Uploaded June 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Support the channel at patreon.com/johnmoraitis
Thank you for your support!
François Couperin: 26e Ordre – La Sophie. John Moraitis, harpsichord.
Harpsichord by Martine Argellies (Montpellier, 2012), after Dulcken.
Temperament: Rameau. A=415 Hz.
When French Baroque composers decide to explore the key of F-sharp minor, they always seem to have something exquisitely poignant in mind. François Couperin's 26th Ordre is no exception. It consists of five highly individualistic pieces, whose predominantly somber, reflective mood is only slightly lit up in the final piece (which, however, never strays too far away from the other four in terms of expressive content).
Mirroring the Ordre as a whole, this movement is something special. Essentially it is a two-part fantasia with a contradictory nature: on the one hand, individual phrases are laid out in an orderly, even academic, fashion; on the other hand, the expressive relationship of the individual phrases to one another is tenuous at best. This results in a piece that is full of unexpected twists and turns—a true fantasia, perhaps, but one that is also undercut by the logically-organized texture and motives of the phrases themselves. A perfect illustration of Couperin's observation that he may have called his works Orders, but could have also called them Disorders just as accurately :)
Support the channel at patreon.com/johnmoraitis
Thank you for your support!
François Couperin: 26e Ordre – La Sophie. John Moraitis, harpsichord.
Harpsichord by Martine Argellies (Montpellier, 2012), after Dulcken.
Temperament: Rameau. A=415 Hz.
When French Baroque composers decide to explore the key of F-sharp minor, they always seem to have something exquisitely poignant in mind. François Couperin's 26th Ordre is no exception. It consists of five highly individualistic pieces, whose predominantly somber, reflective mood is only slightly lit up in the final piece (which, however, never strays too far away from the other four in terms of expressive content).
Mirroring the Ordre as a whole, this movement is something special. Essentially it is a two-part fantasia with a contradictory nature: on the one hand, individual phrases are laid out in an orderly, even academic, fashion; on the other hand, the expressive relationship of the individual phrases to one another is tenuous at best. This results in a piece that is full of unexpected twists and turns—a true fantasia, perhaps, but one that is also undercut by the logically-organized texture and motives of the phrases themselves. A perfect illustration of Couperin's observation that he may have called his works Orders, but could have also called them Disorders just as accurately :)
