The Bauyn manuscript is a

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

in possession of the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(catalogue number Rés. Vm7 674–675). It is, along with several printed collections and the Parville manuscript, one of the most important sources for French

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

music of the 17th century. The Bauyn manuscript was created somewhere around 1690, when the only published harpsichord pieces were those by

Jacques Champion de Chambonnières Jacques Champion de Chambonnières (Jacques Champion, commonly referred to as Chambonnières) (c. 1601/2 – 1672) was a French harpsichordist, dancer and composer. Born into a musical family, Chambonnières made an illustrious career as court harp ...

Nicolas Lebègue Nicolas-Antoine Lebègue (also ''Le Bègue''; c. 16316 July 1702) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born in Laon and in the 1650s settled in Paris, quickly establishing himself as one of the best organists of the c ...

and perhaps, depending on the exact date,

Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Empress Elisabeth (disambiguation), lists various empresses named ''Elisabeth'' or ''Elizabeth'' * Princess Elizabeth ...

(1687) and Jean-Henri d'Anglebert (1689). The name comes from the Bauyn d'Angervilliers family, who once possessed the manuscript. The manuscript is in upright format; the pieces are grouped according to their genre, not in suites; some are organized by key. Included are almost all known harpsichord pieces by

Louis Couperin Louis Couperin (; – 29 August 1661) was a French Baroque composer and performer. He was born in Chaumes-en-Brie and moved to Paris in 1650–1651 with the help of Jacques Champion de Chambonnières. Couperin worked as organist of the ...

and Chambonnières, with more than 142 pieces by Chambonnières and more than 20 pieces by

Johann Jakob Froberger Johann Jakob Froberger ( baptized 19 May 1616 – 7 May 1667) was a German Baroque composer, keyboard virtuoso, and organist. Among the most famous composers of the era, he was influential in developing the musical form of the suite of dance ...

and music by several other composers, including

Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre Joseph Chabanceau de La Barre (21 May 1633, in Paris – 6 May 1678, in Paris) was a French composer, notably of the ''air de cour.''Catherine Gordon-Seifert ''Music and the Language of Love: Seventeenth-Century French Airs'' He was son of Pi ...

Jacques Hardel Jacques Hardel (died March 1678) was a French composer and harpsichordist. He came from a family that included two noted instrument makers: his grandfather Gilles Hardel (fl. ca. 1611) and his father Guillaume Hardel (died 1676), who was a lute m ...

Étienne Richard Étienne Richard (c. 1621 – 1669) was a French composer, organist and harpsichordist. Very little is known about his life and work. He was born in Paris and came from a family of organists; apparently he lived and worked in Paris all his life. ...

and

Girolamo Frescobaldi Girolamo Alessandro Frescobaldi (; also Gerolamo, Girolimo, and Geronimo Alissandro; September 15831 March 1643) was an Italian composer and virtuoso keyboard player. Born in the Duchy of Ferrara, he was one of the most important composers of ke ...

. Most important of all the pieces are the 122 works by Louis Couperin, who was one of the most important European composers of the time and who never published any of his works; the Bauyn manuscript is a principal source for his harpsichord oeuvre.

External Links

Bauyn Manuscript The Bauyn manuscript is a manuscript in possession of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris (catalogue number Rés. Vm7 674–675). It is, along with several printed collections and the Parville manuscript, one of the most important so ...

facsimile and selections in the

International Music Score Library Project The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a subscription-based digital library of public-domain music scores. The project uses MediaWiki software, and ...

References

* {{Baroque music manuscript sources Baroque music manuscript sources

See also

External Links

References