Description

• Composer: Étienne Richard (1621-1669)
• Editor: Bruce Gustafson
• Format: Critical Edition
• Instrumentation: Keyboard
• Binding:
• ISMN: 9790300576305
• Size: 9.2 x 12.2 inches
• Pages: 72
• Urtext / Critical Edition

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Description

The fourteen surviving keyboard pieces attributed to “Richard” are among the most intriguing examples of mid-seventeenth-century French keyboard music. Although it is not certain whether they all stem from a single composer, modern scholarship generally associates them with Étienne Richard, a prominent Parisian organist and harpsichordist who served at court and taught the young Louis XIV. These works include expansive preludes related to the toccata tradition of Froberger as well as a variety of dance movements—allemandes, courantes, and gigues—showing both lyrical invention and crisp motivic play. Together they offer a vivid glimpse of Parisian style at a moment of transition in French keyboard music.

Published as part of The Art of the Keyboard, a series of critical editions designed for performers and students of early keyboard music, the volume combines rigorous editorial standards with clarity and readability, making Richard’s long-overlooked works newly accessible today.