Louis Couperin
Louis Couperin (c. 1626 – 29 August 1661) was a French Baroque composer and performer. None of Couperin's music was published during his lifetime, but manuscript copies of some 200 pieces survive, some of them only rediscovered in the mid-20th century.
He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–51 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court. He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians, establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-five.
The first historically important member of the Couperin family, Couperin made seminal contributions to the development of both the French organ school and French harpsichord school. His innovations included composing organ pieces for specific registrations and inventing the genre of the unmeasured prelude for harpsichord, for which he devised a special type of notation.
Compositions by Louis Couperin appear on
Historic Organs of the Barossa Valley, Volume 2
Volume 2 in this series of stunning performances by Christopher Dearnley and John Stiller on seven more of the historic church organs of the Barossa Valley.
Composer
Bamboo Organ
Douglas Lawrence and the Manila Chamber Orchestra. Manila's suburb of Las Piñas boasts the world's only organ with pipes made from bamboo. As well as demonstrating the full potential of the instrument with different solo pieces and Handel's Organ Concerto in G minor, Douglas Lawrence interviews the organ's restorer.
Composer
Festival of Organ Masterpieces
Douglas Lawrence plays the organ of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne. Includes many of the best loved and frequently played works from the organ repertoire.
