LBMP–076–077: Louis Couperin 400 –– Intégrale • Clavecin • Orgue
From €82.00
Complete scholarly edition of Louis Couperin’s surviving keyboard music for harpsichord and organ, published in 2026 to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Edited by David Ponsford (organ) and Jon Baxendale (organ and harpsichord)
- A handsome edition available in hardback and wire-bound volumes
- A new and authoritative edition of Louis Couperin’s harpsichord and organ music
- The only commercially available editions
- Organ volume includes chant for performance in liturgical settings
- Full preface and commentary in English and French
- Four available formats
- Collector’s Edition
- Colour hardback cover with a matt finish (choice on checkout)
- Wire-bound with soft colour cover (choice on checkout)
- Tablet (PDF – one download available for 5 days)
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Published in 2026 to mark the four-hundredth anniversary of Louis Couperin’s birth, this combined edition brings together the composer’s complete surviving music for harpsichord and organ in two major scholarly volumes prepared by Jon Baxendale and David Ponsford. Drawing upon many years of editorial and musicological research, the publications represent the most extensive modern study devoted to Couperin’s keyboard music and the wider musical world of seventeenth-century France.
The Pièces de clavecin volume presents the only fully complete modern edition of Couperin’s surviving harpsichord music, incorporating the Oldham manuscript pieces that had remained inaccessible to scholars since their discovery in 1957. The Pièces d’orgue volume is prepared from the Oldham manuscript, the only known witness to Couperin’s organ music apart from two concordances preserved elsewhere. Together, the two publications bring Couperin’s surviving keyboard music into a unified scholarly framework for the first time.
Both volumes are accompanied by extensive bilingual prefaces in English and French, each amounting to more than 100,000 words, exploring questions of source transmission, notation, ornamentation, rhetoric, performance practice, liturgical tradition and the broader soundscape of seventeenth-century Paris. Particular attention is devoted to Saint-Gervais, chant practice, the culture of the French organ loft and the stylistic foundations of the French Classical tradition. Detailed graphological analysis also revisits longstanding questions surrounding the Oldham source and its place within the wider Couperin tradition.
Prepared directly from the surviving sources, the musical texts combine scholarly rigour with practical clarity for performers. Appropriate plainchant has also been included within the organ volume for those wishing to perform the hymns in a liturgical setting.
The editions are available in four formats: hardback, wirebound, electronic (PDF) and Collector’s Editions featuring foiled lettering, placemarker ribbons, head and tail bands, and marbled endpapers. Issued together as part of the Louis Couperin 400 commemorative publications, the two volumes constitute a major contribution to the study and performance of French Baroque keyboard music.
Publié en 2026 à l’occasion du quatre-centième anniversaire de la naissance de Louis Couperin, cet ensemble réunit l’intégralité de la musique survivante du compositeur pour clavecin et orgue en deux volumes scientifiques majeurs préparés par Jon Baxendale et David Ponsford. Fruit de nombreuses années de recherches éditoriales et musicologiques, ces publications constituent l’étude moderne la plus vaste consacrée à la musique pour clavier de Couperin et au monde musical de la France du XVIIe siècle.
Le volume des Pièces de clavecin présente la seule édition moderne véritablement complète de la musique survivante pour clavecin de Couperin, intégrant les pièces du manuscrit Oldham demeurées inaccessibles aux chercheurs depuis leur découverte en 1957. Le volume des Pièces d’orgue est établi à partir du manuscrit Oldham, unique témoin connu de la musique d’orgue de Couperin en dehors de deux concordances conservées ailleurs. Ensemble, les deux publications réunissent pour la première fois l’ensemble de la musique survivante pour clavier de Couperin dans un cadre scientifique cohérent.
Les deux volumes sont accompagnés de vastes préfaces bilingues en anglais et en français, représentant chacune plus de 100 000 mots, et abordant des questions de transmission des sources, de notation, d’ornementation, de rhétorique, de pratique d’exécution, de tradition liturgique et du paysage sonore du Paris du XVIIe siècle. Une attention particulière est portée à Saint-Gervais, à la pratique du plain-chant, à la culture de la tribune d’orgue française et aux fondements stylistiques de la tradition classique française. Une analyse graphologique détaillée revient également sur les questions anciennes entourant la source Oldham et sa place dans la tradition plus large de Couperin.
