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An important 18th-century instruction book, Couperin's The Art of Playing the Harpsichord contains valuable information on technique, fingering, phrasing, ornamentation and keyboard performance style. Halford's scholarly introduction includes a biographical sketch of the composer, a thorough discussion of French Baroque ornamentation and a useful summary of Couperin's style. The eight preludes used by Couperin to illustrate his approach are musical gems rarely found in other collections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must for the beginning self-teaching harpsichordist
After years of choral and organ training and experience, I'm teaching myself to play the harpsichord (a modern, brand new to the market Roland digital). I began by building a library (mostly free, I hoped initially) via good professor Google. During my research I found a 'true' copy of this Couperin work for free download. The file presented a series of huge obstacles to my understanding...not the least of which was its having been written in French. In addition, the terminology and concepts were Couperin's or from his time and I was clueless as to what he meant. This beautifully edited and produced book by Margery Halford lets Couperin speak to me. French and English text are side by side in a face large enough for these older eyes to read. Musical examples are in bold and gray so one can easily compare what was written with how it likely should be played. There are copious notes and editorial comments. Download the original if you'd just like to have it. But,I'd guess you will use this wonderful book as an important foundation to Couperin and the ideas he brought the world. ... Read more

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Series II of excellent reprint of Augener edition edited by Brahms and Chrysander contains Ordes 14-27 plus 8 Preludes and Allemande from L'Art de toucher le Clavecin.
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Customer Reviews (2)

A Musical Treat
This is a wonderful collection of Francois Couperin's keyboard music, co-edited by Brahms in the 1880s and republished by Dover in the characteristically attractive format and low price that are that publisher's hallmark.It includes a piece I've loved and wanted to learn ever since I first heard it, perhaps 20 years ago, on a fine 1970's recording of baroque harpsichord music by Sylvia Marlowe on Sine Qua Non. Les Baricades Misterieuses (the preface notes that Couperin's titles were "often eccentric and quaint) is a beautiful, warm, mellow meditation on cycles of fifths and other piquant chord changes B flat.But the volume is a rich compendium with much else in the way of interesting, varied, lovely short pieces.

François Couperin !
François Couperin is one of Frenchs best baroque composer. He is not widly known, but his music is one of the most expressive in that era. This edition contains all the orders from Couperins first too "books" plus the first order of the third "book". Of all the pieces, I think I can quote "Les baricades misterieuses" (the misterious barricades), of the sixth order, which is one of the most popular and enchanting pieces Couperin ever composed.

In conclusion, Dover reached it's goal by offering musicians the best music at the lowest price possible in a fairly good edition. ... Read more

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François Couperin's contribution to the literature of baroque keyboard music has long been recognized.François Couperin and "The Perfection of Music" updates and expands upon David Tunley's valuable 1982 BBC Music Guide to the composer, and examines the whole of Couperin’s output including the organ masses, motets and chamber music, in addition to the well-known works for harpsichord.

Taking as its focal point Couperin's concept ofthe perfection of music through the union of the French and Italian styles, this book takes a more analytical approach to Couperin's work. Early chapters outline the main contrasting features of the two schools in the seventeenth- and early eighteenth-centuries, and it becomes clear that Couperin's expressive power owed much to his fusion of the polarities of the French classical tradition with that of the Italian baroque.

The book features a number of appendices, including the prefaces to Couperin's work both in the original French and in English translation, and a glossary of dances of the French baroque. ... Read more

