François Couperin and 'the perfection of music'

181 Pages·2004·1.84 MB·french

by  David Tunley

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN AND
‘THE PERFECTION OF MUSIC’
To Dame Gillian Weir
‘… the bringing together of French and Italian styles must create musical
perfection.’
François Couperin
L’Apothéose composé à la mémoire de l’incomparable Monsieur de Lully
(1725)
François Couperin and
‘The Perfection of Music’
DAVID TUNLEY
© David Tunley, 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopied, recorded or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
David Tunley has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
Published by
Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company
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Croft Road 101 Cherry Street
Aldershot Burlington, VT 05401–4405
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Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Tunley, David 1930–
François Couperin and ‘the perfection of music’. – Rev. ed.
1. Couperin, François, 1668–1733 – Criticism and
interpretation
I.Title
780.9'2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tunley, David.
François Couperin and ‘the perfection of music’ / David Tunley
p.cm.
Includes list of works by Couperin (p. ), bibliographical references (p. ), and index.
Contents: Couperin and his times – The French lyrical style – Italian influence on the
French style – Sacred music – Works for harpsichord.
ISBN 0–7546–0928 (alk. paper)
1.Couperin, Françoise, 1668–1733 – Criticism and interpretation. I. Title.
ML410.C855T88 2003
780.9'2–dc22 2003063715
ISBN 0 7546 0928 6
Printed on acid-free paper
Typeset in Times New Roman by Pat FitzGerald
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall.
Contents
Introduction vii
1 Couperin and his Times 1
2 The French Lyrical Style 23
3 Italian Influences on the French Classical Style 38
4 Sacred Music 50
5 Chamber Music 75
6 Works for Harpsichord 100
Appendices
A List of Works by François Couperin 121
B Prefaces to Couperin’s Works 129
C Entry on François Couperin in Titon du Tillet’s Le Parnasse
françois (Paris, 1732, Suppl. 1743) pp. 664–6 148
D From Chapter 6 of Paris Ceremonial:Of organists and organs, for
the use of all collegiate, parish and other churches of the city and
diocese of Paris, by Martin Sonnet, Priest, Paris 1662, pp. 534–9 151
E Text and Translation of the Lessons from the First Nocturn of
Matins for Maundy Thursday 153
F Dance Forms in Couperin’s Music 157
G Couperin’s Table of Ornaments 162
Bibliography 164
Index 169
v
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Introduction
This book is both a second edition and a new publication. The starting-point was
my short study of Couperin’s music published in the BBC Music Guide Series in
1982, but, loosened from the restrictions of space that governed all those useful
little guides, I have been able to rework and expand the original to a point where
a new title was appropriate. Whereas the earlier book was a more generalised
account of Couperin’s music and written with the ‘musical layman’ in mind, the
present book takes as its focal point Couperin’s concept of the ‘perfection of music’
through the union of French and Italian musical styles. This has meant a more
analytical approach than before, but I have tried to keep technical language to a
minimum so that the general reader is not forgotten Two chapters outline the basis
of what I believe to be the contrasting main features of the two musical schools
in the seventeenth- and early eighteenth-centuries and provide the touchstone for
later considerations of Couperin’s music. Nevertheless, like much French music,
Couperin’s cannot be considered merely in terms of notes on the page. Like all
composers he was a product of his time and place – but what a time and a place
they were! Working in the ambience of the most splendid court in Europe and in
the exhilarating environment of Paris his music is indeed a mirror of the world in
which he lived. I hope I have been able to recreate something of this, particularly
in the opening chapter.
In the twenty or so years since my original publication Couperin research has
brought new insights into his music which I have incorporated into the present
text. As always, James Anthony’s masterly French Baroque Music, which was
published in a revised and expanded edition in 1997 not long before his death,
continues to be an essential reference to all aspects of the French school, while a
number of specialist studies on Couperin’s music have also appeared. Amongst
the most important are papers from a Couperin conference held at Villecroze in the
mid 1990s; a milestone article by Edward T. Corp published in 1998 and dealing
with the court of James II and James III in exile in Paris and the influence this
seems to have had in the dissemination of Italian music there; and most recently a
book by Jane Clark and Derek Connon, The Mirror of Human Life: Reflections on
François Couperin’s Pièces de Clavecin (2002). Undoubtedly, however, the most
significant publication has been the revised edition of Couperin’s complete works
by L’Oiseau-Lyre Press, the first volumes of this appearing in 1980 and still in
progress. Whilst in no way diminishing the importance of the original edition of
1932–33 there is no doubt the revised edition brings Couperin research to a new
level of expertise, partly through access to materials not available or unknown to
