Bernard de Bury
Who is Bernard de Bury?
Bernard de Bury (1720-1785) was a French musician, harpsichordist, and composer who was lived his entire life in Versailles. His teachers were his father, Jean-Louis Bury, a musician in the service of the king, and composer François Collin de Blamont (1690-1760), to whom he dedicated his Premier livre de pièces de clavecin. This First Book of Pieces for Harpsichord, his only published work for the instrument, was written when he was only fifteen years old. The rest of his career focused on music for the stage or ballet. De Bury held various positions at the court of the king in Versailles, and received a royal pension from 1779. Shortly before his death he was granted a title of nobility by Louis XVI (1754-1793).
Please click on a title to read:
Survey of French Harpsichord Music.
Overview of the French Harpsichord: History and Performance.
Four Suites for Harpsichord by Bernard de Bury: Critical Edition
The first modern edition of Bernard de Bury’s Premier livre de pièces de clavecin has been published under the name Four Suites for Harpsichord by Bernard de Bury: Critical Edition. This edition had its genesis in the doctoral thesis of Ruta Bloomfield called Bernard de Bury’s Premier livre de pièces de clavecin: Critical Edition and Commentary (Claremont Graduate University, 2008).
Available through The Edwin Mellen Press.
Please click the following link to read a selection from the critical edition: Complete Analysis of the Four Suites for Harpsichord by Bernard de Bury.
Influence of François Couperin on Bernard de Bury
The French Connection: Influence of François Couperin on the Music of Bernard de Bury was presented at the annual conference of the Historical Keyboard Society of North America in Williamsburg, VA May 2013, and again at the 16th Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music in Salzburg, Austria July 2014.
Please click the following link to read: The French Connection: Influence of François Couperin on the Music of Bernard de Bury.