![Attribué à Joseph Aved, Portrait de Jean-Philippe Rameau (vers 1728) - 001](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Attribu%C3%A9_%C3%A0_Joseph_Aved%2C_Portrait_de_Jean-Philippe_Rameau_%28vers_1728%29_-_001.jpg)
Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
and
music theorist
Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the " rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (k ...
. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...
as the dominant composer of
French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
, alongside
François Couperin.
Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ''
Treatise on Harmony
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Trea ...
'' (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, ''
Hippolyte et Aricie
('' Hippolytus and Aricia'') was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was premiered to great controversy by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on October 1, 1733. The French libretto, by Abbé S ...
'' (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an "establishment" composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the
Querelle des Bouffons
The ("Quarrel of the Comic Actors"), also known as the ("War of the Comic Actors"), was the name given to a battle of musical philosophies that took place in Paris between 1752 and 1754. The controversy concerned the relative merits of French an ...
in the 1750s. Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it. Today, he enjoys renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more frequent.
Life
The details of Rameau's life are generally obscure, especially concerning his first forty years, before he moved to Paris for good. He was a secretive man, and even his wife knew nothing of his early life, which explains the scarcity of biographical information available.
Early years, 1683–1732
![Cathédrale St Bénigne - Dijon](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Cath%C3%A9drale_St_B%C3%A9nigne_-_Dijon.jpg)
Rameau's early years are particularly obscure. He was born on 25 September 1683 in
Dijon
Dijon (, , ) (dated)
* it, Digione
* la, Diviō or
* lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920.
The earlies ...
, and baptised the same day. His father, Jean, worked as an organist in several churches around Dijon, and his mother, Claudine Demartinécourt, was the daughter of a notary. The couple had eleven children (five girls and six boys), of whom Jean-Philippe was the seventh.
Rameau was taught music before he could read or write. He was educated at the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
college at Godrans in Dijon, but he was not a good pupil and disrupted classes with his singing, later claiming that his passion for opera had begun at the age of twelve. Initially intended for the law, Rameau decided he wanted to be a musician, and his father sent him to Italy, where he stayed for a short while in Milan. On his return, he worked as a violinist in travelling companies and then as an organist in provincial cathedrals before moving to Paris for the first time. Here, in 1706, he published his earliest known compositions: the
harpsichord
A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...
works that make up his first book of ''
Pièces de Clavecin
The French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote three books of ' for the harpsichord. The first, ', was published in 1706; the second, ', in 1724; and the third, ', in 1726 or 1727. They were followed in 1741 by ', in which the harpsichor ...
'', which show the influence of his friend
Louis Marchand
Louis Marchand (2 February 1669 – 17 February 1732) was a French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French vi ...
.
In 1709, he moved back to Dijon to take over his father's job as organist in the main church. The contract was for six years, but Rameau left before then and took up similar posts in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...
and
Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, ; ; oc, label=Auvergnat (dialect), Auvergnat, Clarmont-Ferrand or Clharmou ; la, Augustonemetum) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population ...
. During this period, he composed
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s for church performance as well as secular
cantatas.
In 1722, he returned to Paris for good, and here he published his most important work of music theory, ''Traité de l'harmonie'' (''Treatise on Harmony''). This soon won him a great reputation, and it was followed in 1726 by his ''Nouveau système de musique théorique''. In 1724 and 1729 (or 1730), he also published two more collections of harpsichord pieces.
Rameau took his first tentative steps into composing stage music when the writer
Alexis Piron
Alexis Piron (9 July 1689 – 21 January 1773) was a French epigrammatist and dramatist.
Life
He was born at Dijon, where his father, Aimé Piron, was an apothecary. Piron senior wrote verse in the Burgundian language. Alexis began life as ...
asked him to provide songs for his popular comic plays written for the Paris Fairs. Four collaborations followed, beginning with ''L'endriague'' in 1723; none of the music has survived.
On 25 February 1726 Rameau married the 19-year-old Marie-Louise Mangot, who came from a musical family from Lyon and was a good singer and instrumentalist. The couple would have four children, two boys and two girls, and the marriage is said to have been a happy one.
