Pierre Février

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

Born at Abbeville on 21 March 1696, he arrived in Paris in 1720 and served as titular organist of two churches on Saint-Honoré street: the Jacobins' church (destroyed at the Revolution) and Saint-Roch (still standing). Claude-Bénigne Balbastre, who moved to Paris in 1750, was among his pupils and eventually succeeded Février at Saint-Roch. Pierre Février died in Paris on 5 November 1760.

Two volumes of his harpsichord pieces are extant. 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 Language
    • 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, was 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
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