Pierre Février

Pierre Février (1696–1760) was a French baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist.

Février lived in Paris and served as titular organist of two churches in the Saint-Honoré street: the Jacobins' church and the Saint Roch. Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, who moved to Paris in 1750, was among his pupils and succeeded Février at Saint Roch.

He composed two volumes of harpsichord pieces. The first one is dated 1734 and contains five suites:

• Suite in A major
  • Allemande la Magnanime
  • Le Concert des Dieux - Double du concert
  • La Délectable
  • Le Berceau
  • La Boufonne ou la Paysanne
• Suite in D minor
  • Fugue
  • Courante
  • Les Plaisirs des Sens
  • Le Labyrinthe
  • Ariette et doubles
• Suite in B minor
  • Fugue
  • L'Intrépide
  • La Grotesque
• Suite in D major
  • Gavotte et doubles
  • Le Brinborion
  • Le Tendre Langage
  • Tambourin
• Suite (Festes de Campagne) in C major
  • Entrée
  • Musette
  • 2 Menuets
  • Le Gros Colas et la Grosse Jeanne
  • Les Petites Bergères

The second volume, composed after 1734 and before 1737, has been discovered in the late 1990s in a private collection in Belgium (Arenberg). It contains two harpsichord suites that follow a similar pattern, mixing dances and descriptive pièces de caractère in the typical late Baroque French tradition:

• 1st Suite in G Minor
  • Les Liens Harmoniques - Rondeau
  • La Caressante - Rondeau
  • La Fertillante
  • La petite Coquette
  • Tambourin - Rondeau

• 2nd Suite in C Minor
  • Allemande
  • Les Tendres Tourterelles - Rondeau
  • Les Croisades - Rondeau
  • Menuet

See also

• French baroque harpsichordists

External links

• La Sala del Cembalo del caro Sassone Pieces de clavecin, premiere livre, 1734. The World Premiere Recording of the first book, as recorded by the harpsichordist Fernando De Luca (Rome, December 2008), is freely available in streaming on this non-profit website devoted to the ancient music and harpsichord baroque music