In spite of his fame as a music theorist, Rameau had trouble finding a post as an organist in Paris.
Later years, 1733–1764
![Jean-Philippe Rameau by Jean-Jacques Caffieri - 20080203-03](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Jean-Philippe_Rameau_by_Jean-Jacques_Caffieri_-_20080203-03.jpg)
It was not until he was approaching 50 that Rameau decided to embark on the operatic career on which his fame as a composer mainly rests. He had already approached writer
Antoine Houdar de la Motte
Antoine Houdar de la Motte (18 January 167226 December 1731) was a French author.
De la Motte was born and died in Paris. In 1693 his comedy, ''Les Originaux'' (Les originaux, ou, l'Italien), was a complete failure, and so depressed the author ...
for a
libretto
A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...
in 1727, but nothing came of it; he was finally inspired to try his hand at the prestigious genre of ''
tragédie en musique
Tragédie en musique (, ''musical tragedy''), also known as tragédie lyrique (, ''lyric tragedy''), is a genre of French opera introduced by Jean-Baptiste Lully and used by his followers until the second half of the eighteenth century. Operas in ...
'' after seeing
Montéclair's ''Jephté'' in 1732. Rameau's ''
Hippolyte et Aricie
('' Hippolytus and Aricia'') was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was premiered to great controversy by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on October 1, 1733. The French libretto, by Abbé S ...
'' premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique on 1 October 1733. It was immediately recognised as the most significant opera to appear in France since the death of
Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully ( , , ; born Giovanni Battista Lulli, ; – 22 March 1687) was an Italian-born French composer, guitarist, violinist, and dancer who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he ...
, but audiences were split over whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Some, such as the composer
André Campra, were stunned by its originality and wealth of invention; others found its harmonic innovations discordant and saw the work as an attack on the French musical tradition. The two camps, the so-called Lullyistes and the Rameauneurs, fought a pamphlet war over the issue for the rest of the decade.
Just before this time, Rameau had made the acquaintance of the powerful financier
Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière
Alexandre Jean Joseph Le Riche de La Pouplinière, sometimes also written Popelinière ou Poupelinière (Paris, 1693 – 5 December 1762) was an immensely wealthy '' fermier général'', the only son of his father, Alexandre Le Riche (1663-17 ...
, who became his patron until 1753. La Poupelinière's mistress (and later, wife), Thérèse des Hayes, was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music. In 1731, Rameau became the conductor of La Poupelinière's private orchestra, which was of an extremely high quality. He held the post for 22 years; he was succeeded by
Johann Stamitz
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (Czech: Jan Václav Antonín Stamic; 18 June 1717 – 27 March 1757) was a Bohemian composer and violinist. His two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were composers of the Mannheim school, of which Johann is ...
and then
François-Joseph Gossec
François-Joseph Gossec (17 January 1734 – 16 February 1829) was a French composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works.
Life and work
The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of Vergnies, then a French exc ...
. La Poupelinière's salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day, including
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
, who soon began collaborating with the composer. Their first project, the ''tragédie en musique
Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
'', was abandoned because an opera on a religious theme by Voltaire—a notorious critic of the Church—was likely to be banned by the authorities. Meanwhile, Rameau had introduced his new musical style into the lighter genre of the ''
opéra-ballet
''Opéra-ballet'' (; plural: ''opéras-ballets'') is a genre of French Baroque lyric theatre that was most popular during the 18th century, combining elements of opera and ballet, "that grew out of the '' ballets à entrées'' of the early seven ...
'' with the highly successful ''
Les Indes galantes
(French: "The Amorous Indies") is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It takes the form of an ''opéra-ballet'' with a prologue and (in its final form) four ''entrées'' (acts). Following an allegorical prologue, ...
''. It was followed by two ''tragédies en musique'', ''
Castor et Pollux
''Castor et Pollux'' (''Castor and Pollux'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 by the Académie royale de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard ...
'' (1737) and ''
Dardanus'' (1739), and another ''opéra-ballet,
Les fêtes d'Hébé
''Les fêtes d'Hébé, ou Les talens lyriques '' (''The Festivities of Hebe, or The Lyric Talents'') is an ''opéra-ballet'' in a prologue and three ''entrées'' (acts) by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The libretto was written by Anto ...
