Louis Couperin: Pièces de Clavecin

Featuring

Richard Egarr
Louis Couperin

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Compositional Technique

Louis Couperin's unmeasured preludes, known as préludes non mesurés, are notated in whole notes with delicate curves indicating how the notes should be held, requiring the player to interpret melodic and harmonic strands.

Compositional Technique

Louis Couperin's harpsichord music is characterized by imitation, polyphony, striking harmonies, quirky rhythms, and resonant suspensions, speaking directly to the ear.

Instruments

This recording uses harpsichords with real quill plucking material, which is described as more sensitive, flexible, and musical than the plastic 'Delrin' commonly used in modern harpsichords.

Composer Biography

Louis Couperin was part of a musical dynasty, similar to the Bach family, that spanned from the late sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century.

Composer Biography

Louis Couperin's family, the Couperins, originated from Brie, a region also known as the cradle of the great viola da gamba 'Godfathers', the Forquerays.

Composer Biography

Louis Couperin's first notable musical moment was a bold encounter with Chambonnières, a celebrated harpsichordist, whom Louis and his brothers serenaded at his château.

Interpretation

The tuning system used for this recording is an adjusted quarter-comma meantone, or 'ordinaire', common in the first half of the seventeenth century, which adds a strong, pungent taste to the music's chromatic content.