Louis Couperin

Louis Couperin 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 Church of St. Gervais in Paris and as musician at the court. He quickly became one of the most prominent Parisian musicians, establishing himself as a harpsichordist, organist, and violist, but his career was cut short by his early death at the age of thirty-five.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Louis Couperin.

From the period sources

Louis Couperin, the eldest of three musical brothers from Chaume in Brie, was born in 1630 and became eminent for his organ performance, securing the post of organist of the king’s chapel, according to A General History of the Science and Practice of Music (1875). He also served as organist of St.-Gervais, Paris, a position his younger brother Charles would later succeed him in after his death in 1665 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). Louis XIII created for him the special post of “Dessus-de-viole” (violinist) in his music, in reward of his merit (A General History, 1875; Biographie universelle des musiciens, Vol. 3, 1837). He left behind three suites of harpsichord pieces in manuscript, which, by 1875, were “to be found only in the collections of the curious” (A General History, 1875).