'' (also 1739). All these operas of the 1730s are among Rameau's most highly regarded works. However, the composer followed them with six years of silence, in which the only work he produced was a new version of ''Dardanus'' (1744). The reason for this interval in the composer's creative life is unknown, although it is possible he had a falling-out with the authorities at the Académie royale de la musique.
The year 1745 was a turning point in Rameau's career. He received several commissions from the court for works to celebrate the French victory at the
Battle of Fontenoy and the marriage of the
Dauphin to
Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain
''Infante'' (, ; f. ''infanta''), also anglicised as Infant or translated as Prince, is the title and rank given in the Iberian kingdoms of Spain (including the predecessor kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, Navarre, and León) and Portugal to th ...
. Rameau produced his most important comic opera, ''
Platée
''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Au ...
'', as well as two collaborations with Voltaire: the ''opéra-ballet
Le temple de la gloire'' and the ''comédie-ballet
La princesse de Navarre
''La princesse de Navarre'' (''The Princess of Navarre'') is a ''comédie-ballet'' by Voltaire, with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 23 February 1745 at La Grande Ecurie, Versailles.
Performance history
It was commissioned to c ...
''. They gained Rameau official recognition; he was granted the title "Compositeur du Cabinet du Roi" and given a substantial pension. 1745 also saw the beginning of the bitter enmity between Rameau and
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
. Though best known today as a thinker, Rousseau had ambitions to be a composer. He had written an opera, ''Les muses galantes'' (inspired by Rameau's ''Indes galantes''), but Rameau was unimpressed by this musical tribute. At the end of 1745, Voltaire and Rameau, who were busy on other works, commissioned Rousseau to turn ''La Princesse de Navarre'' into a new opera, with linking
recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repea ...
, called ''
Les fêtes de Ramire
''Les fêtes de Ramire'' (''The Celebrations of Ramiro '') is an opera in the form of a one-act ''acte de ballet'' by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire, first performed on 22 December 1745 at the Palace of Versailles.
Voltaire wrote ...
''. Rousseau then claimed the two had stolen the credit for the words and music he had contributed, though musicologists have been able to identify almost nothing of the piece as Rousseau's work. Nevertheless, the embittered Rousseau nursed a grudge against Rameau for the rest of his life.
Rousseau was a major participant in the second great quarrel that erupted over Rameau's work, the so-called ''
Querelle des Bouffons
The ("Quarrel of the Comic Actors"), also known as the ("War of the Comic Actors"), was the name given to a battle of musical philosophies that took place in Paris between 1752 and 1754. The controversy concerned the relative merits of French an ...
'' of 1752–54, which pitted French ''tragédie en musique'' against Italian ''
opera buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
''. This time, Rameau was accused of being out of date and his music too complicated in comparison with the simplicity and "naturalness" of a work like Pergolesi's ''
La serva padrona
''La serva padrona'', or ''The Maid Turned Mistress'', is a 1733 intermezzo by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–1736) to a libretto by Gennaro Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. It is some 40 minutes long, in two parts without o ...
''. In the mid-1750s, Rameau criticised Rousseau's contributions to the musical articles in the ''
Encyclopédie
''Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers'' (English: ''Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts''), better known as ''Encyclopédie'', was a general encyclopedia publis ...
'', which led to a quarrel with the leading ''
philosophes
The ''philosophes'' () were the intellectuals of the 18th-century Enlightenment.Kishlansky, Mark, ''et al.'' ''A Brief History of Western Civilization: The Unfinished Legacy, volume II: Since 1555.'' (5th ed. 2007). Few were primarily philosophe ...
''
d'Alembert
Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert (; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the '' Encyclopé ...
and
Diderot. As a result, Jean-François Rameau became a character in Diderot's then-unpublished dialogue, ''Le neveu de Rameau'' (''
Rameau's Nephew
''Rameau's Nephew, or the Second Satire'' (or The Nephew of Rameau, french: Le Neveu de Rameau ou La Satire seconde) is an imaginary philosophical conversation by Denis Diderot, probably written between 1761 and 1774.
