Louis Couperin (1626–1661) was a French Baroque
composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie
and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. 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. (+)
Louis Couperin (1626–1661) was a French Baroque
composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie
and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of
Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. 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.
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.
Although originally written for Organ, I created this
arrangement for Concert (Pedal) Harp.
PARTITION