François Couperin (French: [fʁɑ̃swa kupʁɛ̃]; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist, and harpsichordist. He was called Couperin le Grand ("Couperin the Great") to tell him apart from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.
Life
François Couperin was born in Paris to a well-known musical family. His father, Charles, was the organist at the Church of Saint-Gervais, a position previously held by Charles’s brother, Louis Couperin, a respected keyboard musician and composer who died young. As a child, François likely received his first music lessons from his father, but Charles died in 1679, leaving the position at Saint-Gervais to his son, a common practice called survivance that many churches followed. Because of this, the church leaders at Saint-Gervais hired Michel Richard Delalande as the new organist, with the understanding that François would take over the role at age 18. However, it is likely that François began these duties earlier: a yearly salary of 100 livres, which was given to him after his father’s death, gradually increased to 400 livres, suggesting he slowly took on more responsibilities as he studied.
At the same time, the 11-year-old François was cared for and taught by Jacques-Denis Thomelin, an organist who worked both at the royal court and at the church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie. A biographer named Évrard Titon du Tillet wrote that Thomelin treated François kindly, acting as a second father to him. François’s musical talent was evident early, as the church council began paying him a salary by 1685, even though he had no formal contract.
At age 21, Couperin lost his mother, Marie (née Guérin), but his life and career continued to be marked by good fortune. In 1689, he married Marie-Anne Ansault, the daughter of a wealthy family. The following year, his Pièces d’orgue, a collection of organ music, was published and praised by Delalande, who may have helped with the project. By 1692, Couperin had taken over Thomelin’s position as a court musician for King Louis XIV. This appointment allowed him to work with other top composers of the time and interact with the nobility. His earliest chamber music was written during this period. He balanced his court duties with his role as organist at Saint-Gervais, while also composing.
In 1713, Couperin applied for a royal privilege (privilège du Roy) that allowed him to publish his own musical works, both vocal and instrumental. He used this privilege to release the first volume of his harpsichord compositions, Pieces de clavecin (out of four planned volumes). A manual titled L’art de toucher le clavecin, explaining how to play the harpsichord, was published in 1716 but quickly withdrawn and republished the next year. Other collections of keyboard and chamber music followed. In 1717, Couperin was appointed ordinaire de la musique de la chambre du roi pour le clavecin, one of the highest positions for a court musician, a role previously held by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert. However, his involvement in court music may have decreased after King Louis XIV’s death in 1715.
Couperin’s health worsened throughout the 1720s. By 1723, a cousin was needed to assist at Saint-Gervais, and in 1730, his daughter Marguerite-Antoinette took over his position as court harpsichordist. His final published works were Pièces de violes (1728) and the fourth volume of his harpsichord pieces (1730). Couperin died in 1733. The house where he and his family lived from 1724 still stands at the corner of rue Radziwill and rue des Petits Champs. He was survived by at least three children: Marguerite-Antoinette, who continued as court harpsichordist until 1741; Marie-Madeleine (Marie-Cécile), who became a nun and may have worked as an organist at the Maubuisson Abbey; and François-Laurent, who left the family after his father’s death, according to historical records.
Works
François Couperin recognized the influence of the Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli. He introduced Corelli's trio sonata form to France. Couperin composed two grand trio sonatas. The first, Le Parnasse, ou L'Apothéose de Corelli ("Parnassus, or the Apotheosis of Corelli"), was written to show his deep respect for Corelli and published in 1724. The second, L'Apothéose de Lully, was published the following year and created to honor Jean-Baptiste Lully. This work combined French and Italian styles of Baroque music, as Couperin called it a réunion des goûts ("reunion of tastes"). In the same year L'Apothéose de Corelli was published, Couperin released a set of ten pieces titled Nouveaux concerts, ou Les goûts réunis, which also blended these two musical styles.
His most famous book, L'art de toucher le clavecin ("The Art of Harpsichord Playing," published in 1716), includes advice on finger techniques, touch, ornamentation, and other aspects of keyboard playing. It also features eight preludes in the keys used in his first two books of harpsichord music and an Allemande to demonstrate the Italian style.
Couperin's four volumes of harpsichord music, published in Paris in 1713, 1717, 2022, and 1730, contain over 230 individual pieces. He also published a book of Concerts Royaux, which can be performed as solo harpsichord pieces or as small chamber works. These four collections are grouped into ordres, a term similar to suites, and include traditional dances and pieces with descriptive titles. They are notable for Couperin's detailed instructions for ornaments, which was rare in most harpsichord music of the time. The first and last pieces in an ordre share the same key, while the middle pieces may use related keys. These volumes were admired by Johann Sebastian Bach, who corresponded with Couperin, and later by Johannes Brahms and Maurice Ravel, who honored Couperin in his work Le Tombeau de Couperin ("Couperin's Memorial").
Many of Couperin's keyboard pieces have descriptive titles, such as "The Little Windmills" and "The Mysterious Barricades." These pieces use key choices, unusual harmonies, and resolved dissonances to express emotions, and are often compared to short tone poems. These features influenced Richard Strauss, who arranged some of them for orchestra.
Johannes Brahms was inspired by Couperin's keyboard music. Brahms performed Couperin's works publicly and helped edit an edition of Couperin's Pièces de clavecin in the 1880s.
Modern composer Thomas Adès adapted three pieces from different Couperin suites and arranged them in his work Three Studies from Couperin.
The only surviving collection of Couperin's organ music is Pièces d'orgue consistantes en deux messes ("Pieces for Organ Consisting of Two Masses"), published in November 1690. At age 21, Couperin likely lacked the resources or reputation for widespread publication, so the masses were released as manuscripts with a printed title page and approval from his teacher, Michel Richard Delalande, who called the music "very beautiful and worthy of being given to the public." The first mass was intended for parishes or secular churches, and the second for convents or abbey churches. These masses follow the traditional structure of the Latin Mass, with movements such as Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus, and additional sections like Offertoire and Deo gratias.
Couperin used techniques from earlier composers like Nivers, Lebègue, and Boyvin. In the paroisses Mass, he incorporated plainchant from the Missa cunctipotens genitor Deus as a cantus firmus in two Kyrie movements and the first Sanctus. The Kyrie fugue theme also comes from a chant. The couvents Mass includes no plainchant, as convents used their own non-standard chants. Couperin's work differs from predecessors in its rhythmic and directional melodies in the Récits. Willi Apel noted that his music shows "a sense of natural order, a vitality, and an immediacy of feeling" in French organ music.
The longest piece in the collection is the Offertoire sur les grands jeux from the first Mass, structured like an expanded French overture with three sections: a prelude, a chromatic fugue in G minor, and a gigue-like fugue. Bruce Gustafson called this movement a "stunning masterpiece of the French classic repertoire." The second Mass also includes an Offertoire with a similar form, but it is not as highly regarded. Apel wrote that Couperin "did not expend the same care for this Mass, which was written for modest abbey churches, as for the other one, which he himself certainly presented on important holidays on the organ of Saint-Gervais."