Louis Couperin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Couperin

Louis Couperin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Louis Couperin (c. 1626 29 August 1661) was a French Baroque composer and performer. He
was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 16501651 with the help of Jacques
Champion de Chambonnires. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris
and as musician at the court. He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians,
establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his
early death at the age of thirty-five.
None of Couperin's music was published during his lifetime, but manuscript copies of some 200
pieces survive, some of them only rediscovered in the mid-20th century. The first historically
important member of the Couperin family, Couperin made seminal contributions to the
development of both the French organ school and French harpsichord school. His innovations
included composing organ pieces for specific registrations and inventing the genre of the
unmeasured prelude for harpsichord, for which he devised a special type of notation.

Contents
1 Life
2 Works
2.1 Provenance and catalogues
2.2 Harpsichord music
2.3 Organ music
3 Editions
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
6.1 General information
6.2 Scores
6.3 Media

Life
Most of the information about Couperin's life comes from two sources. Le Parnasse Franois, a
1732 book by vrard Titon du Tillet, contains a biographical sketch describing certain details of his
life, and some 30 organ pieces listed not only the date but also the place of composition. Couperin
was born around 1626 in Chaumes-en-Brie, a town 40 km south-east of Paris. His father, Charles
Couperin, sieur de Crouilly, was a small landowner and part-time organist of a local church. Louis

10/4/2016 6:15 PM

Louis Couperin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2 of 5

was reportedly an accomplished harpsichordist and violinist by

1650 (and was already composing by then), but had no
connections whatsoever with any important musicians of the
era. His sudden rise to fame, which happened during
16501651, is explained in Le Parnasse Franois. Titon du
Tillet writes that Louis, his two younger brothers Charles and
Franois, and some of their friends visited Jacques Champion
de Chambonnires on the feast of Saint James
Chambonnires' name day. The Couperins offered the host and
his guests a short concert, playing several pieces composed by
Louis. Chambonnires was impressed by Louis Couperin's
talents, became his teacher and persuaded him to settle in Paris.
There Chambonnires, who was the most prominent French
harpsichordist of his time and musician to the King, introduced
the young musician to the Court; Couperin's talents met with
appreciation; by 1651 Couperin was already living in the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Couperin

The church of St-Gervais-et-StProtais in Paris, where Louis

Couperin served as organist from
1653 until his death.

He almost certainly met Johann Jakob Froberger in 16511652;

Froberger's style becoming a major influence on Couperin's
music. On 9 April 1653 he became organist of the Parisian
church of St. Gervais, where he was paid 400 livres a year, plus lodgings. The position at this
ancient church was one of the most important in France at the time. At some point most
probably after he became organist at St. Gervais Couperin entered the royal service as a treble
viol player. Titon du Tillet writes that Couperin had refused, out of loyalty to his old friend and
teacher, to replace Chambonnires as royal harpsichordist, and so the post of violist was created
especially for him. On 22 October 1655 he stood godfather to his sister's child at Chaumes-en-Brie;
from July to October 1656 and around November 1658 he was frequently travelling to Meudon,
where he was probably employed by Abel Servien, a diplomat and statesman. He traveled to
Toulouse with the court in 1659. During his last years, Couperin lived in the organist's lodgings at
St. Gervais with his two brothers, and died on 29 August 1661, aged thirty-five according to Le
Parnasse Franois.
His brothers both played an important role in the development of French Baroque music. No
compositions by Franois (known as "The Elder" or "Couperin de Crouilly") are known to survive,
but his line of the family carried the name of Couperin into the 19th century. Charles Couperin
(known as "Couperin-cadet") succeeded Louis as organist at St. Gervais and, in 1668, produced an
only child, Franois Couperin le Grand, who became one of the most important French composers
of the late Baroque era.

Works
Provenance and catalogues
Because his career spanned only some 10 years, none of Couperin's works were published during

10/4/2016 6:15 PM

Louis Couperin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Couperin

his lifetime. There are two major manuscript sources for

his music:
1. The famous Bauyn manuscript (Bibliothque
nationale de France, Rs. Vm7 674675), one of the
most important sources for French keyboard music
of the 17th century (particularly the work of
Chambonnires), contains 122 harpsichord pieces by
Couperin, as well as four organ pieces and 5
chamber works. The manuscript dates from ca. 1690.
2. The so-called Oldham manuscript (a private
Fragment of a page from the Bauyn
collection of G. Oldham), recovered only in 1957,
manuscript, showing the conclusion of
contains 70 organ works by Couperin, of which 68
the unmeasured Prlude in F major
are unique. Also included are a harpsichord suite,
(Bauyn 12)
four five-part chamber fantaisies, and two pieces for
shawm band. This manuscript may have been
compiled at least partly during Couperin's lifetime, and is the only such source for his music.
In addition to these, the Parville manuscript contains 55 harpsichord pieces by Couperin, although
only five of these are unique (the rest is included in the Bauyn manuscript).
Couperin's harpsichord works are commonly referred to by numbers used in the princeps ditions
de l'Oiseau-Lyre edition of 1936. The edition was based entirely on the Bauyn manuscript, the only
source known at that time. The authors of the manuscript did not arrange the pieces in suites, but
rather grouped dances by key first and by genre second. So, for example, numbers 1619 are
courantes in C major, numbers 2025 are sarabandes in C major, etc. Some editions and recordings
may use Davitt Moroney's alternative numbering scheme, which attempts to create suites out of
Couperin's dances.
The numbering scheme for Couperin's organ pieces also reflects their source, the Oldham
manuscript. Here, however, no attempt was made by the copyist to group pieces in any way. The
manuscript draws on at least two grands livres d'orgue, and the copyist apparently chose pieces
arbitrarily. Distinguishing the many fantaisies is made easier, however, because Couperin would
frequently provide the date, and sometimes the place of composition in a footnote. Numbers 11 and
19, for instance, are both titled "fugue", but the former is inscribed "Couperin a Meudon le 18e
Juillet [July] 1656", and the latter "Couperin a paris le 1er 7ber [September] 1656". This
extraordinary feature, which is unique for the period, allows tracing Couperin's development as
organ composer from 1650 to 1659, sometimes almost day by day.
Harpsichordist Skip Semp, as well as a few scholars, have questioned the attribution of both the
harpsichord pieces of the Bauyn manuscript and the organ pieces of the Oldham manuscript to
Couperin, on stylistic grounds.[1]

