Coriphé et Choeur

Gervais-François Couperin was the last member of the Couperin Family to hold the post of organist of Saint-Gervais-Saint-Protais, a post first held by his great-grand uncle Louis Couperin from 1653. He left a number of organ works that exemplify the French Postcalssical style of organ music, much like that of the Beauvarlet-Charpentiers, Balbastre, Nicolas Séjan and etc. These works went unpublished during his lifetime, and due to the much abbreviated and sometimes unfinished notation, were probably never meant to be published. He died in 1826, and his daughter Céleste-Thérèse Couperin, also an organist, died childless and in poverty in 1860, putting a definite end to the Couperin Dynasty.

"Coriphé et Choeur" refers to the "chorus" who are lead by the "Coryphaeus" as seen in the ancient Attic tragedies, comedies and satyrs.