Dale Carr | Suite in F major : Allemande grave, by Louis Couperin performed by Dale Carr on 25 April, 1987 @dalecarr6361 | Uploaded May 2024 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Suite in F major : Allemande grave, by Louis Couperin {~1626-1661}, performed by Dale Carr in the church in Middelbert {Groningen} on 25 April, 1987, on a harpsichord made by Hendrik Broekman in 1975
This is the only one of Louis Couperin's Allemandes with the description 'grave' in the title. {An allemande in a minor has the addition 'L'Aimable'}. But in character it seems no more 'grave' than his other allemandes. I think the description 'grave' in this case is intended to distinguish it from similar dances of a previous generation, which were rather faster and written in eighth-notes rather than sixteenths.
Another aspect that distinguishes this piece from others by Couperin is the fact that the interior cadence is not on the usual dominant, which would be C major here, but on the dominant of the relative minor, i.e. A major, expressed in more modern terms than the composer would have used. This interior cadence is however reached by way of the dominant, and the 2nd ½ returns to the tonic also by way of the dominant.
The harpsichord was tuned to a=~415Hz, in meantone. The plectra were crow quills.
Suite in F major : Allemande grave, by Louis Couperin {~1626-1661}, performed by Dale Carr in the church in Middelbert {Groningen} on 25 April, 1987, on a harpsichord made by Hendrik Broekman in 1975
This is the only one of Louis Couperin's Allemandes with the description 'grave' in the title. {An allemande in a minor has the addition 'L'Aimable'}. But in character it seems no more 'grave' than his other allemandes. I think the description 'grave' in this case is intended to distinguish it from similar dances of a previous generation, which were rather faster and written in eighth-notes rather than sixteenths.
Another aspect that distinguishes this piece from others by Couperin is the fact that the interior cadence is not on the usual dominant, which would be C major here, but on the dominant of the relative minor, i.e. A major, expressed in more modern terms than the composer would have used. This interior cadence is however reached by way of the dominant, and the 2nd ½ returns to the tonic also by way of the dominant.
The harpsichord was tuned to a=~415Hz, in meantone. The plectra were crow quills.