Les Sentiments (Sarabande 1713)

    This page was last edited on 16/01/06

François Couperin (1668-1737)

France managed to resist many foreign musical influences, to a large extent, during the Baroque era. Baroque stylistic traits which did manage to creep in were soon absorbed into a newer style (after the death of Lully) called rococo. ( See HERE)

King Louis XIV did all he could to build up the image of France as the leader of Europe and he liked to have a strong say in the arts (he certainly did with opera). There was a Guild of Musicians (mestriers) who were subject to strict rules of apprenticeship. Outsiders found it hard to enter the musical profession.

In the mid-17th century, a 'school' of keyboard composers (the clavecinists) was founded in France by Jacques Chambonnières (1602-1672). He wrote suites of dances incorporating a style of ornamentation derived lutenists such as Denis Gaultier and he introduced the Couperin family to Paris and to court. There were numerous musicians in the Couperin family and, as it turned out, five generations were to work in Paris from 1626-1850. Louis Couperin (c.1626-1661) wrote harpsichord music in a new style, based on dance rhythms, but François Couperin, known as Couperin le Grand, is the most notable family member. He was the nephew of Louis and a favourite musician of Louis XIV. He became one of 4 court organists to Louis XIV and taught most of the royal children.

The clavecinists' style reached a peak in the work of François who was an expert at writing miniatures. His most famous works are his 4 books of over 200 clavecin pieces, grouped into 27 suites or ordres of short pieces. Nine more illustrative pieces are to be found in his "L'Art de toucher le clavecin" of 1717. An ordre is not a dance suite in the strictest sense, and François' ordres can have from 4 to 22 pieces. He used conventional dance forms though he stylised them and he only included the ones he wanted in a given ordre, and in whatever sequence suited him. The separate pieces in each ordre tend to be in the same key, albeit variously in major or minor forms and sometimes in related keys.

Couperin's dance movements all have picturesque titles which give only a vague indication of mood. Examples are The Bees, The Nightingale in Love, Little Pinch-Without-Laughing, The Eels, Regrets, Happy ideas and The Little Windmills. Binary form is favoured, but instances of rondeau (rondo), chaconne and variation forms can be found.

Couperin has often been compared to the artist Watteau whose paintings portray shepherds and shepherdesses living in ideal pastoral settings. Visual art which is intimate and charming, and not grand, is called rococo , a word taken from the French 'style rocaille' of shells and scroll work used for decoration. Short phrases typify French rococo musical style and are found in Couperin's shorter pieces. In longer dance movements, Italian influence and a broader style are evident.

Couperin was the first composer to write pieces expressly for two manuals. In "L'Art de toucher le clavecin" he outlines a system of fingering, instructs readers on phrasing and style, and gives a table of agréments (ornaments) with an explanation of each.

The principal ornaments were the pincé (mordent), tremblement (trill) and the port de voix (upward resolving appoggiatura) which can be found in several forms. Ornaments were expressive and they often make dissonance more telling. They can create suspense and mark climaxes or cadences. Ornaments had a rhythmic rôle to play in helping to emphasise certain beats, weaken others by reducing the normal stress on, say, the first beat of a bar. Ornaments, in general, were intended to add momentum and articulate events within a piece.

Contrary to popular opinion, the agréments were not developed to make up for the lack of sustaining power of the harpsichord although, occasionally, they may do so. The same agréments were used in a great deal of French music for various instruments, even the voice. In lute music, where they were vital, agréments did help prolong the sound and join the notes of the plucked melody. However, in the case of instruments on which the player had no control over the volume or attack of notes, agréments were (and can be) used to create the illusion of differing kinds of attack. In Italian music, ornaments were used to express passion or display virtuosity and they were intended for the professional. Couperin's pieces were aimed at amateurs.

The achievements and idioms of the lutenists lived on, then, in the music of the first clavecinists even though there was no technical reason for the transfer. Lute music had been highly regarded in society and it invited imitation by later musicians after the decline of lute music itself. This lute style was called 'style brisé' (see Bukofzer p.165). The sound of the lute dies away quickly so polyphonic writing is not possible. The 'style brisé' involved rapidly alternating notes and swift changes of register (like musical plate-spinning) so that both melody and harmony are supplied by the thinnest of textures. (An analogy might be the unaccompanied violin and 'cello suites of Bach in which he appears to write both melodically and harmonically at once).

Whilst a free-voiced texture had been essential in lute music, it was a calculated stylistic feature of harpsichord music in France. The clavecinists also developed 'suggestive' part-writing by hinting at voice parts. The contrast between the florid melody and chordal (arpeggiated) accompaniment is a hallmark of keyboard music of the period. However, Couperin criticised the excessive use of left hand arpeggios which he regarded as too Italian, even though he had himself written a set of sonatas in the Italian style in 1692.

Much of Couperin's music differs from typical Italian music of the time. It is not written in Basso Continuo style; the melody is not spun out by motivic development; the music does not express any of the 'affections' (though the style of each movement can be consistent); The phrasing is more periodic (balanced) anticipating classicism by several decades.

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The following reference sources are acknowleged without which I could not have produced the above.

M. Bukofzer - Music in the Baroque Era

C. Palisca - Baroque Music

D. J. Grout - A History of Western Music

D. Bowman - Articles in 'Music teacher' and 'Analysis Matters' which are essential reading

A. Jacobs - A Short History of Western Music

Look here to read about Plagiarism

Questions

1. Write a short paragraph about "le grand siècle"
2. List the backward and forward looking features of Couperin's music based on the evidence in this piece.
3. Using examples, explain how important ornamentation is to Couperin's style.
4. To what extent does the piece illustrate the rococo style?
5. Write about Couperin's treatment of dissonance.
6. Find one example of each of the following. Appoggiatura; Arpègement en montant; Arpègement en descendant; pincé; tremblements; doubles; aspiration; port de voix; coulé; echappée; anticipation.
7. Explain and illustrate the 'style brisé'
8. Find and explain an instance of a suspension, and upward resolving suspension and a 'suspension'.
9. Analyse the chords found at 3 ² , 11 ² and 24 ¹
10. Write about Couperin's use of rhythm
11. How are the modulation carried out in bars 7-8 and 13-16?

This is a table of the ornaments in the Sarabande. R = Right Hand L = Left Hand. I have not included the repeated section.