Pierre Février

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

Biography
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.

Works
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