# my dad said Couperin was one of the best composer?



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

For some reason ii dont know Couperin- la leçons des tenebre on harmonia mundi did not reach me...and than i said to my father each time i would lisen to Couperin i would end up falling asleep
i dont know why?

Than my dad said something about him being one of the best classical composer of his era...
Than i though my dad is a drunk(whit all the respect i own to him), so his perception of classical is perhaps music that help him fall asleep when he loaded...

Maybe in order to fully appreciated this work one need to be a regular drunk, im not, but this is only my perception.

I can get in almost anything my father can, he dosen like Gesualdo yet i dont have a hard time getting into his music like i still have whit Couperin, perhaps it's not catchy but more of a chill out music for drunk or people that wont to rest or i dont know my music like my father claim...

But im more of a renaissance guys than a baroque guys and Couperin is Baroque, not that baroque is lame, i did not says this, but im more use to renaissance than baroque , i preffer renaissance to baroque , some people like vanilla ice cream other like chocolat, taste are just taste and personnal opinion.I may find something geneous that everybody dosen like or finf boring.

I bet everybody are gonna smash me and says stuff like Couperin is a god, you have no taste whatever, but sometime some music you dig other time you dont...

Weiss lute music is awesome and it's baroque Jean-nicolas pancrace royer is baroque and exiting..
Couperin make me sleep like a baby, i do my best to follow the work eventually it Knock me off and i sleep each time, Gesualdo music or Lassus per se dosen make me want to sleep most classical composers dosen do this annoying thing making you sleep, but what if it were the purpose of the artist
and why the hell do i always fall asleep on this work...

 if i dont get it am i an imbecil or someone whit no taste

I wont the answers of both Couperin fanboys and Couperin ''hater'' all do haters is a strong word i exagerated, let's says dosen like or dosen get???

:tiphat: i hope i wont get hell for bashing this work :angel:


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Count me as one who doesn't entirely get Couperin. Okay, I like his music as I like nearly all baroque, but I have trouble with French baroque because of what I perceive as an overuse of ornaments and rubato -- a halting rhythmless performance meant to be expressive I guess. But to me baroque should have driving rhythms! 

For French baroque I prefer Lully before him and Rameau after him. And for his own time period I prefer Henry Purcell.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

P


deprofundis said:


> For some reason ii dont know Couperin- la leçons des tenebre on harmonia mundi did not reach me...and than i said to my father each time i would lisen to Couperin i would end up falling asleep
> i dont know why?
> 
> Than my dad said something about him being one of the best classical composer of his era...
> ...


I hate to think what you'd say about Marin Marais!

Clearly you have a bit of an affinity for Gesualdo, and clearly FC's art is not as obviously disorienting.

With Pancrace Royer we're lucky that Rousset was so inspired by the music. Are we really going to say that with Francois Couperin, the music is so consistently forgettable that it's impossible to give an entertaining or a stimulating performance? I remember quite liking a CD Leonhardt made for DHM, for example. But it's a down to earth music that Francois Couperin wrote for harpsichord at least, shallow even, not a music which is spiritual or abstract in the way of Titelouze or Louis Couperin. The pleasure is just the pleasure of nice tunes, refined harmonies, rich sounds, lots of energy. Much of the high baroque is like this I think - F Couperin, Geoffroy, Dandrieu, Rameau, Lully, Charpentier,Lebegue, Marchand, Jacquet la Guerre, . . . The deep music is earlier.

Some (not all) of the liturgical music, and the late viol duos, seem to be a bit more elevated.


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## dieter (Feb 26, 2016)

Gee, I've always rated Couperin very highly. I can see where your father was coming from. The Keyboard suites are awesome. As are the suites for Violes, his chamber music etc


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## kanishknishar (Aug 10, 2015)

I have heard a few hours of his Pieces de Clavecin. They were lovely. Very pleasurable, easy-listening. I don't know if they are "serious" music like Bach but it is joy to hear them. You don't have to challenge yourself like Handel or Bach, or as some modernist music can be. 

Is your reason for not liking Couperin that basically you don't find it catchy?


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> P
> But it's a down to earth music that Francois Couperin wrote, shallow even, not a music which is spiritual in the way. The pleasure is just the pleasure of nice tunes, refined harmonies, rich sounds, lots of energy. Much of the high baroque is like this I think - F Couperin, Rameau, Lully, Charperntier,Lebegue . . . The deep music is earlier.


Where do you put the dividing line between early and late French baroque music?


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

premont said:


> Where do you put the dividing line between early and late French baroque music?


Lully. I wouldn't be surprised if Lully is the one who's responsible for the change.


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## Chronochromie (May 17, 2014)

Mandryka said:


> The pleasure is just the pleasure of nice tunes, refined harmonies, rich sounds, lots of energy. Much of the high baroque is like this I think - F Couperin, Rameau, Lully, Charpentier,Lebegue . . . The deep music is earlier.


If Rameau isn't deep then I don't know who is.


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

What do you think about William Byrd, deprofundis?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Which Couperin? Louis or Francoise? Both great harpsichordists in the great French Baroque tradition.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> Lully. I wouldn't be surprised if Lully is the one who's responsible for the change.


Good point, but fortunately his influence upon all the organ composers was not so great as elsewhere, or we would not have had Grigny, Boyvin, Clerambault or DuMage.

Another important factor (other than Lully) might be the influential taste of Ludwig XIV.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

premont said:


> Good point, but fortunately his influence upon all the organ composers was not so great as elsewhere, or we would not have had Grigny, Boyvin, Clerambault or DuMage.
> 
> Another important factor (other than Lully) might be the influential taste of Ludwig XIV.


You mean Louis XIV I think. I don't know how much his tastes were formed by Lully and all the other artists who, no doubt by deft political machinations as much as by artistic prowess, found themselves with a role at Versailles. In fact I've just read a novel about Racine which presents Louis XIV as quite an independent thinker. (Titus n'aimait pas Bérénice by Nathalie Azoulai, not enthusiastically recommended really.)


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

Mandryka said:


> You mean Louis XIV I think. I don't know how much his tastes were formed by Lully and all the other artists who, no doubt by deft political machinations as much as by artistic prowess, found themselves with a role at Versailles. In fact I've just read a novel about Racine which presents Louis XIV as quite an independent thinker. (Titus n'aimait pas Bérénice by Nathalie Azoulai, not enthusiastically recommended really.)


Yes, Louis of course. In German Ludwig.

There is no doubt that Louis XIV was the one who defined the musical taste at the court, and history tells that Lully was up to the demands. Many other composers served at the court of the sun king (F Couperin and Marchand e.g.), so it is natural to think, that they took the taste of the king into consideration when composing and playing.


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## gardibolt (May 22, 2015)

There are Couperin fanboys?


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## realdealblues (Mar 3, 2010)

Never heard anything from Couperin. I'll have to give him a listen at some point.


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