NEW UPLOAD: FRANCOIS COUPERIN: LES BARICADES MISTERIEUSES

I have recorded my current interpretation of Couperin’s enigmatic Baricades. (This changes with the tides, and is effectively different every time it is performed.) I believe that the piece may have been intended as (among other things) a sort of étude in lyricism and gentle rubato, as manifest on a contemporaneous instrument lacking touch-sensitivity. Through experimentation I have been led to believe that the piece’s compositional intent is enriched by the player’s ability to gently voice and prioritise certain lyrical fragments found within its structure. (I originally intended to highlight these on the score that accompanies the work, but later decided to leave this alone, not wanting to coerce the listener’s reception.)

Les baricades mistérieuses comes with its own mythology, which you may begin to delve into through its own Wikipedia page, as well as this article.

My goal with this short project was to present an interpretation which succeeded in discovering, but never exceeding, the various expressive limits contained within the piece’s celebrated microcosm. I hope, at the very least, that you are haunted - if not by the interpretation, then at least by the composition itself, and perhaps also the sense of the occult that has grown around it.