Pièces de clavecin: Troisième livre: Ordre No. 18 in F Major

Couperin’s 18th Ordre (suite), published in his third book of 1722, contrasts six movements: three each in F minor and major. The serious opening “Allemande La Verneüil” would do Bach proud, and is followed by a portrayal of the dedicatee’s daughter, who’s a lot lighter on her feet. Next, we meet “Sister Monique” who could either be a nun or a lady of easy virtue—Couperin isn’t telling—but “The Turbulent One” who follows seems very passionate. “Le tic-toc-choc, ou les maillotins”, one of Couperin’s best-known keyboard pieces, is a showy “pièce croisée” where both hands play in the same place on the keyboard—which works best on a two-keyboard harpsichord. The “maillotins” of the title were an exotic family of rope dancers, whose antics we glimpse between the repetitions of the opening theme (a rondeau) and in the final finger-twisting coda. Finally, a piece in the “burlesque style” where fistfuls of fast ornaments are used for a comic portrait of “The Limping Fellow”.