LDV147.8

26 FRANÇOIS COUPERIN_The complete organ works This, then, was the context that, five years after Lebègue’s final publication, saw the appearance of the Pièces d’orgue of François Couperin and, less than a decade later, at the turn of the century in 1699, the Premier Livre d’orgue contenant une Messe et les Hymnes des principales fêtes de l’année (First book of organ pieces, containing a Mass and the hymns of the principal feasts of the year) of Grigny. Without explicit reference to the notion of the livre d’orgue , Couperin’s work consists of two masses, ‘ l’une à l’usage ordinaire des Paroisses, pour les Festes solemnelles, l’autre propre pour les Convents de religieux et religieuses ’ (one for the ordinary use of parishes, for solemn feasts, the other intended for religious houses of men and women). Sparing no effort to combine fancy and reason, the organist of Saint-Gervais offers here some of the finest pieces in the repertory, in a synthesis of French and Italian styles and of the techniques of his predecessors. Glosses on the plainchant, lyrical pieces, Dialogues and Offertoires characterise an art at its peak, at once suitable to accompany religious services and satisfying the highest artistic standards. While the Messe pour les paroisses refers to the plainchant Mass Cunctipotens Genitor Deus , the Messe pour les couvents is organised solely by its tonal unity of G major. The Offertoires sur les grands jeux of these two monuments are the most extended episodes of their respective works, constructed as triptychs. Close to the spirit of the French overture, but also indebted to the Italian sinfonia and, in the middle section of the Parish Mass, to the style of Frescobaldi, they form the highlight of ceremonies which they sustain with deep spirituality while at the same time adorning themwith demonstrative solemnity.