Harpsichord music

10/4/2016 6:15 PM

Louis Couperin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

4 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Couperin

Dance movements comprise around two thirds of Louis Couperin's harpsichord oeuvre; they
include courantes, sarabandes, allemandes and gigues (in decreasing order of numbers). These
pieces are more complex than those by Chambonnires and display more variety within an
individual piece. His reputation as a composer comes mainly from his chaconnes, passacaglias and
unmeasured preludes. These latter pieces, written out in a unique kind of notation (whole notes
only, arranged in groups and connected by graceful curves) are influenced by Froberger's
free-flowing allemandes and programmatic pieces; some borrow short passages from his toccatas.

Organ music
Couperin's organ music exerted a great influence over 17th century European composers; it
represents the transition from the strict counterpoint in the Titelouze vein to the colorful,
concertante organ style introduced by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers and Nicolas Lebgue, who
influenced late Baroque composers such as Franois Couperin and Nicolas de Grigny. Couperin
was the first French composer to write for specific registrations and also the first to compose
leaping division basses in the style of divisions for the bass viol. Both of these stylistic traits are
among the defining characteristics of French organ music of the 17th and the 18th centuries.

Editions
Louis Couperin: Oeuvres de clavecin. Second modern edition, edited by Davitt Moroney.
ditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre, Monaco, OL 58 (1985, reprinted in 2004). Moroney omits the
ornaments included in the first edition, since they were not contemporary with Louis
Couperin. Moroney's lengthy introduction is, to date, the best biographical source on
Couperin in English.
Louis Couperin: Pices d' orgue. Transcribed and edited by Guy Oldham. ditions de
l'Oiseau-Lyre, Monaco, OL 300 (2003). 144 pages. This volume contains the musical text of
70 pieces, "as well as the relevant plainchant melodies with their texts to facilitate alternatim
performance, a facsimile page, editor's notes, and a Critical Commentary." A companion
publication is planned, consisting of extended prefatory material, including a technical
description of the source, information on the organs played by Louis Couperin, and
suggestions for performance.

Notes
1. "Capriccio Stravagante - Essays". Stravagante.com. Retrieved 2013-11-29.

References
Fuller, David, and Gustafson, Bruce. "Louis Couperin", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy
(accessed 30 January 2006), grovemusic.com (http://www.grovemusic.com/) (subscription
access).

10/4/2016 6:15 PM

Louis Couperin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5 of 5

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Couperin

Halbreich, Harry, et al. Notes to a complete recorded compendium (198991) of Louis

Couperin's harpsichord works played by Blandine Verlet on 5 Astre~Nave CDs.
Moroney, Davitt. Liner notes to CD "Louis Couperin: Intgrale de l'oeuvre de clavecin",
Harmonia Mundi France 1901124.27

External links
General information
Louis Couperin biography at HOASM (http://www.hoasm.org/VIIB/CouperinL.html) (the
portrait included is not Couperin's)
Louis Couperin biography at musicologie.org (http://www.musicologie.org/Biographies
/c/couperin_louis.html) (French)

Scores
Free scores by Louis Couperin at the International Music Score Library Project

Media
Fantaisie compose Paris au mois de Dcembre 1656 (http://www.guibray.org/gui/Sons
/lcouperinfantaisieparis.mp3)
Invitatoire de la feste Dieu (http://www.guibray.org/gui/Sons/lcouperininvitatoire.mp3)
Fantaisie en la mineur sur la montre (http://www.guibray.org/gui/Sons
/lcouperinfantaisiemontre.mp3)
2e fantaisie en la mineur sur les anches (http://www.guibray.org/gui/Sons
/lcouperinfantaisieanches.mp3)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Louis_Couperin&oldid=741704223"
Categories: Couperin family 1620s births 1661 deaths Baroque composers
Composers for harpsichord French Baroque viol players French classical composers
French male classical composers French classical organists French harpsichordists
17th-century classical composers
This page was last modified on 29 September 2016, at 04:34.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional
terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit
organization.

10/4/2016 6:15 PM