pièce de caractère

Character piece. A keyboard work with a descriptive or programmatic title indicating a mood, person, animal, scene, or social type rather than a dance form. Couperin's pièces de caractère — Les baricades mistérieuses, Les abeilles, Le tic-toc-choc, Sœur Monique, Les ombres errantes, and over 200 others — pioneered this tradition in European keyboard music. The descriptive title is part of the music's meaning: it sets the imagination before the first note.

Take the title seriously but not literally. \"The Mysterious Barricades\" does not need a visual programme — the music expresses mystery and obstruction through its harmonic loops and refrain structure. Research what the title refers to (a person, an animal, an event, a social type) before performing: Couperin often had specific individuals in mind, and knowing the referent clarifies the affective target. The title is a performance instruction disguised as a name.