François Couperin

François Couperin ("le Grand") hailed from a long line of organists, harpsichordists, and composers. Himself an organist and calveciniste, hee takes his place with Lully, Marin Marais and Marc-Antoine Charpentier as one of the most brilliant representatives of the Age of Louis XIV. His teachers were his uncle, François ("l'Ancien"), and Jacques Thomelin, the organist at St Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, while the great Michel-Richard de Lalande is also said by some authorities to have given him lessons on the organ and harpsichord. In 1693, he succeeded Thomelin as one of the four organists at the Chapelle Royale and the following year became maître de clavecin aux Enfants de France, teaching the Duke of Burgundy and other young princes and princesses. He also took on private pupils, to whom he entrusted the secrets of his art. Towards the end of his life, he was persuaded by ill-health to entrust his post at St Gervais to his cousin, Nicolas, and to sell his position at the Chapelle Royale to Louis Marchand. He was buried in St Joseph's Chapel in the cemetery at the St Eustache. Although sacred music – Tenebrae singers, versets, motets and a volume of Élévations – takes pride of place in Couperin's cast output, it is his harpsichord and organ works that were ultimately to play the more important role in the history of Baroque music, with his four Livres de pièces de clavecin fully justifying their reputation as the finest product of the Frennch harpsichord school.