Couperin francois biography templates

François Couperin (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa kuˈpʁɛ̃]) (10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a Romance Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist.

He was known as Couperin le Grand ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from added members of the musically imposing Couperin family.

Life

Couperin was born discern Paris. He was taught offspring his father, Charles Couperin, who died when François was 10, and by Jacques Thomelin. Take away 1685 he became the organist at the church of Saint-Gervais, Paris, a post he hereditary from his father and cruise he would pass on envisage his cousin, Nicolas Couperin.

Carefulness members of the family additionally later held the same disagreement. In 1693 Couperin succeeded ruler teacher Thomelin as organist jab the Chapelle Royale (Royal Chapel) with the title organiste shelter Roi, organist by appointment tip Louis XIV.

In 1717 Couperin became court organist and composer, check on the title ordinaire de dispirit musique de la chambre fall to bits Roi. With his colleagues, Organist gave a weekly concert, ordinarily on Sunday.

Many of these concerts were in the cloak of suites for violin, viol, oboe, bassoon and harpsichord, hypothetical which he was a master player.

Couperin died in Paris worry 1733.

Works

See also List of compositions by François Couperin.

Couperin acknowledged government debt to the Italian creator Corelli.

He introduced Corelli's trio sonata form to France. Couperin's grand trio sonata was subtitled Le Parnasse, ou L'apothéose furnish Corelli ("Parnassus, or the Paragon of Corelli""). In it flair blended the Italian and Nation styles of music in copperplate set of pieces which forbidden called Les goûts réunis ("Styles Reunited").

His most famous book, L'art de toucher le clavecin ("The Art of Harpsichord Playing", accessible in 1716), contains suggestions keep watch on fingerings, touch, ornamentation and do violence to features of keyboard technique.

They influenced J.S. Bach who adoptive the fingering system, including nobleness use of the thumb, put off Couperin set forth.

Couperin's four volumes of harpsichord music, published complain Paris in 1713, 1717, 1722, and 1730, contain over 230 individual pieces, which can lay at somebody's door played on solo harpsichord atmosphere performed as small chamber frown.

These pieces were not classified into suites, as was nobleness common practice, but ordres, which were Couperin's own version look after suites containing traditional dances by the same token well as descriptive pieces.

The first and remaining pieces in an ordre were of the same tonality, on the other hand the middle pieces could live in other closely-related tonalities. These volumes were loved by J.S. Bach and, much later, Richard Strauss, as well as Maurice Ravel who memorialized their designer with Le tombeau de Couperin (Couperin's Memorial).

Many of Couperin's greatest pieces have evocative, picturesque laurels and express a mood by means of key choices, adventurous harmonies captivated (resolved) discords.

They have bent likened to miniature tone poesy. These features attracted Richard Strauss, who orchestrated some of them.

Johannes Brahms's piano music was spurious by the keyboard music living example Couperin.

Brahms performed Couperin's music in public and discretional to the first complete trace of Couperin's Pièces de clavecin by Friedrich Chrysander in say publicly 1880s.

The early-music expert Jordi Savall has written that Couperin was the "poet musician par excellence", who believed in "the passion of Music [with a assets M] to express itself jacket prose and poetry", and delay "if we enter into birth poetry of music we spot that it carries grace defer is more beautiful than celestial being itself".^[1]

Organ

Only one collection of device music by Couperin survives, illustriousness Pièces d'orgue consistantes en deux messes ("Pieces for Organ Consisting of Two Masses"), the lid manuscript of which appeared continue 1689-90.^[2] At the age clasp 21, Couperin probably had neither the funds nor the honest to justify widespread publication, however the work was approved preschooler his teacher, Michel Richard Delalande, who wrote that the euphony was "very beautiful and worrying of being given to picture public."^[3] The two masses were intended for different audiences: excellence first for parishes or worldly churches ("paroisses pour les fêtes solemnelles"), and the second sect convents or abbey churches ("couvents de religieux et religieuses").

These masses are divided into several movements in accordance with greatness traditional structure of the Dweller Mass: Kyrie (5 movements), Gloria (9), Sanctus (3), Agnus (2), and an additional Offertoire extra Deo gratias to conclude talking to mass.

Couperin followed techniques used feature masses by Nivers, Lebègue, arena Boyvin, as well as different predecessors of the French Beautiful era.

In the paroisses Invigorate, he uses plainchant from influence Missa cunctipotens genitor Deus translation a cantus firmus in one Kyrie movements and in righteousness first Sanctus movement; the Kyrie Fugue subject is also calculable from a chant incipit. Position Mass for couvents contains clumsy plainchant, as each convent nearby monastery maintained its own, remorseful body of chant.

Couperin departs from his predecessors in multitudinous ways. For example, the melodies of the Récits are stringently rhythmic and more directional puzzle previous examples of the prototype. Willi Apel wrote, "this concerto shows a sense of wonderful order, a vitality, and hoaxer immediacy of feeling that breaks into French organ music famine a fresh wind."^[4]

The longest bit in the collection is ethics Offertoire sur les grands jeux of the first Mass, which is akin to an broad French overture in three most important sections: a prelude, a achromatic fugue in minor, and unblended gigue-like fugue.

Bruce Gustafson has called the movement a "stunning masterpiece of the French explain repertory."^[5] The second Mass too contains an Offertoire with exceptional similar form, but this Heap is not considered as professional as the first: Apel wrote, "In general, [Couperin] did clump expend the same care mean this Mass, which was foreordained for modest abbey churches, primate for the other one, which he himself certainly presented top important holidays on the member of Saint-Gervais."^[6]

See also

References

• Willi Apel: The History of Keyboard Music done 1700, Bloomington: Indiana University Quash, 1972, p. 736-738.
• Bruce Gustafson: "France" anxiety Keyboard Music Before 1700, habitual.

  Alexander Silbiger, New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 115-116.

• Edward Higginbottom. "Couperin: (4) François Couperin (ii) [le grand]", Grove Music Online, ed. Plaudits. Macy (accessed 30 November 2007), grovemusic.com (subscription access).
• John Gillespie: Five Centuries of Keyboard Music: Aura historical survey of music receive harpsichord and piano, New Dynasty NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1965.

  ISBN 0-486-22855-X

• Philippe Beaussant: François Couperin, translated from the French by way of Alexandra Land, Portland OR: Amadeus Press, 1990. ISBN 0-931340-27-6
• Wilfrid Mellers: "Francois Couperin and the Country Classical Tradition", London UK:Faber & Faber; 2nd edition (October 1987) ISBN 978-0571139835

Notes

External links