Reeds” (Les lis naissans), “The Reapers” (Les moissonneurs), “The Little Windmills” (Les petits moulins à vent), “The Warbler’s Complaints” (Les fauvetes plaintives), and “The Butterflies” (Les papillons). In character these harpsichord pieces are salon entertainment music; by genre they are largely stylizations of popular secular dances such as allemande, courante, sarabande, gavotte, gigue, and others.

He grouped individual pieces into “orders” (ordres), akin to suites, and grouped suites into printed “books” (livres). Four such books were published (1713, 1717, 1722, 1730), containing a total of 27 suites. During his lifetime these harpsichord works gained enormous fame not only in France but also abroad.

Among his works for instrumental ensemble are the “Royal Concerts” (Les concerts royaux, 1714; numbered Nos. 1–4), the “New Concerts, or The Reunited Tastes” (Nouveaux concerts ou les goûts réunis, 1724; numbered Nos. 5–14), and “The Apotheosis of Lully” (1725). He also composed church music, including two organ masses and three Leçons de ténèbres.

Couperin was also the author of the influential tutorial L'art de toucher le clavecin (“The Art of Playing the Harpsichord”, 1716; second edition 1717). It includes nine of his pieces (eight preludes and one allemande); although the preludes are fully notated in meter, he explained in the afterword that the barlines were added for pedagogical reasons and that they should be performed freely, in the manner of unmeasured preludes.

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