François Couperin - Biography
Francois Couperin was born on November 10th 1668 in Paris and died there on September 11th 1733. Couperin is referred to as “Le Grand” partially to distinguish him from his Uncle Louis and older cousin Francois who were distinguished musicians and also as a sign of his greatness as a musician .Along with Lully and Rameau he forms the great triumvirate of French Baroque composers. Couperin’s father Charles was a noted musician organist who from an early age musically trained his son. The elder Couperin died when Francois was eleven. He inherited the position of organist at Saint-Gerviais church from his father but the church authorities felt that Couperin was too young to take up the position and deputized the noted known composer and organist Lalande to deputize for him until he reached maturity. He continued his studies with his cousin Francois. Couperin took over his father’s position as organist in 1686 and married in 1690. His first compositions of substance come from these years the Organ Masses. The year of 1693 saw Couperin being chosen by King Louis the XIV to become one of the four organists of the Royal Chapel. The position which rotated quarterly was disadvantaged by the fact that a pipe organ for the court was not to be completed for many years and Couperin had to lead the choir with a tiny portable organ. Couperin was shown great favor at the court and became the official teacher to the Royal children. By 1696 Couperin was made Chevalier of the Lateran Order, he took great pride in this and signed all his correspondence using his title. In the early 1700’s Couperin wrote for the King many pieces that were to become the core of his legacy the choral Lecons de Tenebre, the Concerts Royaux for chamber group, some secular Cantatas and solo keyboard music. The official court composer during this period was d’Anglebert but his health was failing and Couperin in fact did become the senior composer for the court. The small orchestra he led had many distinguished musicians who were to become significant composers such as Forqueray, Rebel and Philoidor.
In the 1710’s it was generally recognized that Couperin was the major French composer and though hardly self effacing in regards to his stature he remained a respectful and courteous colleague and had friendships with fellow composers such as Lalande and Marais.He still maintained his potion in Gerviais as organist and balanced it against his responsibilities at Court. He was able in 1713 to publish his work under a royal privilege the first fruit of this relationship was the publication of the First Book of the Clavecin (variant of the harpsichord) which would eventually run to four books and be the core of his achievement. He was to in 1717 write his theoretical book the Art of Playing the Clavecin. Louis the XIV died in 1715 and there was a period of Regency for eleven years until Louis five year old great grandson was able to rule as Louis the XV Couperin continued prospering under this new arrangement. He added two new Book’s of Clavecin Pieces and wrote the celebrated piece for chamber orchestra Les Nations in 1726. It is remarkable that we know so little about Couperin’s personal life since he was a celebrated man during his life. There is an excellent painting by Andre Bouy’s that radiates self confidence. We know that he carried on a correspondence with the young J.S. Bach who was seventeen years his junior and a great admirer (much of this correspondence is lost).
Couperin’s health begun to fail him the last years of his life, he stopped composing and had to give up his official positions. He died on September 11 1733 a few months short of his sixty fifth birthday. Unfortunately his surviving family did not do a good job of caretaking and his non published compositions and correspondence has been lost to posterity.
Couperin’s work was to see a great revival at the turn of the Twentieth Century when he was fervently supported by the great French composers D’Indy, Debussy, Dukas and Ravel. In fact one of Ravel’s loveliest pieces The Tomb of Couperin was written as a celebration of French Culture in reaction to the dominance of what he viewed as Wagnerian German excesses. The great Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska revived his keyboard works and made superb recordings of it in the 1930’s. From the 1950’s on excellent recordings of Couperin’s of almost all of his known work has been recorded on the L’Oiseau Lyre, Erato and Harmonia Mundi labels.
