During the reign of Le Roi Soleil Louis XIV, music played the fundamental role of defining and consolidating the centrality of power: music had to represent the grandeur and divine nature of the sovereign, the power and splendour of the French crown.
Instead, one can start the ‘siècle des lumières’ [century of enlightenment] already with the accession to the throne of Louis XV in 1715. Of an introverted nature, little interested in political matters, dedicated to pleasures and amusements, Le Soleil Noir found himself in the hands of a kingdom that was moving in an increasingly opposite direction: the city of Paris became in the 18th century the gravitational centre of France for the presence of the nobility, intellectuals and the emerging bourgeoisie. Musicians preferred to live in Paris rather than in Versailles, where they were not paid as well as before. The sumptuousness of the Baroque thus changed into the elegance and sinuosity of the Rococo in all the arts.
In harpsichord music, too, we see the gradual and slow replacement of the dance forms of the classical suite (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Gigue) with miniatures of a descriptive nature, especially thanks to the impetus given by François Couperin in his four books of ordres, which triggered a proliferation of harpsichord music in the 18th century, with composers such as Rameau, Royer, Duphly and many others.
This is the cultural and musical context of François D’Agincour. Born in Rouen in 1684, he studied in his home town until the age of 17 with Notre-Dame organist Jacque Boyvin. Appreciated and very prominent, in 1714 he became one of the four organists of the Chapelle royal at Versailles, replacing Louis Marchand. He enjoyed such an excellent reputation as both organist and harpsichordist that he was mentioned in chronicles along with Couperin, Mouret and Rameau.
The only printed collection published by him in 1733 and dedicated to Louis XV’s consort Maria Leszczyńska contains 4 ordres for harpsichord, in the keys of D minor, F major, D major and E major, inspired by the descriptive nature of the titles and compositional style by those of François Couperin, who died in the same year. In the preface to the collection, the author emphasises the fitting tribute to Couperin with regard to his codification of the performance and ornamental style. The descriptive titles oft he pieces refer to single portraits (e.g. L’Empressée, La Pressante Angélique), double portraits (Les deux Cousines, La Villerey ou les deux Soeurs), natural scenes (Le moulin à vent, Les violettes fleuries), genre scenes (Les dances Provençales, Le Colin Maillard), places (La Bléville, La Sonning). The Allemande La Couperin that opens the fourth ordre is a clear allusion to La Françoise’s Gracieusement from Les Nations, but also for instance La Villerey ou les deux Soeurs recalls Le rossignol en amour and L’Enjouée from François Couperin’s Troisième Livre de pièces de Clavecin. In the preface, D’Agincour points out that the penultimate piece in the collection, La moderne, is written in a different style, involving crossings between the two hands and keyboard changes.
Marco Borghetto studied harpsichord and organ with Stefano Molardi at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. He currently studies Orgel with Suzanne Z’Graggen at the Hochschule Lucerne.
He won First Prize overallcategory F at the Wanda Landowska Harpsichord Competition 2023 and received the Special Jury Prize at the Gianni Gambi Harpsichord Competition 2024.
