I’ve known for years that Bach knew about Couperin’s music. There is a piece by Couperin in the Anna Magdalena Book, but apparently it has been copied into this home collection in an unidentified hand. Bach was familiar with the French style and copied music of composers, De Grigny, Lully, Marchand, and Marais. Setting aside the question of whether Bach applied French interpretation to his works, it is easy to see the influence of the French Classical school on many pages of Bach’s works.

Yesterday, while buy diazepam tablets continuing to play my way through François Couperin’s “Ordres” for Harpsichord, I ran across a reference to the fact that the two men exchanged letters which are now lost. Philippe Beaussant goes on to point out the similarity of two of Couperin’s late works to specific Bach compositions.

I have been playing Bach’s Italian Concerto as I mentioned yesterday. So it was quite a surprise to see the opening measures to it practically duplicated in Couperin’s La Misterieuse in his 25th Ordre.

See for yourself:

Bach:

Couperin: