Louis Couperin: Unmeasured Preludes
Johannes Maria Bogner (harpsichord) (Fra Bernardo)
(scroll down for English review)
這位路易庫普蘭（1626-1661）並非別稱「偉大」庫普蘭的法蘭索瓦庫普蘭，而是法蘭索瓦的伯父。路易比巴哈早兩代，留下不少古鍵琴作品，不過它們的後世聲名遠不如法蘭索瓦。
所謂的「無小節前奏曲」或「無節奏前奏曲」採用一種特別記譜法，音符沒有長度，一律用全音符表示，但有音高以及次序，演奏者毋須拘泥於音符長度，只須彈出指定的音高，以及順着次序就夠。所以這種前奏曲感覺不同舞曲的節奏跳動，而是有相當自由度。話雖如此，又不是真的讓人這個音符彈十秒，下一個音符彈夠半分鐘那種自由。
不過「無節奏前奏曲」這種曲式在18世紀便被淘汰，就算在法國，連法蘭索瓦都不想寫這種前奏曲了，然而即興的精神仍然殘存於前奏曲這個曲式之中，以巴哈為例，我覺得其實不是《平均律》的前奏曲最受影響，而是大提琴組曲的那些，我相信認識一下「無節奏前奏曲」這種曲式，比聽大提琴家ABCDEFG更能揣摩大提琴組曲中的前奏曲。
至於路易庫普蘭這些無節奏前奏曲，其實並不是用來連續聆聽，而是聽一首前奏曲、然後就是各式各樣的舞曲。換言而之，一次過聽這麼多首無節奏前奏曲實很單調。不過這位演奏者選擇一次過彈這麼多首，令我有機會去介紹這種特殊曲式，因為我對它在18世紀被淘汰是覺得可惜，巴哈、庫普蘭雖好，但這些前奏曲的自由，我有時會覺得是更有味道的巴洛克音樂。
最後一曲（軌19）不是前奏曲，而是《巴蘭高昔之墓》，當時法國音樂界喜以音樂悼念故人，法國古鍵琴曲目中有不少這種XX之墓，後來拉威爾《庫普蘭之墓》就是向這種傳統致敬。
Louis Couperin was the uncle of the “Great” Couperin, François. Louis also left a substantial body of music for harpsichord, out of which Bogner selected the unmeasured preludes and presented them as a whole on this album.
These preludes were notated in a way that only the pitches were given, instead of note values all notes were written as whole notes. The performer simply has to play the notes in sequence. But such a special form was dropped in the early 18th century, even François didn’t want to write them. Yet the improvisatory nature of it could still be felt in preludes of Bach, including the Cello Suites.
As these unmeasured preludes were usually played one at a time, as the beginning of a suite of dances, listening to an album of preludes definitely sounded too same-ish. Still I took this occasion to introduce the form of unmeasured prelude because of their archaic flavour that was lost when the golden age of Baroque arrived.
The final track (track 19), Tombeau de Blancrocher, isn’t an unmeasured prelude, but a very popular form for French harpsichord composers to remember a dead person, quite usually a music colleague. Ravel revived the form in his celebrated Tombeau de Couperin.