François Couperin (1668-1733) and others - photo 1
François Couperin (1668-1733) and others - photo 2
François Couperin (1668-1733) and others - photo 3
François Couperin (1668-1733) and others - photo 4
François Couperin (1668-1733) and others - photo 5

François Couperin (1668-1733) and others

Lot 79
08.11.2023 11:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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£ 1 386
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1053193
Lot 79 | François Couperin (1668-1733) and others
Estimate value
£ 1 000 – 1 500
François Couperin (1668-1733) and others
Manuscript transcription of music for flute, n.p. [France and England], n.d. [first half 18th century]
An unusual compilation of French Baroque music for solo and duo traverse flute, apparently related to another manuscript of Couperin's work in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

89 works written in an 18th-century French hand on up to six staves per page; 10 further pieces added at the end in several English hands, one in print. c.152 pages, 192 x 252mm, paper ruled with six staves per page, title (‘Pieces de Mr. Couperin pour la flute traversiere’) and text in French, later additions in English. Early 18th-century binding of green vellum.

Provenance:
(1) Bernard Quaritch, cat.1390 (2009); acquired in 2009 by:

(2) Schøyen Collection, MS 5435.

Content: François Couperin. 25 pieces for harpsichord, including La Nanette, La Fleurie, La Milordisse and La Voluptueuse, transcribed for flute; along with further works by Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, Marin Marais, Louis Marchand and others, arranged for flute; the later additions comprise works by John Weldon (‘The Wakeful Nightingale’), Arcangelo Corelli (a Giga from the Violin sonata in G minor, Op.5), and others.

Although it was not uncommon in 18th-century France to transcribe or arrange works for another instrument, the present manuscript is unusual for containing transcriptions for flute of harpsichord pieces. It opens with transcriptions of 25 pieces by Couperin, taken from his first two collections of harpsichord music, which appeared in 1713 and 1717 respectively. In each case only the right hand of the harpsichord piece has been transcribed. The only known printed source of a further transcribed Couperin piece, a Sicilienne, is a collection of harpsichord pieces published by Robert Ballard in 1707 as Pièces choisies pour le clavecin. Although the composers are not identified by name in Ballard’s edition, they have since been identified from other sources, and other pieces in the present manuscript can be identified with works by, or derived from, Louis de Caix d'Hervelois, Marin Marais and Louis Marchand. The remaining solo pieces have not been identified.

The manuscript bears comparison with another in the Bibliothèque Nationale (MS. F-Pc Rés. F. 1059) containing arrangements, for two flutes, of works by Couperin and others: at least 16 of the Couperin pieces transcribed here have also been used for arrangements in the Paris manuscript and, as in the present collection, only pieces from the first two of Couperin’s published books of harpsichord works have been used. Moreover, Ballard’s 1707 publication seems also to have been a source for several of the remaining pieces in the Paris manuscript. The manuscript was clearly in England by an early date: at the end are further pieces added in English hands, among them ‘A song sett by Mr John Weld[on]’.
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