Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin

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Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin (born September 19, 1705 in Paris , † around 1778 probably in Versailles ) was a French harpsichordist .

Living conditions

Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin belonged to the famous French musician family Couperin during the Baroque period. While the male Couperins are well represented in music history, the female musicians of the family who were known during their lifetime disappeared from the canon of history. In the family tree of the Couperin family reproduced by Philine Lautenschläger, ten women appear under this name. This also includes the harpsichordist Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin. She was the younger of the two daughters of François Couperin (1668-1733), called Couperin le Grand and his wife Marie-Anne, née Ansault. Through her harpsichord playing, she earned the post of designated successor to her father in the office of court musician and is considered the first woman in the office of royal titular harpsichordist at the court of the French King Louis XV.

The service at court

We know little about Marguerite-Antoinette's training and her duties at court as a harpsichordist. When her father François Couperin (le Grand) published his harpsichord school L'Art de toucher le clavecin (“The Art of Playing the Harpsichord”) in 1716 , she was 11 years old. It can be assumed that they are familiar with the principles of this school, which was given to King Louis XV. (who was still a child) grew up. One reads in it that their father “did not let the children practice in the absence of the teacher” . He therefore " takes the key to the instrument on which I teach them as a precaution during the children's initial lesson, so that in my absence they cannot spoil in an instant what I have carefully taught them in 3/4 hours" . That says a lot about the artistic rigor and accuracy in her father's instrumental playing "Couperin le Grand". He was also the harpsichord teacher of the wife of Louis XV, the Polish Princess Maria Leszczyńska and Crown Princess after their wedding in 1725. Apparently before this date, Marguerite-Antoinette had to represent the court musician Jean-Baptiste-Henry d'Anglebert (1661-1735).

Anne Henriette of France , Madame seconde , twin sister of Madame premier (king's daughters), playing viol. Jean-Marc Nattier 1754
Anne-Henriette with a music book

After Louis XV took over the government. At the age of 16 (1726), in addition to the concerts in the apartments of the royal couple in Versailles (main residence since 1722) and in Paris, later in particular the instruction of the royal daughters (see pictures) due to the personal appointment of their teachers by the king was one of her duties . From 1736 until her death she carried the official title of royal titular harpsichordist.

About Les concerts de la Reine (the concerts of the queen) and the musical royal daughters (called Mesdames ) as pupils M.-A. The French musicologist Philippe Beaussant wrote Couperins in 1996 in a separate chapter. It reads that Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin “venait chaque jour au château” (“went to the castle every day”) to teach the princesses in harpsichord and composition. Compositions from this period or his own compositions or even a picture by the harpsichordist Couperin are not known.

In November 1741, the Mercure de France noted a decline in their strength. Since she is only in her mid-thirties, this is surprising. Because "her strength no longer always allowed her to fulfill the tasks of the above-mentioned office with such great accuracy," she was represented by a successor, it is reported. One should assume that “the mentioned office” with the frequency of his appearances - only the table music at court required music three times a day - and because of the “accuracy” expected by the demanding royal couple, was a burden for them, as did their father had his daughter represented when he was no longer doing so well? What exactly represented the overload is not known, their age or their ability: none of them could have been. Perhaps she also had domestic duties to take care of her mother, with whom she moved in after her father's death in 1733? But as early as June of the next year one reads in the same newspaper about successful concerts of their protégés under their direction and participation in a ten-verse poem of praise. Also Évrard Titon du Tillet (1677-1762), who wrote a chronicle of the French musicians and poets - including many women: Le Parnasse françois , the "praised in  manière sçavante & admirable  " (German: "profound and admirable way") of its harpsichord -Spiel with which she appeared in the Concerts de la reine in Versailles.

Versailles Palace, central gallery

From the 10-stanza poem for M.-A. Couperin

“It is not the primeval forests that
reproduce your songs;
It is the great palaces that
echo your sounds.

I see illustrious princesses
touching different areas that
sound
pleasantly together under your magic hands "

The last stanza of the poem for her is:

French clavecin with two manuals, Lyon 1716

"
Your own will find a place under all the brilliant names,
and it will endure without anyone else wiping it out
."

The harpsichord

The harpsichord was a popular solo instrument at the French court, and its construction in France included two manuals; It was just as important as a figured bass instrument for chamber music in an ensemble, e.g. B. to accompany a singing voice. As an accompanying instrument, it played the basic linear voice with the left hand, to which the right hand improvised chords. Or a notated, independent ( obligatory ), equal vote - e.g. B. in a trio - played together with other instruments (string instruments, flutes, etc.). Once in 1729 in the Mercure de France there was talk of a special chamber music duo cast in which M.-A. Couperin was "accompanied" as harpsichordist by a violinist from the court, Michael-Gabriel Besson , not the other way around. It was about "trés goutés" (very enjoyed) duets with table music during a souper . This duo form, in which the obbligato harpsichord part is accompanied by the violin and not mainly solo, was modern for a short time. It is not known whether working with a court violinist suggests another service with the entire court orchestra, for example at opera performances.

It is interesting to know that the Mozart siblings, the 7-year-old Wolfgang and his sister Marianne played several times on the royal Clavecin on the occasion of the Concerts de la Reine in Versailles from 1763 to 1764.

family

Marguerite-Antoinette was the second daughter of François Couperin and his wife Marie-Anne (daughter of the wine merchant Michel Ansault), who married on April 26, 1689. She had a sister and two brothers.

