François Couperin and ‘The Perfection of Music’. By David Tunley, pp. viii + 167. (Ashgate, Aldershot and Burlington, Vt., 2004, £45. ISBN 0-7546-0928-6).

Abstract

From the 1690s the wave of Italian influence stemming from the new sonata, concerto, and cantata idioms manifested itself in France in technical virtuosity of a kind not previously seen in French music, as well as in an extension of harmonic vocabulary and new musical forms. While the ‘opposite’ natures of the French and Italian styles were the subject of partisan exchanges on the part of musical amateurs, Couperin was chief among the numerous French composers who saw at once that the combining of the styles held great promise. Indeed, in the preface to the ‘Essai en forme d’Ouverture’ that concludes L’Apothéose de Lully the composer represents Apollo convincing Lully and Corelli that the union of the French and Italian styles ‘must result in musical perfection [doit faire la perfection de la Musique]’. David Tunley’s new book, whose title echoes Couperin’s construct, focuses on the composer’s explorations of the two styles. As the author claims, it is ‘both a second edition and a new publication’ (p. vii). A welcome update of the author’s 1982 survey of Couperin’s work published in the BBC Music Guides series, the book amplifies the original text with new background information, and a wider range of music is discussed. Tunley’s lively summaries of Couperin research in the intervening decades open for the average reader a window onto issues of primary source study.