Louis Couperin

He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians, establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-five.

His innovations included composing organ pieces for specific registrations and inventing the genre of the unmeasured prelude for harpsichord, for which he devised a special type of notation.

Le Parnasse François, a 1732 book by Évrard Titon du Tillet, contains a biographical sketch describing certain details of his life, and some 30 organ pieces listed not only the date but also the place of composition.

His father, Charles Couperin, sieur de Crouilly, was a small landowner and part-time organist of a local church.

Titon du Tillet writes that Louis, his two younger brothers Charles and François, and some of their friends visited Jacques Champion de Chambonnières on the Feast of Saint James—Chambonnières' name day.

Titon du Tillet writes that Couperin had refused, out of loyalty to his old friend and teacher, to replace Chambonnières as royal harpsichordist, and so the post of violist was created especially for him.

Couperin's harpsichord works are commonly referred to by numbers used in the princeps Éditions de l'Oiseau-Lyre edition of 1936.

Some editions and recordings may use Davitt Moroney's alternative numbering scheme, which attempts to create suites out of Couperin's dances.

[1] Dance movements comprise around two thirds of Louis Couperin's harpsichord oeuvre; they include courantes, sarabandes, allemandes and gigues (in decreasing order of numbers).

Couperin's organ music exerted a great influence over 17th century European composers; it represents the transition from the strict counterpoint in the Titelouze vein to the colorful, concertante organ style introduced by Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers and Nicolas Lebègue, who influenced late Baroque composers such as François Couperin and Nicolas de Grigny.