During the reign of the Sun King Louis XIV, music played a fundamental role in defining and consolidating the centrality of power, both in the field of sacred music with the Grand Motets and in the field of opera with the comédies-ballets, tragédies-lyricas and operas-ballets of Lully, Charpentier, Delalande and Campra: music had to represent the majesty and divinity of the ruler, the power and splendor of the French crown.

This is the cultural and musical context of François D'Agincour. He was born in Rouen in 1684 and studied in his home town with Jacques Boyvin, an organist at Notre-Dame, until the age of 17. He probably continued his training with Lebègue in Paris, where he was employed as organist at Sainte Madeleine-en-la-Cité for five years. The esteemed and very prominent artist became one of the four organists of the Chapelle Royal in Versailles in 1714, replacing Louis Marchand. In 1726 he also took up the post at Saint Jean in Rouen and spent the last thirty years of his life alternating between Versailles and Rouen.

The only printed collection published by him in 1733 contains four ordres for harpsichord, which were based on François Couperin in the descriptive nature of their titles and their compositional style. In addition to the dance forms of the suite, the Pièces de Caractère are mostly rondeaus. The descriptive titles refer to single portraits (e.g. L'Empressée, La Pressante Angélique), double portraits, nature scenes, genre scenes and places. Played on two different harpsichords, copies of a Hemsch and Dulcken instrument, by Marco Borghetto, who won first prize at the Wanda Landowska Harpsichord Competition 2023.