It was first published in 1 ...
'').
In 1753, La Poupelinière took a scheming musician, Jeanne-Thérèse Goermans, as his mistress. The daughter of harpsichord maker
Jacques Goermans, she went by the name of Madame de Saint-Aubin, and her opportunistic husband pushed her into the arms of the rich financier. She had La Poupelinière engage the services of the
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
n composer
Johann Stamitz
Johann Wenzel Anton Stamitz (Czech: Jan Václav Antonín Stamic; 18 June 1717 – 27 March 1757) was a Bohemian composer and violinist. His two surviving sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were composers of the Mannheim school, of which Johann is ...
, who succeeded Rameau after a breach developed between Rameau and his patron; however, by then, Rameau no longer needed La Poupelinière's financial support and protection.
Rameau pursued his activities as a theorist and composer until his death. He lived with his wife and two of his children in his large suite of rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants, which he would leave every day, lost in thought, to take a solitary walk in the nearby gardens of the Palais-Royal or the Tuileries. Sometimes he would meet the young writer
Chabanon, who noted some of Rameau's disillusioned confidential remarks: "Day by day, I'm acquiring more good taste, but I no longer have any genius" and "The imagination is worn out in my old head; it's not wise at this age wanting to practise arts that are nothing but imagination."
Rameau composed prolifically in the late 1740s and early 1750s. After that, his rate of productivity dropped off, probably due to old age and ill health, although he was still able to write another comic opera, ''
Les Paladins
''Les Paladins'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760 at the Paris Opera. The author of the libretto is not known for sure but was probably one of the Duplat de Monticourt brothers. Rameau called ''Les Paladins'' ...
'', in 1760. This was due to be followed by a final ''tragédie en musique,
Les Boréades
''Les Boréades'' is a ''tragédie lyrique mise en musique'', or a lyric tragedy put into music, a type of opera, in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). It is the last of his five such works. The libretto, attributed to Louis de Cahus ...
''; but for unknown reasons, the opera was never produced and had to wait until the late 20th century for a proper staging. Rameau died on 12 September 1764 after suffering from a fever, thirteen days before his 81st birthday. At his bedside, he objected to a song sung. His last words were, "What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune." He was buried in the church of
St. Eustache, Paris on the same day of his death. Although a bronze bust and red marble tombstone were erected in his memory there by the Société de la Compositeurs de Musique in 1883, the exact site of his burial remains unknown to this day.
Rameau's personality
![Rameau Carmontelle](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Rameau_Carmontelle.JPG)
While the details of his biography are vague and fragmentary, the details of Rameau's personal and family life are almost completely obscure. Rameau's music, so graceful and attractive, completely contradicts the man's public image and what we know of his character as described (or perhaps unfairly caricatured) by Diderot in his satirical novel ''
Le Neveu de Rameau''. Throughout his life, music was his consuming passion. It occupied his entire thinking;
Philippe Beaussant
Philippe Beaussant (6 May 1930 – 8 May 2016) was a French musicologist and novelist, an expert on French baroque music, on which he has published widely. He was the founder of the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, of which he was the ar ...
calls him a monomaniac. Piron explained that "His heart and soul were in his harpsichord; once he had shut its lid, there was no one home." Physically, Rameau was tall and exceptionally thin,
as can be seen by the sketches we have of him, including a famous portrait by
Carmontelle. He had a "loud voice". His speech was difficult to understand, just like his handwriting, which was never fluent. As a man, he was secretive, solitary, irritable, proud of his own achievements (more as a theorist than as a composer), brusque with those who contradicted him, and quick to anger. It is difficult to imagine him among the leading wits, including Voltaire (to whom he bears more than a passing physical resemblance
), who frequented La Poupelinière's salon; his music was his passport, and it made up for his lack of social graces.
His enemies exaggerated his faults; e.g. his supposed miserliness. In fact, it seems that his thriftiness was the result of long years spent in obscurity (when his income was uncertain and scanty) rather than part of his character, because he could also be generous. He helped his nephew Jean-François when he came to Paris and also helped establish the career of
Claude-Bénigne Balbastre
Claude Balbastre (8 December 1724 – 9 May 1799) was a French composer, organist, harpsichordist and fortepianist. He was one of the most famous musicians of his time.
