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... LifeHe was born into an organist’s milieu: most immediately, that of St Gervais, where his uncle Louis Couperin had been organist, and where since 1661 his father had held the post. ... However, Couperin’s domestic circumstances had already changed in the previous year upon his marriage to Marie-Anne Ansault (in the contract, dated 26 April 1689, he is styled ‘Sieur de Crouilly’; he also used the title on his Pieces d’orgue of 1690). Marie-Anne had influential family connections in the business world by which Couperin was subsequently able to profit: the dedicatees of the first two of his harpsichord books, C. ... 11 March 1690; d Maubuisson, 16 April 1742), a nun, possibly organist at Maubuisson; (7) Marguerite-Antoinette (see below); François-Laurent (b before 1708, d after 1735), who according to an inventory taken after Couperin’s death deserted his parents; and Nicolas-Louis (b Paris, bap. ... In the year after his marriage Couperin obtained his first royal privilege to print and sell his music. ... If the form of the publication speaks of Couperin’s fairly straitened financial circumstances at the time, a less parsimonious note is sounded in Lalande’s approbation, which describes Couperin’s pieces as being ‘fort belles, et dignes d’être données au Public’. This and other evidence suggests that Lalande played an important role in Couperin’s early musical development, not only as mentor but also as a powerful advocate of his work (Corp, 1995).The organ music in this collection is both the first and the last that Couperin is known to have written. ... About this time Couperin seems to have been at work on a set of trio sonatas, three of which, under different names, were later incorporated in the publication Les nations of 1726. ... Opinions differ on the dating of La sultane and La superbe: Tessier (1926) favoured c1695, while Citron (1956) suggested a date as late as 1710 for La sultane; Gilbert and Moroney (François Couperin: Oeuvres complètes, IV/iii) concur with Tessier rather than with Citron. Neither manuscript is in Couperin’s hand. ... These early sonatas are thus the first fruits of Couperin’s admiration for the Italian Baroque masters, and for Corelli in particular. ... There is certainly clear evidence for Couperin’s participation in the music of the Stuart court during the following decade (Corp, 1995). Couperin’s admiration for the Italian style was eventually expressed in overt terms in his Apothéose de Corelli of 1724, but a much earlier ambition, sustained throughout his life, was to unite the complementary strengths of the Italian and French styles.Couperin’s appointment as an organiste du roi (26 December 1693), with a salary of 600 livres for the quarter, was perhaps the most important event of his career, for it opened up opportunities and emoluments available nowhere else. Shortly after his arrival at court he was engaged to teach the harpsichord to the Duke of Burgundy and several other princes and princesses, including the Count of Toulouse (from whom Couperin eventually received a generous annual pension of 1000 livres), the dowager Princess of Conti, and Mlles de Bourbon and de Charolais, daughters of the Duke of Bourbon. Couperin acquired his own coat-of-arms after only three years at court, taking advantage of Louis XIV’s edict of 1696 offering ennoblement to persons in respectable employment who could afford to pay for the privilege. ... The range of Couperin’s musical activities during the early part of his career was extensive: in addition to his many duties at the French court, he appears to have been involved in musical events at the exiled Stuart court in Saint Germain-en-Laye (where in 1710 he rented a country home). ... Couperin may also have been acquainted with the circle of italophiles grouped around Nicolas Mathieu, curé of St André-des-Arts in Paris. ... By now Couperin was also active as a court composer, not only of chamber music, some of which appeared in print much later in the Concerts royaux (1722) and Les goûts-réünis (1724), but also of sacred music for use in the royal chapel. ... During the first decade of the 18th century Couperin was also engaged in writing for the harpsichord. ... During this period, covering the last 15 or so years of Louis XIV’s reign, Couperin established himself as one of the leading French composers of his day, earning the admiration of his contemporaries and finding himself the dedicatee of several of their works. ... Perhaps Lalande, who took six, and who was once so disinterested a mentor to Couperin, was now too much his rival. Perhaps Couperin refused to play the courtier; or perhaps he was simply unwilling to take on new responsibilities. However, in 1717 it was finally recognized that D’Anglebert was unable to fulfil his duties as king’s harpsichordist, and Couperin was offered the right to inherit the post on D’Anglebert’s death, in effect replacing D’Anglebert as ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du roi pour le clavecin from that year.At the height of his career, Couperin was considered second to none as a harpsichord and organ teacher, with the possible exception of Louis Marchand; even before the turn of the century, Du Pradel’s Le livre commode contenant les adresses de la ville de Paris (1692) had placed him third among Parisian harpsichord and organ teachers (the first two were Lebègue and Thomelin). ... It was alongside these commitments that Couperin had to find time to compose his music and to prepare it for the engravers. ... How far circumstances changed for Couperin after the death of Louis XIV in 1715 is uncertain. ... More or less coincident with the regency, within the space of 11 years, Couperin moved house three times before settling in a spacious apartment in the rue Neuve des Bons-Enfants in 1724 (it still exists, on the corner of the rue Radziwill and the rue des Petits Champs). The year before, his health becoming increasingly fragile, he sought help with his duties at St Gervais by arranging for his cousin (6) Nicolas Couperin to be his assistant, and eventually his successor. ... We know that the Concerts royaux were in use at court during Louis XIV’s declining years (Couperin’s 1722 preface refers to performances in 1714 and 1715). ... However, it is reasonably certain that the Apothéose de Lully was written within months of its publication in 1725: in the preface to the Corelli sonata Couperin stated his intentions to compose a work in memory of Lully should his Corelli sonata meet with success. ... Last to appear before the Quatriéme livre de piéces de clavecin of 1730 were Couperin’s Pieces de violes (1728).In the preface to his fourth harpsichord book Couperin wrote of his health failing him ‘day by day’. ... Three years later Couperin died. ... Unfortunately no-one in Couperin’s family, to whom the task fell, showed sufficient interest or acumen to carry through the project. ... Biographers of Couperin – those at least who wish to penetrate the composer’s personality – have to work from surprisingly little material. ... From Couperin’s prefaces, and his work, one may gain an impression of a man untainted by national prejudices, careful in his work, capable of forthrightness, and not lacking in self-esteem. ... Nothing in this portrait betrays the illness that Couperin mentioned several times in his prefaces, and which appears to have tried him sorely in his old age. ... Siret, Dornel and Montéclair dedicated works to him; Robert de Visée, the renowned theorbo player, made transcriptions of some of his harpsichord pieces; Dagincourt paid him tribute in the preface to his Premier livre de clavecin (1733); Titon du Tillet (1755) told how Calvière expressed his indebtedness to Couperin’s art; and numerous contemporary poetasters reflected the popularity of his harpsichord music in their parody settings.
Approximate Word count = 6389
Approximate Pages = 25.6
(250 words per page double spaced)
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