Supporting Your Piano Pathway
Written by Andrew Eales
At a recent piano recital, I started with the very beautiful Chaconne in F major by the early French Baroque composer Louis Couperin (1626-61), uncle of the better known François Couperin “Le Grand” (1668-1731).
For most who were in the audience, it will have been their first encounter with the music of Louis Couperin, and even those with an interest in the early French Baroque will perhaps never have heard this music performed on a modern piano before.
Dating from the seventeenth century, this music was originally written for the harpsichord (or clavecin as the French knew it) and while later Baroque music such as the keyboard works of J.S.Bach and Domenico Scarlatti have found their way into the piano repertoire, the music of earlier composers is rarely heard outside of specialist “Early Music” circles.
Continue reading Playing French Baroque Music