Life
Claude Balbastre was born in Dijon in 1724. Although his exact birthdat ...
in the capital. Furthermore, he gave his daughter Marie-Louise a considerable dowry when she became a Visitandine nun in 1750, and he paid a pension to one of his sisters when she became ill. Financial security came late to him, following the success of his stage works and the grant of a royal pension (a few months before his death, he was also ennobled and made a knight of the Ordre de Saint-Michel). But he did not change his way of life, keeping his worn-out clothes, his single pair of shoes, and his old furniture. After his death, it was discovered that he possessed only one dilapidated single-keyboard harpsichord in his rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants, yet he also had a bag containing 1691 gold
louis Louis may refer to:
* Louis (coin)
* Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name
* Louis (surname)
* Louis (singer), Serbian singer
* HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy
See also
Derived or associated terms
* Lewis ( ...
.
Music
General character of Rameau's music
Rameau's music is characterised by the exceptional technical knowledge of a composer who wanted above all to be renowned as a theorist of the art. Nevertheless, it is not solely addressed to the intelligence, and Rameau himself claimed, "I try to conceal art with art." The paradox of this music was that it was new, using techniques never known before, but it took place within the framework of old-fashioned forms. Rameau appeared revolutionary to the Lullyistes, disturbed by complex harmony of his music; and reactionary to the , who only paid attention to its content and who either would not or could not listen to the sound it made. The incomprehension Rameau received from his contemporaries stopped him from repeating such daring experiments as the second Trio des Parques in ''Hippolyte et Aricie'', which he was forced to remove after a handful of performances because the singers had been either unable or unwilling to execute it correctly.
Rameau's musical works
Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups, which differ greatly in importance: a few
cantatas; a few
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s for large chorus; some pieces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments; and, finally, his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of his career almost exclusively. Like most of his contemporaries, Rameau often reused melodies that had been particularly successful, but never without meticulously adapting them; they are not simple transcriptions. Besides, no borrowings have been found from other composers, although his earliest works show the influence of other music. Rameau's reworkings of his own material are numerous; e.g., in ''Les Fêtes d'Hébé'', we find ''L'Entretien des Muses'', the Musette, and the Tambourin, taken from the 1724 book of harpsichord pieces, as well as an aria from the cantata ''Le Berger Fidèle''.
Motets
For at least 26 years, Rameau was a professional organist in the service of religious institutions, and yet the body of sacred music he composed is exceptionally small and his organ works nonexistent. Judging by the evidence, it was not his favourite field, but rather, simply a way of making reasonable money. Rameau's few religious compositions are nevertheless remarkable and compare favourably to the works of specialists in the area. Only four
motet
In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
s have been attributed to Rameau with any certainty: ''Deus noster refugium'', ''In convertendo'', ''Quam dilecta'', and ''Laboravi''.
Cantatas
The
cantata was a highly successful genre in the early 18th century. The French cantata, which should not be confused with the Italian or the German cantata, was "invented" in 1706 by the poet
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau
Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (6 April 1671 – 17 March 1741) was a French playwright and poet, particularly noted for his cynical epigrams.
Biography
Rousseau was born in Paris, the son of a shoemaker, and was well educated. As a young man, he ga ...
and soon taken up by many famous composers of the day, such as
Montéclair,
Campra, and
Clérambault. Cantatas were Rameau's first contact with dramatic music. The modest forces the cantata required meant it was a genre within the reach of a composer who was still unknown. Musicologists can only guess at the dates of Rameau's six surviving cantatas, and the names of the librettists are unknown.
Instrumental music
Along with
François Couperin, Rameau was a master of the 18th-century French school of harpsichord music, and both made a break with the style of the first generation of harpsichordists whose compositions adhered to the relatively standardised suite form, which had reached its apogee in the first decade of the 18th century and successive collections of pieces by
Louis Marchand
Louis Marchand (2 February 1669 – 17 February 1732) was a French Baroque organist, harpsichordist, and composer. Born into an organist's family, Marchand was a child prodigy and quickly established himself as one of the best known French vi ...