Préparés directement à partir des sources conservées, les textes musicaux allient rigueur scientifique et clarté pratique pour les interprètes. Un plain-chant approprié a également été inclus dans le volume d’orgue pour les musiciens souhaitant exécuter les hymnes dans un contexte liturgique.
Les éditions sont disponibles en quatre formats : relié, spirale, électronique (PDF) et éditions Collector avec marquage à chaud, rubans signets, tranchefiles et gardes marbrées. Publiés dans le cadre des publications commémoratives Louis Couperin 400, ces deux volumes constituent une contribution majeure à l’étude et à l’interprétation de la musique française baroque pour clavier.
Lyrebird music’s release of Louis Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin last year marks something of a milestone for this key 17th-century repertoire. This impressive publication, incorporating significant departures from earlier editions, offers something truly new to the field.
The two principal sources of Louis Couperin’s harpsichord music are the so-called Bauyn and Parville manuscripts. As detailed in the preface, it is difficult to assess which of these sources is more authoritative, given that both contain errors of repetition and omission. Bauyn has been chosen as the principal source here since, as the editor explains, watermark analysis proves it to be the earlier of the two.
In all of Lyrebird’s editions, there is a mission to present as many visual aspects of the source material as possible. Players will see a significant difference in the appearance and layout of the pieces compared with, for example, Alan Curtis’ edition for Le Pupitre, especially in terms of original beaming and ornamentation. This style of presentation allows readers to be influenced by subtleties such as hand shapes, articulation and gesture. The issue of ornamentation is challenging in these pieces, given that the Bauyn manuscript is nearly bereft of ornaments. None are added here by the editor, but those present in the Parville manuscript have been transferred where sensible. Players using this edition will be confident to add their own, using ideas for guidance in the preface.
Referencing the debates of the past decade, Baxendale’s introduction concisely counters Glen Wilson’s argument (in his Early Keyboard Journal article ‘The Other Mr Couperin’, 2013) that Charles (not Louis) Couperin might be composer of these pieces. Demuring, Baxendale refers to the ‘restricted’ and liturgical style of organ music of this period, believing that ‘organ music was restricted in style because it had to be functional” and that the ‘new, modish and experimental’ nature of the compositional language of the harpsichord goes some way to explain the difference in nature of Louis’ organ works. Fundamentally, he disagrees with Wilson’s argument that the Louis’ missing forename in either principal source points to a different authorship, Louis’ brother Charles (father of François le Grand).
The prefaces of Lyrebird’s edition have earned a strong reputation for their detailed insight into performance practice. Here, Baxendale discusses rhetoric with regards to Couperin’s harpsichord music in a far more detailed way than his forebears, and his comments on the rhetorical language of the preludes is a significant contribution to the pedagogical field on these works. His didactic writing here is inspired, and guides readers/players in areas from harmonic direction, use of tempo/movement, breathing/phrasing and inequality, to figures of speech and rhythmic devices, drawing on examples in a compelling way.
The notation of Couperin’s preludes is notoriously difficult to interpret. Baxendale’s section on these pieces features diagrams with coloured notes to indicate the main progressions. Relating this to the score, he suggests meanings for the curved and vertical lines, helping players interpret groupings appropriately. For Baxendale, it is the placing of the curved lines, not their meaning, which is sometimes ambiguous. He guides his reader into the intricacies of declamation, harmonic working, ornamental shapes and fingering.
This quality release sits well within the rapidly growing Lyrebird Music catalogue, which encompasses a range of keyboard repertoire, ranging from 16th-century collections to César Franck. The print quality is high, with a clear typeface and thoughtful pagination. This well-priced edition reflects a huge amount of original research, care and detailed preparation, with issues of performance practice at its core. I would recommend this publication highly to keyboard players who would like to get closer to the original notation of the sources. This edition, equally suitable for the seasoned player and less experienced, will satisfy every thinking musician.
Thomas Allery
Harpsichord & Fortepiano, Spring 2023
