COUPERIN, FAMILY. - Descendants of a MATHURIN C. from the beginning of the 17th century, the C. were, like the Bachs, a family of fervent musical traditions. The most important, FRANÇOIS (ca. 1668-1733), called "le Grand", was, after his uncle LOUIS (ca. 1630-63) and his father CHARLES (1638-79) and after La Lande, appointed on 1 January 1685 organist of St-Gervais, a post which was held after him by his cousin NICOLAS (1680-1748) and by the latter's descendants ARMAND LOUIS (1725-48) and GERVAIS FRANÇOIS (d. 1826) and then by the latter's daughter, CÉLESTE-THÉRÈSE, until 1830. On 26 December 1693 he became court organist at Versailles.
Besides the vast harpsichord output that rightly made him famous, a considerable part of his work is represented by the motets, in which a serene ardor and a joyful effusion dominate, united with an incomparable grace. They embrace a period extending from 1697, the date of a Laudate pueri Dominum contained in a manuscript collection of the library of Versailles, to 1705, the year of printing of the last book of motets; strictly speaking they comprise the three books of Versets de motets (Paris 1703-1705), among which the Qui dat nivem (1702) is remembered; the 13 Élévations in manuscript in the library of Brussels, to which is added another edition entitled Nouvelles Élévations, ou Versets de motets (Paris 1704), which are ideally joined, through affinity of artistic and religious intentions, to the Leçons des ténèbres (1714-15), which offer us a significant union of French and Italian tastes.
In the vast harvest of his instrumental music, an honored place is held by the Pièces pour orgue (1690), consisting of two Masses: La Messe solennelle des paroises and the Messe des couvents, suites of 21 pieces each, of a mystical and devout character, in which majesty is united with vivacity in the happy alternation of the registers (they were published in 1904 by A. Guilmant and A. Pirro in vol. V of the Archives des Maîtres de l'Orgue, but under the name F. C. sieur de Croully [1630-98], uncle of François C. le Grand).
He is a refined painter, with a graceful melodic line, with minute descriptive finesse, with a lively and spirited wit which in his brush, accustomed to anecdotal pictures, knows how to fuse with brilliant richness the characteristics of the two styles, the two dominant voices in the art of that time, grafting, as has been said, the Italian taste onto his French vein.
Bibliography
C. Bouvet, Une dynastie de musicieux français, les C., Paris 1919; J. Tiersot, F. C. compositeur de musique religieuse, in Revue de musicologie, 6 (1922), pp. 101-109; A. Tessier, Les C., Paris 1926; P. Brunold, Le grand orgue de St-Gervais à Paris, Paris 1934.
Luisa Cervelli