Armand-Louis Couperin

His mother died when he was only 17 months old and he was raised by his father, Nicolas, also a composer and the successor to François Couperin "Le Grand" as organist at St. Gervais Church in 1748.

Nothing is known of Armand-Louis Couperin's education, though his library at the time of death contained 885 books, unusual for a musician and evidence of scholarly interest.

Couperin died at age 61 in Paris in a traffic accident while hurrying from Vespers at Sainte Chapelle to St. Gervais.

References to Couperin by his contemporaries, including Charles Burney, laud his improvisational virtuosity (often on the Te Deum hymn) and established his reputation as one of the two best organists of the era.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Couperin remained attached stylistically to la grande tradition française, and his pieces have been criticized for their lack of modernity.