Pierre Février

Pierre Février (21 March 1696 – 5 November 1760) was a French baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist.

Born in Abbeville in 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

• French baroque harpsichordists

• Free scores by Pierre Février at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• La Sala del Cembalo del caro Sassone Pièces de clavecin, Premier livre, 1734. The World Premiere Recording of the first book, as recorded by the harpsichordist Fernando De Luca (Rome, December 2008), is freely available in streaming on this non-profit website devoted to the ancient music and harpsichord baroque music.
• Vulcain dupé par l'amour, a cantatille available on the BnF website.