The Curious Life of Louis Marchand

The Curious Life of Louis Marchand

By Jon Baxendale While misinformation, half-truths and scandals are often regarded as drawbacks of fame, they appear to be phenomena of today’s society and not something immediately associated with musicians of the Grand siècle. Yet it cannot be denied that a good...
Grigny, Bach and Walter – A reappraisal of the sources

Grigny, Bach and Walter – A reappraisal of the sources

By Jon Baxendale This article first appeared in Early Music Performer No. 45, November, 2919. Nicolas de Grigny’s Premier livre d’orgue was engraved at the atelier of Claude Roussel, who flourished between 1682 and 1725 and whose premises were situated on ‘rüe St....
Adding ornaments to Grand siècle organ and harpsichord music

Adding ornaments to Grand siècle organ and harpsichord music

By Jon Baxendale When considering that later grand siècle composers incorporated myriad ornaments into their music, the meagre offerings found in some of the earlier printed books leave performers with the task of adding their own and, in doing so, determining what...
New thoughts on the Livre d’orgue de Limoges

New thoughts on the Livre d’orgue de Limoges

By Jon Baxendale Le Livre d’orgue de Limoges (hereafter Limoges) has been housed in the Bibliothèque francophone multimedia in Limoges (F-LG, MS 255) since being donated to the library in November 1990 by Christian Gaumy, a local bibliolater (Marissal, 2004, 121);...
The port de voix and its pincement

The port de voix and its pincement

  By Jon Baxendale (This post is adapted from the preface of Nicolas Lebègue, Pièces de clavecin et d’orgue, ed. J Baxendale (Tynset, Lyrebird Music, 2025). While the port de voix is an ornament associated with French baroque keyboard music, we know little about...