Cauchie and his colleagues and partly because of the extremely high standard of
modern musical scholarship that the present editors have brought to bear upon their
publication. The Introductions to each of the revised volumes provides models of
their kind. During the same period my own research has widened and the present
book incorporates much that I have learnt and, hopefully, understood about French
vii
viii Introduction
music. I am grateful to the Editors of Australian Studies in French Literature for
permission to quote verbatim from one of my articles. Where appropriate, source
material has been quoted in translation in the text, the original being reproduced
in the Endnotes. Nevertheless, except for the titles of Couperin’s works, the
orthography has been modernised throughout this book.
Amongst those to whom I am very grateful for their input into this book are Robin
Adamson who checked my translations and helped unravel Couperin’s sometimes
tangled prose and John Meyer who read the entire typescript and made invaluable
suggestions on improving it. Others who helped me in countless ways are David
Gething, Richard Hewison, James Humberstone, Peggy Lais, Judith Maitland,
Milica Milic, Kerry Murphy, Evelyn Portek, Lionel Sawkins and Stewart Smith.
I am also grateful to Music Sales for giving me permission to use my BBC Music
Guide on Couperin as a basis for the present study. As usual, my sincere thanks go
to Jenny Wildy, Music Librarian of the Wigmore Music Library at the University
of Western Australia whose generosity in time and effort and her unique skills in
tracking down elusive materials have become legendary in these parts.
To my wife Paula go my affectionate thanks for, as she always does, easing the
domestic path. I am, of course, delighted that Dame Gillian Weir has accepted
the re-dedication of this book, for her influence on what understanding I have of
Couperin’s keyboard music stems largely from her stylish performances.
Yet, my deepest debt of gratitude for this book undoubtedly is to Rachel Lynch
of Ashgate Publishing, for it was she who suggested that I might like to consider
a second, enlarged edition of my earlier book. I needed no further urging to return
to that wonderful repertoire and also to work again with a publishing company
that in recent years has done so much for the cause of music scholarship, not least
in the area of French music.
David Tunley
University of Western Australia
Chapter 1
Couperin and his Times
The history of European music is essentially the history of changing styles. This
becomes strikingly evident with the development of polyphony which, as a uniquely
European phenomenon, coincided with a new phase of Western civilisation in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries; and from that time onwards European music has
mirrored the restlessness of the European mind in its seemingly endless search for
innovation and change. In a very real sense, this music is characteristically always
in a state of transition.
The emergence, growth and eventual disappearance of a style is a pattern familiar
enough to those who have studied the various historical periods of music and while
the rate of change may vary the forward thrust of development is ever-present. The
earlier phase in the development of a style is usually marked by a quickened pulse,
which slackens as the style matures and the forms are consolidated. Yet strangely,
in the early and middle years of the seventeenth century this momentum apparently
lost so much force in French music that the art seems to have settled into a long
period of calm repose; and this was at the very time when Italian music was being
swiftly borne by the powerful surge of that movement now usually described as
the Baroque. The tranquil waters were deceptive. There were currents that carried
French music into new parts, but they were more like little eddies, soon lost in the
slow drift; then, towards the end of the century, the Italian flood broke its banks
and washed into the music of France. One of the composers to feel and respond
to the new force was François Couperin. At the time of his birth this was still over
two decades away, during which time the precocious young musician absorbed all
that was around him.
He was born into an auspicious year for France. In that year, 1668, the young king
Louis XIV signed the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle which concluded a war by which
he had attempted to secure territories in the Spanish Netherlands that he believed
were his by his marriage to the Spanish princess Marie-Thérèse. Although leading
to war with the Dutch four years later, through the financial genius of his minister
Colbert there ensued a twenty-year period of prosperity that enabled Louis to realise
his grand plans for making France the cultural centre of Europe. Louis immediately
made the momentous decision to start work on new plans that superseded earlier
ones for the Palace of Versailles where Couperin was to be appointed in a part-time
capacity twenty-five years later. His was the first of four court appointments in the
history of the Couperin musical dynasty, which stretched from the late sixteenth- to
the mid-nineteenth centuries. For the most part the Couperins worked at various
churches in Paris, most notably at Saint-Gervais.
While the name of Couperin has been traced back to the fourteenth century in the
region of Brie, south-west of Paris, those with musical gifts started with Mathurin