Tune of the Day: Le rossignol en amour
François Couperin was a French composer, organist and harpsichordist of the Baroque period. He was known as Couperin le Grand (“Couperin the Great”) to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.
Couperin's harpsichord music is the dominant portion of his output, and one of the most impressive keyboard legacies in Western music. The individual pieces are grouped into 27 ordres, a term Couperin coined, apparently to distinguish them from the older suites. “Le rossignol en amour” (literally, “The Nightingale in Love”) is taken from the XIV ordre, and is an excellent piece to play on the flute, as the Composer himself wrote:
It is not necessary to adhere too precisely to the beat in the Double above; one must sacrifice everything to appropriate expression, to the clean execution of the passagework, and to softening the accents marked by the mordents. This “Rossignol” can be performed with the greatest possible success on the flute, when it is well played.