Robert Peters:

>I love this piece by Couperin. But I am puzzled by its name. Can anyone
>enlighten me?

   "The 'mysterious' part of the title we can comprehend - what are
   les barricades?.  We will never really know what Couperin had
   in mind or whether, two centuries befor Satie, he was making fun
   of the world - and this in a piece already laden with contradictions.
   In contrast to the twitterings of Le Gazouillement, this solemn
   piece is concentrated in the register that subdues the characteristic
   metallic brilliance of the harpsichord while accentuating its
   profound and serious nature, its expansive, tender quality.  This
   range in often used on Couperin's pieces [...]; one searches in
   vain among the works of his contemporaries for a similar display
   of a uniformly low-pitched tone colour. The lute style, rarely
   employed so systematically, allows the polyphony to project.
   There are four voices, without a single note sounding at the
   same time as another - creating a liquified polyphony that
   dissolves and spreads out like a smooth, viscous batter."

Philippe Beaussant, Francios Couperin, Amadeus Press 1990

Dave Hardman, Canberra, Australia