François Couperin

François Couperin was born into a long family of musicians and nicknamed Couperin le Grand because of his reputation and contribution to French music at the end of the Grand Siècle. The young François had a natural bent for music, keyboard instruments ran in the veins of the Couperins: his uncle Louis followed by his father Charles played the organ at Saint-Gervais church in Paris. As a boy he could read music before he learnt to read or write. He succeeded his father at Saint-Gervais, in the wake of Michel-Richer de Lalande and after being coached by Jacques Thomelin, one of the four official organists of the Royal Chapel at Versailles, whom he succeeded in 1692. He was also a noted harpsichordist and taught many royal Princes and Princesses. He wrote organ Masses, motets, sonatas, pieces for the King’s private concerts and viola music. But it is mainly his harpsichord music (four collections published between 1713 and 1730, the largest harpsichord corpus in France) which forged his reputation.