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Wilfrid Mellers Francois Couperin and die French Classical Tradition ROY PUBLISHERS - NEW YORK Frangois Couperin le Grand Copyright 1951, by Wilfrid Mellers PRINTED AND MANUFACTURED IN GREAT BRITAIN Contents PART I LIFE AND TIMES CHAPTER PAGE I The Life 17 II Values and Standards in the Grand Siecle 28 III Taste during the Grand Sicle 49 IV Music, the Court, and the Theatre 59 PART n THE WORK V The Organ Masses 83 VI The Two-violin Sonatas 97 VII The Secular Vocal Works 128 VIII The Church Music 146 IX The Clavecin Works 188 X The Concerts Royaux and Suites for Viols 234 XI Chronology, Influence, and Conclusions 272 PART in THEORY AND PRACTICE XII Couperins Theoretical Work, with Comments on Rhythm, Ornamentation, and Phrasing 291 XIII Couperins Resources and his use of them, with Comments on the Modern Performance of his Work 3 22 CONTENTS XIV Editions of Works by Couperin 337 Appendix A The Authorship of the Organ Masses 341 Appendix B The Organists of St Gervais 344 Appendix C Lord Fitzwilliam and the French Clavecin Composers 345 Appendix D On the Tempo of the Eighteenth-century Dance Movements 347 Appendix E Georg Muffat on Bowing, Phrasing and Ornamentation 350 Appendix F Notes on the titles of Couperins clavecin pieces 356 Appendix G Biographical Notes on the principal per sons mentioned in the text 363 Catalogue Raisonn 374 Gramophone Records of Works by Couperin 390 Bibliography 395 Index 401 Illustrations I Portrait of Francois Couperin le Grand by Andre Bouys, engraved by Filbert 1735 Frontispiece II The Church of St Gervais Topographia facing page Galliae Vol. I, 1655 2 4 HI Veue de la Grande et Petite Escurie et des deux Cours La Description de Versailles 48 IV Gardens of the Due dOrleans Topographia Galliae, 1655 74 V Dans le Gout Pastoral Cours de la Reine Mere Topographia Galliae, 1655 145 VI Dans le Gout burlesque Watteau, Portrait of Gilles Louvre 227 VII Watteau, Les Charmes de la Vie Wallace Collection 271 VIII The Organ of St Gervais 330 DC The Organ of the Chapelle Royale 330 The design on the tide page is Couperins coat-of-arms To and to the illustrious memory of Francois Couperin le Grand Preface So FAR AS I am aware, this is the first book on Couperin le Grand in English indeed it is possibly the first comprehensive study of his work in any language, for of die three French books on him known to me, that of Bouvet is purely biographical while those of Tessier and Tiersot do not claim to be more than introductory monographs. As such, they are both admirable. I have divided this study of Couperin into three sections. The first gives the facts of his life and some account of the nature, values, and standards of his community. Of the facts of his life, little is known, and I have not indulged in speculation. For most of the information contained in my introductory chapter I am indebted to the bio graphical sections of the previous books on Couperin referred to above, with the addition of some documentary evidence more recently published by M. Paul Brunold. The chapters on the values and standards of the grand siecle do not pretend to offer a revolutionary approach. My general attitude to the period is influenced by the miscellaneous writings of Mr Martin Turnell, published in Horizon, Scrutiny , and elsewhere 1 especially those on Racine, Moliere, Corneille, and La Princesse de Cleves, and by a most interesting essay by Mr R. C. Knight also published in Scrutiny, which was in part a criticism of TurnelTs account of Racine. I have also found many hints worth following up, and much useful information, in Mr Arthur Tifleys two books, From Montaigne to Moliere and The Decline of the Age of Louis XIV. Most of the information in my chapter on the court theatre music is derived from the writings of the recognized authority on the period, M. Henri Prunieres. These books are listed in the bibliography... ... Read more

