François F1rin: Leading Composers

François Couperin, was one of the leading composers of the French Baroque era, known as “Couperin le Grand”(Couperin the Great) to classify him from an uncle of the same name. He was the most distinguished of a numerous family of French musicians and was the most important member of the illustrious Couperin family. He was the most renowned of the Couperin dynasty of 17th- and 18th-century musicians. He was the nephew of Louis Couperin. A succession of Couperin held the post of organist at the church of Saint-Gervais in Paris for 173 years (1653-1826).

François Couperin was born in Paris in 1668. He was taught by his father, Charles Couperin (1638-79), an organist St Gervais in Paris and young François' early musical training probably came

He have published four harpsichord collections in Paris, the first volume in 1713, the second in 1717, the third book in 1722, and the fourth and final collection in 1730. In addition, his famous L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin (The Art of Playing the Harpsichord) appeared in 1717. Instead of gathering his pieces into suites, as was the common practice, Couperin put his pieces into larger groups called orders or orders, in which the first and last piece of each order is in the same tonality. The other pieces are either in the same tonality or in closely related keys. The ordre was Couperin’s personalized version of the keyboard suite. An ordre often began with several pieces in the style of an allemande, courante and sarabande, but not mostly contained descriptive pieces with fanciful

And Couperin was a master at whatever he attempts. Every facet of his technique and inspiration －melodic contour, ornaments, harmonic color, rhythms－was focused toward this end.

This objective art of François Couperin is expressed in many characteristic traits. His use of what one might call arpeggiated harmony, his preciseness in matters of phrase balance, his frequent use of dotted rhythm coupled with his fantasy and imagination, all makes for a style that is both unique and sensitive. His style is the outgrowth of a formidable personal technique based on a framework already established by his compatriots, but revitalized by his constant use of rondeau.

The Italian elements in Couperin’s style show up in the symmetrical developments and in the subtle, sensitive melodies adorned with myriad ornaments. The correct performance of these ornaments was strictly enjoined by the composer.

François Couperin often saw that it did not content with minimal tempo markings, phrasing, ornamentation and other clues to interpretation that the most found in baroque keyboard composers and became irritated by the poor performances of his music. So he became very principled with his markings and even published his