  • Marie-Madeleine (born March 11, 1690 in Paris, † April 16, 1742 in Montbuisson, Pontoise), a cellist and organist at the Cistercian convent . Abbeye de Montbuisson
  • Nicolas-Louis (born July 24, 1707; died early)
  • François-Laurent (* 1708; † approx. 1735)

The rest of life is in the dark

She herself remained unmarried and took her mother with her after her father's death (1733). Today we know the street in Versailles, where both lived, but nothing is known of their music and other living conditions, apart from the glorifying poem in Merkur de France from June 1742 (with a translation in Claudia Schweitzer's article 2008). Between the lines there is talk of her pupils, the royal daughters , which seems to confirm that from then on she was apparently freed from purely soloist work, as already indicated.

M.-A. Couperin at Chicago's dinner party

The dinner party

In the 1970s, the American writer, event artist and feminist Judy Chicago immortalized the name of the musician Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin among the 999 women who are written in gold letters on the white, triangular floor tiles of their dinner party . The women's names there symbolically embody “our cultural heritage” (Judy Chicago). M.-A. In the triangular table installation, Couperin is assigned to the place setting for the English composer Ethel Smyth , along with twenty other important musicians, including her aunt Marguerite-Louise Couperin .

See also

Article musician family Couperin

literature

  • Charles Bouvet: Une dynastie de musiciens français: Les Couperin, organistes de l'église Saint-Gervais . Delagrave, Paris 1919, p. 42, 99, 109, 116–119, 155 and 218 (French, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Charles Bouvet: Les deux d'Anglebert et Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin . In: Revue de Musicologie . tape 9 , no. 26 , 1928, ISSN  0035-1601 , p. 86-94 , doi : 10.2307 / 925975 , JSTOR : 925975 (French).
  • (7) Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin . In: Eric Blom (Ed.): Groves Dictionary Of Music And Musicians . 5th edition. tape 2 : C-E . MacMillan, New York / London 1954, pp. 498 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • David Fuller, Bruce Gustafson:  Couperin, Marguerite-Antoinette. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  • Denis Hermlin, Hervé Audéon:  Couperin (family). In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 3 (Bjelinski - Calzabigi). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7618-1113-6  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
  • Claudia Schweitzer: Couperin, Marguerite-Antoinette. In: "... is highly recommended as a teacher". Cultural history of the piano teacher (= Freia Hoffmann [Hrsg.]: Series of publications by the Sophie Drinker Institute. Volume 6). BIS-Verlag der Carl von Ossietzky University, Oldenburg 2008 (dissertation), ISBN 978-3-8142-2124-3 , pp. 441-442 ( DNB 992623715/34 ; PDF).

Web links

References and comments

  1. ^ Philine Lautenschläger: Couperin, family. In: Lexicon of Music and Gender. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2010, pp. 176–178.
  2. ↑ Compare Lautenschläger in Lexikon Musik und Gender 2010, p. 176.
  3. ↑ Claudia Schweitzer: European instrumentalists of the 18th and 19th centuries . Sophie Drinker Institute for Musicological Women and Gender Studies
  4. ↑ He was Ludwig's godson. XIV. His father had already been employed as a musician by the Sun King . see. Bruce Gustafson:  d'Anglebert (family). In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 1 (Aagard - Baez). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 1999, ISBN 3-7618-1111-X  ( online edition , subscription required for full access) and David Ledbetter, C. David Harris:  D'Anglebert, Jean Henry. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
  5. ^ Claudia Schweitzer: Couperin, Marguerite-Antoinette. 2008, p. 442 ( d-nb.info PDF).
  6. ^ Philippe Beaussant : Les concerts de la Reine . In: Les plaisirs de Versailles. Theater et musique . Fayard 1996, pp. 153-163, here p. 154 and 155.
  7. ↑ S. Claudia Schweitzer 2008 (web link).
  8. ↑ Peter Hersche and Siegbert Rampe : Social history of baroque music. Laaber 2018, p. 131 f.
  9. ↑ French chamber music as a whole and French harpsichord music in particular is known for a special, ornate technique that requires strict training.
  10. ↑ Évrard Titon du Tillet: [ Le Parnasse françois. Paris 1732 and] here: Suite du Parnasse françois jusqu'en 1743. Paris 1743.
  11. ↑ Information and quote from Philine Lautenschläger: Couperin, family. In: Lexicon of Music and Gender. P. 178.
  12. ^ From Mercure de France , June 1742, pp. 1315-1317. Translated by Claudia Schweitzer and Christine Schäfer. See web link Sophie Drinker Institute: Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin.
  13. ↑ Claudia Schweitzer / Freia Hoffmann 2008 .
  14. ↑ See Philippe Beaussant: Les Plaisirs de Versailles 1996, pp. 156 ff. And 345 (however, he does not mention Marianne Mozart in it). Wolfgang's 4 sonatas for piano and violin, dedicated to the Queen, date from this period, the title of which explicitly states the keyboard instrument first (not the other way around).
  15. ^ Theodore Baker, Nicolas Slonimsky: Couperin, Francois, surnamed le Grand . In: Baker's biographical dictionary of musicians . G. Schirmer, New York 1958, p. 325 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  16. ↑ Deviating from this: in the article by the Sophie Drinker Institute Benedictine Monastery.
  17. ^ Couperin, Marie-Madeleine. Sophie Drinker Institute, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  18. ↑ Please scroll down.
  19. ↑ On display today at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City . Marguerite-Antoinette Couperin
personal data
SURNAME Couperin, Marguerite-Antoinette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French harpsichordist, court musician to the King of France
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1705
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH around 1778
Place of death uncertain: Versailles , France