,
Gaspard Le Roux,
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault
Louis-Nicolas Clérambault (19 December 1676 – 26 October 1749) was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born, and died, in Paris.
Biography
Clérambault came from a musical family (his father and two of his sons ...
,
Jean-François Dandrieu
Jean-François Dandrieu, also spelled D'Andrieu (c. 168217 January 1738) was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist.
Biography
He was born in Paris into a family of artists and musicians. A gifted and precocious child, he gave hi ...
,
Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre
Élisabeth Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (, née Jacquet, 17 March 1665 – 27 June 1729) was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer.
Life and works
Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre (née Jacquet) was born on March 17, 1665, into a ...
,
Charles Dieupart and
Nicolas Siret
Nicolas Siret (3 March 1663 – 22 June 1754) was a French baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was born and died in Troyes, France, where he worked as organist in the Church of Saint Jean and the Cathedral of Saint Peter and Saint Pau ...
. Rameau and Couperin had different styles, and it seems they did not know one another: Couperin was one of the official court musicians; Rameau, fifteen years his junior, achieved fame only after Couperin's death.
Rameau published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1706. (Cf. Couperin, who waited until 1713 before publishing his first "Ordres".) Rameau's music includes pieces in the pure tradition of the French suite: imitative ("Le rappel des oiseaux", "La poule") and characterful ("Les tendres plaintes", "L'entretien des Muses"). But there are also works of pure virtuosity that resemble
Domenico Scarlatti ("Les tourbillons", "Les trois mains") as well as pieces that reveal the experiments of a theorist and musical innovator ("L'enharmonique", "Les Cyclopes"), which had a marked influence on
Louis-Claude Daquin
Louis-Claude Daquin (or D'Aquino, d'Aquin, d'Acquin; July 4, 1694 – June 15, 1772) was a French composer, writing in the Baroque and Galant styles. He was a virtuoso organist and harpsichordist.
Life
Louis-Claude Daquin was born in Paris to a f ...
,
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer
Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer (12 May 1703 – 11 January 1755) was a French composer, harpsichordist, organist, and administrator.Lionel Sawkins and David Fuller"Royer, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace" Grove Music Online.
Biography
Born in Turin, Roy ...
and
Jacques Duphly
Jacques Duphly (also Dufly, Du Phly; 12 January 1715 – 15 July 1789) was a French harpsichordist and composer.
Early career as an organist
He was born in Rouen, France, the son of Jacques-Agathe Duphly and Marie-Louise Boivin. As a boy, h ...
. Rameau's suites are grouped in the traditional way, by key. The first set of dances (Allemande, Courante, Sarabande, Les Trois Mains, Fanfairenette, La Triomphante, Gavotte et 6 doubles) is centred on A major and A minor, while the remaining pieces (Les tricoteuses, L'Indifferente, Première Menuet, Deuxième Menuet, La Poule, Les Triolets, Les Sauvages, L'Enharmonique, L'Egiptienne
ic are centred around G major and G minor.
Rameau's second and third collections appeared in 1724 and 1727. After these he composed only one piece for the harpsichord, the eight-minute "La Dauphine" of 1747, while the very short "Les petits marteaux" (c. 1750) has also been attributed to him.
During his semiretirement (1740 to 1744) he wrote the ''
Pièces de clavecin en concerts'' (1741), which some musicologists consider the pinnacle of French Baroque chamber music. Adopting a formula successfully employed by
Mondonville a few years earlier, Rameau fashioned these pieces differently from trio sonatas in that the harpsichord is not simply there as
basso continuo
Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...
to accompany melody instruments (violin, flute, viol) but as equal partner in "concert" with them. Rameau claimed that this music would be equally satisfying played on the harpsichord alone, but the claim is not wholly convincing because he took the trouble to transcribe five of them himself, those the lack of other instruments would show the least.
