There are two major purposes in selecting Couperin's programmatic clavecin pieces for study; to prove their importance in the evolution of programmatic music and to prove the value of their study by the modern pianist. Due to the enormous number of Couperin's programmatic pieces, a detailed analysis of each piece will not be attempted in this paper. Instead, a general survey will be made.

This dissertation considers Gervais-François Couperin (1759-1826) and his offertories, providing a performance guide relevant to French organ literature of the beginning of the nineteenth century. To fulfill this purpose, the research is divided into five chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 1 is an introduction explaining the purpose of the research and significance of the research. Chapter 2 presents the Couperin Dynasty and their lineage at Saint-Gervais, as well as the evolution of the musical market in the middle of the eighteenth century in Paris, which influenced Gervais-François Couperin's Offertories. Chapter 3 to Chapter 6 present the performance guide to playing Gervais-François Couperin's offertories: Chapter 3 focuses on the significant development of the French organ building in the 1800s and the registration of Grand-Jeu. Chapter 4 deals with the addition of the pedal, and Chapter 5 focuses on embellishment using tremendo (tremolo) and arpegio (arpeggio). Lastly, Chapter 6 offers a guide for adding manual indications where the score did not include them or in places where ambiguities remained. Synthesizing these elements, a newly edited full score of Gervais-François Couperin's Offertory in G Minor is provided in Chapter 7 to exemplify this dissertation's conclusion.

François Couperin (1668-1733) was one of the earliest French Baroque composers to merge the Italian style into the French tradition. He had great influence on the development of French Baroque music from the end of the seventeenth century until his death. Couperin's four Concerts Royaux and the ten Concerts Nouveaux (published in 1722 and 1724) were written for the enjoyment of Louis XIV. Those suites were popular in the court before they were published, as they were requested to be performed every Sunday during the years 1714 and 1715 to give pleasure to the king. Rittrato dell'amore is the ninth suite out of the fourteen suites. The purpose of this study is to provide a performance guide and a practical edition of François Couperin's Neuvième Concert Ritratto dell' amore. It also contrasts Italian style and French tradition in the Baroque period, and how Couperin blended both styles together in his Neuvième Concert. In addition, this dissertation summarizes the general principles of Baroque performance practice that one may encounter in Neuviéme Concert, including notes inégales (unequal notes), ornamentation, over-dotting, and other issues. It is especially important for one to understand the performance style of French Baroque music in order to perform these works appropriately, since its notation did not adequately notate rhythmic expectations as traditionally understood and the realization of ornamentations in this period and style is highly specific. The tradition was indeed lost in terms of aural transfer and has been reconstructed through published scholarly work in the last century that is based on treatises of the time. Ongoing scholarly and artistic work should bring us ever closer to the ideals of the period.