Sylvia Marlowe, harpsichord, plays Couperin le Grand – Vol 1. (available in 1982)
originally released 1968 by Decca 710159
Four pieces for two harpsichords (with Kenneth Cooper).
Serenus recorded Editions SRS 12052 (year unknown) made in the U.S.A.
The present recording is a re-issue of the original Decca recording, re-recorded by Serenus for this album.
The original tapes are the property of the Harpsichord Record Company, Sylvia Marlowe, President.
Project supervisor for Serenus, Mullen Boyd; Art procurement, J. Tucker Batsford
Cover engraving from Amedee Mereaux, “Les Clavecinistes,” Heugel et Cie., Paris, 1867

Pieces for Two Harpsichords
00:00 Band 1 La Julliet
01:55 Band 2 La Létiville
03:44 Band 3 Muséte de Choisi
07:46 Band 4 Muséte de Taverni
The other pieces of this recording (Le Parnasse ou L’Apotheose de Corelli, 1724 and Apotheose de Lulli, 1725) are not recorded because they are considered less suitable for this keyboard channel.

In L’Art de toucher le Clavecin, Couperin wrote, “We
(the French) write our music differently from the way
we play it … whereas the Italians write their music
exactly as they wish it to be performed.” He is referring
here to the complex and difficult problems of rhythmical
alteration in French music (les notes inegales).
Briefly, it is a form of rhythmic freedom to produce a
graceful, lilting effect and avoid squareness (similar, in
many ways, to our jazz performances today) . The time values
of certain pairs of conjunct notes are sometimes
altered
This occurs mainly in works of slow or moderate
tempo; never in Allemandes, marches, fast or deliberately
four-square movements, or when the piece is
marked notes egales, martelees, detachees, mouvement
decide, or marque.

Couperin often played two-harpsichord music with
his students, friends and family, but most particularly
with his daughter, Marguerite-Antoinette, the first professional
woman harpsichordist and her father’s substitute
at the court of Louis XIV.
La Letiville and LaJulliet are portraits. The two
Musetes are in the popular drum and fife style. La
Musete de Choisi is a gentle, pastoral work, descriptive
of the countryside where Couperin was brought up. La
Musete de Taverni is a wild bagpipe piece with short,
irregular phrases over the drone bass. All are found in
Volume III of the Pieces de’ Clavecin.
Fran«ois Couperin “Ie Grand” has his place on Parnassus
next to his contemporaries in the reign of Louis
XIV: Racine, Molière, Corneille, Watteau, La Fontaine,
La Bruyere, La Rochefoucauld, Pascal, Saint-Simon,
Poussin, and Le Brun.
Translation and Notes by Sylvia Marlowe

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