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PAUL BRUNO LD FRANCOIS COUPERIN Translated from the French by . B. H4NSON THE LYREBIRD PRESS LOUISE B. M. DYER THE RAMPARTS monaco PUBLISHERS NOTE Like Couperin, Paul Brunold was organist at the Church of Saint-Gervais he was also, again like the composer he so much admired, a harpsi chordist, and had expert knowledge he xvas Curator of Old Instruments at the Paris Conserva toire of the instruments history and construction. Shortly before his death in 194 8 he brought me, with a viexv to publication, a collection of notes and observations on Francois Couperin. These brief chapters are now presented, in translation, to mark Paul Brunold s devotion to a master whom he served constantly as a practical musician. My thanks are due to Mr Andre Meyer, of Paris, for his generosity in placing at my disposal three hitherto unpublished portraits of Couperin. L. B. M. D. 100820 T, HE musical talent of the celebrated Couperin family first appeared with the three brothers Louis, Francois and Charles. Their father, Charles Couperin, son of a village notary, lived in Chaumes, a small town in the district of Brie. He has been variously, and somewhat vaguely, described as a marchand and an aubergiste he also owned land and vineyards. But whether he kept a shop or an inn or preferred to be consi dered a landowner is less important than the description of him, in the marriage contract of one of his sons, as an organist. FRANCOIS COUPERIN It is curious to find a musician in a family devoted to small-town commerce. It would be interesting to know who gave Charles Couperin his first music lessons. There have been men tions of an older Couperin who came from distant parts and had a knowledge of music. It may have been he who implanted the taste for music in the family. This imprecise detail links up with the legend, often brought forward and difficult to confirm or deny, that the Couperins were not of French origin. Their Christian names are French enough, but their family name, with the various spellings found in the old documents of the Chateau de Beauvoir, Couprin, Coupryns, Coprin, shows that they were not of local origin. Their early history might well be the same as that of another family in Chaumes, the Forquerays, also described, by Theophile Lhuillier, the historian of the musicians of Brie, as marchands-cabere tiers, and whose name also became famous in musical history. The first Forqueray, according to the family tradition as recounted by Louis Forqueray in his book Les Forqueray Paris, 1910, followed Mary Queen of Scots to France about the year 1648. It is not impossible that the 10 FRANCOIS COUPERIN Forqueray and Couperin families emigrated to France and settled in Brie together. Of the three sons of Charles Couperin men tioned above, Louis was the most talented and left an important contribution to the literature of the harpsichord Francois is described in a manuscript note as a great musician and a great drinker Charles was admired as a composer of harpsichord pieces, none of which are known to have survived. A brief account of Charles Couperin is necessary, however, as he was the father of Francois Couperin-le-Grand. The register of baptisms at Chaumes records that Charles Couperin was baptised on the gth April i638. Musically gifted and about twelve years younger than his brother Louis, he took part in the serenade organised by a group of young musicians as a birthday surprise for Cham bonnieres at his country estate near Chaumes. Titon du Tillet tells, in Le Parnasse Francais, how this visit led to the discovery of the Couperin brothers by Chambonnieres, followed by his Gf Les CEuvres Completes de Louis Couperin, Editions de rOiseau-Lyre. Paris. The volume contains one hundred and thirty pieces, some for Viols, others for the Organ, but mostly for the Harp sichord. i i FRANCOIS GOUPERIN invitation to play in Paris. Charles went to Paris later than his brothers and like them studied with Chambonnieres... ... Read more

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Organist to the court of Louis XIV, Couperin left a vast body of works for harpsichord that epitomize the elegance of classical French art and are keystones of the instrument's repertoire. ... Read more

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Includes vocal line, keyboard accompaniment, and figured bass for three songs: Air Serieux [Mars 1697], Air Serieux [Aout 1701], and Air Serieux: Brunete [Decembre 1711]; words and short introduction are in French;includes a frontispiece portrait of Couperin. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Notes, published by Thomson Gale on March 1, 2006. The length of the article is 1374 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Francois Couperin and 'the Perfection of Music.'(Book review)
Author: Lois Rosow
Publication: Notes (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 1, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 62Issue: 3Page: 711(3)

Article Type: Book review

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PRINTED MUSIC, #8083 DURAND, TRANSCRIBED BY POUIS DIEMER, 3RD VOLUME, 79 PP, INCLUDES, LES FOLIES FRANCAISES, LE ROSSIGNOL EN AMOUR, LES FASTES DE LA GRANDE ET ANCIENNE MENESTRANDISE, ... Read more