Kent B.

De Los Santos

Seminar in Baroque and Classical

Couperin’s Journey In the court of the "Sun King"

The dance known as ballet came from the 15th- and 16th-century Italian courts before it
was spread from Italy to France by Catherine de' Medici and later became the queen of France.
It was developed more intensely under her authority in the French court. Under King Louis XIV,
ballet was at its height of popularity. He was known as the Sun King and founded the Royal
Dance Academy in 1661. The Paris Opera Ballet was a result of the Paris Opera, which was the
first ballet company. Jean-Baptise Lully led that dance group and is known as one of the most
popular composers of music in ballet.

Though its popularity declined after 1830, it did become popular in other parts of the
world such as Denmark and Russia. Michel Fokine was another change-maker in the ballet world
that reinvented the dance as an art form.

François Couperin Life

Couperin was taught by his father Charles Couperin, who died when François was still
ten years old and by Jacques Thomelin. In 1685 he became the organist at the church of Saint-
Gervais Paris, a post he inherited from his father and that he would pass on to his cousin, Nicolas
Couperin. Other members of the family would hold the same position in later years. In 1693
Couperin succeeded his teacher Thomelin as organist at the Chapelle Royale (Royal Chapel)
with the title organiste du Roi, organist by appointment to the King. This was the Sun King,
Louis XIV.

Later on he became court organist and composer with the title as the ordinaire de la
musique de la chambre du Roi. With his colleagues Couperin gave a weekly concert, typically on
Sunday. Many of these concerts were in the form of suites for violin, viol, oboe, bassoon and
harpsichord, on which he was a virtuoso player.

His Works

He acknowledged his debt to the Italian composer Arcangelo Corelli. He introduced

Corelli's trio sonata form to France. Couperin's grand trio sonata was subtitled Le Parnasse, ou
l'Apothéose de Corelli (Parnassus, or the Apotheosis of Corelli). In it he blended the Italian and
French styles of music in a set of pieces which he called Les Goûts réunis ("Styles Reunited").
His most famous book, L'Art de toucher le clavecin (The Art of Harpsichord Playing, published
in 1716), contained suggestions for fingerings, touch, ornamentation and other features of
keyboard technique. They influenced J.S. Bach. Bach adopted the fingering system, including
the use of the thumb that Couperin set forth for playing the harpsichord.

Couperin's four volumes of harpsichord music, published in Paris and it contain over 230
individual pieces, which can be played on solo harpsichord or performed as small chamber
works. These pieces were not grouped into suites, as was the common practice, but ordres,
which were Couperin's own version of suites containing traditional dances as well as descriptive
pieces.

Many of his keyboard pieces have evocative, picturesque titles and express a mood
through key choices, have adventurous harmonies and (resolved) discords. They have been
likened to miniature tone poems. These features attracted Richard Strauss, who orchestrated
some of them.

Couperin was among the few French musicians who looked at Italian composers with a
kind eye and ear. Knowing that there was certain hostility among the French musical elite toward
the Italian style, Couperin introduced his earliest instrumental sonata it was intended for two
violins and basso continuo, under the Italian sounding pseudonym which was in reality an
anagram using the letters of his own name.

References:

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Francois_Couperin

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-is-french-language-of-ballet-1007395

http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Lib/Couperin.htm