François d'Agincourt (also d'Agincour, Dagincourt, Dagincour) (1684 – 30 April 1758) was a French harpsichordist,

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

, and composer. He spent most of his life in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...

, his native city, where he worked as organist of the

Rouen Cathedral Rouen Cathedral () is a Catholic church architecture, church in Rouen, Normandy, France. It is the Episcopal see, see of the Archbishop of Rouen, Primate of Normandy. It is famous for its three towers, each in a different style. The cathedral, b ...

and of three smaller churches. Highly regarded during his lifetime, d'Agincourt was one of the organists of the royal chapel. The single surviving book of

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 by him contains masterful pieces inspired by

François Couperin François Couperin (; 10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque music, Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as ''Couperin le Grand'' ("Couperin the Great") to distinguish him from other members of the musi ...

; also extant are some 40 organ works that survive in manuscript copies.

Biography

D'Agincourt was born in

and received his early musical training there. He soon left for Paris where he probably studied under Nicolas Lebègue. Between 1701 and 1706 he worked as organist of Sainte-Madeleine-en-la-Cité in Paris, and in 1706 he went back to Rouen and became organist of the

, succeeding Jacques Boyvin. He kept the post until his death some 52 years later. Later he also took jobs at St. Herbland, the Abbey of Saint-Ouen (he would hold both of these until his death as well), and at St. Jean, all in Rouen. By 1714 he was sufficiently well-known and respected to be appointed one of the four organists of the royal chapel. Jacques Duphly studied with d'Agincourt about 1730–31, but his surviving works do not show any considerable influence of his teacher's style. D'Agincourt only published a single collection of his music, ''1er livre de clavecin'' (Paris, 1733). It contains 43 pieces for harpsichord, clearly influenced by

: the pieces are organized into ''ordres'', make good use of ornamentation, and many are character pieces: genre scenes, portraits (sometimes double portraits), etc. D'Agincourt's organ music, which survives in a manuscript copy made by the renegade French priest and scientist Alexandre Guy Pingré. The manuscript, now conserved in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, consists of 46 pieces for liturgical use. They are more progressive than Couperin's organ works, with frequent use of elements of the '' style galant''. The pieces are organized according to mode, as is usual in French organ music, but for unknown reasons d'Agincourt omits the third mode altogether. Suites in the first three modes (i.e., 1, 2, and 4) are less developed than the remaining ones. Apart from keyboard pieces, only three songs for soloist and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

are known, published in the anthology ''Recueil d'airs sérieux et à boire'' in 1713 and 1716. A portrait of one Barthélemy-Jean-Claude Pupil is frequently misidentified as a portrait of d'Agincourt.

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Audio files

"Suite du 2e ton" (organ)
''plein jeu''''récit de nasard''''duo''''concert de flûtes''''trio''''grand jeu''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Agincourt, Francois d 1684 births 1758 deaths Musicians from Rouen French classical organists French cathedral organists French male classical composers French Baroque composers Composers for harpsichord French harpsichordists 18th-century French classical composers 18th-century French male musicians 17th-century French male musicians French male classical organists

Biography

See also

References

External links

Audio files