18 Selected Pieces: Conductor Score & Parts

These selections distill the essence of Couperin's keyboard writing into a manageable collection, offering pianists genuine encounters with French Baroque style without requiring extensive harpsichord knowledge. The variety across the eighteen pieces means you can program them strategically throughout a season or find individual movements that fit different recital needs. What makes this edition particularly valuable is its presentation in a format that respects both the historical context and the modern piano player's reality.

These pieces balance refinement with genuine emotional depth, moving between moments of tender lyricism and spirited dance rhythms with characteristic French grace. The music inhabits a world of courtly elegance and intimate expression, where technical display serves the music's character rather than overwhelming it. Each piece feels crafted for a particular moment or mood, yet together they create a compelling portrait of a master keyboard composer at the height of his craft.

Pianists working toward intermediate and advanced repertoire will find rich material here for both recital preparation and stylistic growth. Teachers seeking curated selections of authentic Baroque keyboard music will appreciate having a dependable collection that avoids both oversimplification and excessive scholarly apparatus. Students developing their sense of Baroque phrasing and ornamentation will discover how much expressive content lives within the elegant constraints of Couperin's formal language.

• Approach ornamentation as speech rather than decoration; each embellishment shapes the melodic line and should flow naturally from the main note
• Maintain clarity between hand parts by distinguishing touch and tone color; the delicate counterpoint requires transparent texture to sing
• Shape phrases in longer arcs across multiple measures rather than stopping at obvious cadence points; this sustains the elegant momentum Couperin intended
• Adapt your damper pedal use conservatively to the piece's harmonic rhythm; French Baroque harmony often benefits from less sustain than Romantic music demands

Feature individual selections on baroque-focused recitals or period instrument surveys to anchor the French keyboard tradition alongside works by Scarlatti, Bach, or Handel. Scatter contrasting pieces across a season's student recitals to introduce pianists systematically to early keyboard style in performance contexts. Include selections in studio compilations designed to build historical repertoire awareness, or program a complete group of movements for pianists preparing comprehensive keyboard surveys.

• Baroque ornamentation practices and their execution on modern piano
• French Baroque phrasing conventions and phrase architecture across multiple measures
• Voicing independence between treble and bass lines in keyboard counterpoint
• Stylistically informed pedal use in pre-Romantic keyboard music
• Dance forms and their characteristic rhythmic profiles (minuet, rondeau, gigue)
• Harpsichord idioms adapted for modern piano technique and sonority