Louis Couperin, undisputed master of the keyboard in the seventeenth century in France, left us about 200 pieces written for harpsichord and organ. His keyboard works were not published during his lifetime but are found in several manuscripts, including the Bauyn manuscript (in which he stands alongside other great masters of the time such as J.J. Froberger and G. Frescobaldi), or the Oldham manuscript, discovered in England in the twentieth century.
Excelling at the keyboard and appointed to the position of organist of the church of St. Gervais in Paris, he was also a great violinist and violist ! Louis XIV even gave him a position of player of pardessus de viole at the court. In the Bauyn manuscript, some pieces by Louis Couperin for two voices, written "pour les violes", could have been played on the violin and on the bass viol.
A large part of our program is devoted to transcriptions of keyboard pieces. The practice of transcription was common at the time, and we have examples of period transcriptions of harpsichord pieces for the violin and viol duet (J.J.Froberger pieces from the Partiturbuch kept at the library of Wolfenbüttel).
To complete this program consisting mainly of transcriptions of works for keyboard, it seemed interesting to us to look at another Parisian manuscript of 1666, containing some dances for solo violin, as well as the oldest French source of music for viol unaccompanied (by the violist Dubuisson), which is also the first example of a French instrumental suite ordered as follows: Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue.
Link to discover the Duo's second album
