Louis Couperin Unmeasured Prelude in G

This very short prelude from mid-17th century France is written without note values or bar lines. In this video I play it on two instruments- an italian harpsichord by Colin Booth, and my English spinet of 1712. The spinet is of course single strung and for this recording is in ordinaire. I think it suits the music quite well.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• classical
• harpsichord
• spinet
• Couperin
• ordinaire
• prelude
• unmeasured

[kacharov]

Beautiful music! 5*****for you! I love harpsichord early music

[clementmatchett]

Thank you - yes, the music of Louis Couperin is exceptionally beautiful and insufficiently widely known - I much prefer to play it than the beeter known pieces of his nephew, Francois. But these unmeasured preludes are something special

[clementmatchett]

Well, Thank You very much!

[clementmatchett]

Thanks. My Colin Booth is lovely - it is 'after' the Bertarini of 1577 in the Musee Bardini in Florence, but very much 'after' - a wider compass and no pretence really even of being an inner/outer instrument as I think the original must be. Colin tells me he has made about 30 of these now! Best wishes and thanks for you interest.

[couperinette]

Bravo. this kind of (difficult!)prelude non mesuré is an excellent choice to compare two instrument's sounds . I too admire your italian harpsichord. Playing Louis Couperin in mesotonic accord or not is a great subject... no doubt that it creates a very special "ambiance" (wouh, the fa# and do# here!). Excuses for the bad english.

[clementmatchett]

Thank you for your kind comments. You are right of course - I hadn't tried playing Louis Couperin in meantone before and perhaps I should try the whole thing again with my historic spinet in meantone and my Italian harpsichord in ordinaire? F sharp and D sharp are particularly difficult on the spinet-many of the sharps give a poor tone because of the balance ratio of the keys.

Your English is fine. English people are used to English-as-a-second-language correspondence.

[kacharov]

Yes, indeed, thank you very much for sharing the music of Louis Couperin, and thank you for giving us the chance to hear such beautiful music!

[poetlaureatte94]

i can not wait to read your dissertation upon spinets. i am an amateur organologist myself( i am only 14) yet one day i aspire to make everything in the viol family, as well as flutes, clavichords, harpsichords, and spinets, and to collect rare instruments. your playing was wondrous!!!!

[ravichandra70]

Beautiful!! And a very cool idea of presenting the same piece twice...gives the listener a direct comparison for the differences in the temperaments and the instruments. Your Colin Booth Italian, is it modeled after a single surviving instrument or "in the school of" a certain period of Italian building practice? In any case it is a lovely instrument!!

[clementmatchett]

Thanks Ernst, yes my Italian, which is by Colin Booth, is a gem and a great boon to a novice player.