Opera
After 1733 Rameau dedicated himself mostly to opera. On a strictly musical level, 18th-century French Baroque opera is richer and more varied than contemporary Italian opera, especially in the place given to choruses and dances but also in the musical continuity that arises from the respective relationships between the
aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
s and the
recitative
Recitative (, also known by its Italian name "''recitativo''" ()) is a style of delivery (much used in operas, oratorios, and cantatas) in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms and delivery of ordinary speech. Recitative does not repea ...
s. Another essential difference: whereas Italian opera gave a starring role to female sopranos and
castrati, French opera had no use for the latter. The Italian opera of Rameau's day (
opera seria,
opera buffa
''Opera buffa'' (; "comic opera", plural: ''opere buffe'') is a genre of opera. It was first used as an informal description of Italian comic operas variously classified by their authors as ''commedia in musica'', ''commedia per musica'', ''dramm ...
) was essentially divided into musical sections (
da capo
Da capo (, also , ) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). It is often abbreviated as D.C. The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is a ...
arias, duets, trios, etc.) and sections that were spoken or almost spoken (''recitativo secco''). It was during the latter that the action progressed while the audience waited for the next aria; on the other hand, the text of the arias was almost entirely buried beneath music whose chief aim was to show off the virtuosity of the singer. Nothing of the kind is to be found in French opera of the day; since Lully, the text had to remain comprehensible—limiting certain techniques such as the
vocalise
A vocal warm-up is a series of exercises meant to prepare the voice for singing, acting, or other use.
There is very little scientific data about the benefits of vocal warm-ups. Relatively few studies have researched the effects of thesexercis ...
, which was reserved for special words such as ' ("glory") or ' ("victory"). A subtle equilibrium existed between the more and the less musical parts: melodic recitative on the one hand and arias that were often closer to
arioso
In classical music, arioso (also aria parlante ) is a category of solo vocal piece, usually occurring in an opera or oratorio, falling somewhere between recitative and aria in style. Literally, arioso means ''airy''. The term arose in the 16th ...
on the other, alongside virtuoso "ariettes" in the Italian style. This form of continuous music prefigures
Wagnerian
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
drama even more than does the "reform" opera of
Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
.
Five essential components may be discerned in Rameau's operatic scores:
*Pieces of "pure" music (overtures,
ritornelli, music which closes scenes). Unlike the highly stereotyped Lullian overture, Rameau's overtures show an extraordinary variety. Even in his earliest works, where he uses the
standard French model, Rameau—the born symphonist and master of orchestration—composes novel and unique pieces. A few pieces are particularly striking, such as the overture to ''Zaïs'', depicting the chaos before the creation of the universe, that of ''Pigmalion'', suggesting the sculptor's chipping away at the statue with his mallet, or many more conventional depictions of storms and earthquakes, as well perhaps as the imposing final
chaconne
A chaconne (; ; es, chacona, links=no; it, ciaccona, links=no, ; earlier English: ''chacony'') is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short rep ...
s of ''Les Indes galantes'' or ''Dardanus''.
*Dance music: the danced interludes, which were obligatory even in ''tragédie en musique'', allowed Rameau to give free rein to his inimitable sense of rhythm, melody, and choreography, acknowledged by all his contemporaries, including the dancers themselves. This "learned" composer, forever preoccupied by his next theoretical work, also was one who strung together
gavotte
The gavotte (also gavot, gavote, or gavotta) is a French dance, taking its name from a folk dance of the Gavot, the people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné in the southeast of France, where the dance originated, according to one source. Ac ...
s,
minuet
A minuet (; also spelled menuet) is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in time. The English word was adapted from the Italian ''minuetto'' and the French ''menuet''.
The term also describes the musical form that accomp ...
s,
loures,
rigaudon
The rigaudon (also spelled rigadon, rigadoon) is a French baroque dance with a lively duple metre. The music is similar to that of a bourrée, but the rigaudon is rhythmically simpler with regular phrases (eight measure phrases are most common) ...
s,
passepied
The passepied (, "pass-foot", from a characteristic dance step) is a French court dance. Originating as a kind of Breton branle, it was adapted to courtly use in the 16th century and is found frequently in 18th-century French opera and ballet ...
s,
tambourin
The tambourin is a low-pitched tenor drum of Provence, which has also lent its name to a Provençal dance accompanied by lively duple meter music. The dance is so named because the music imitates the drum (''tambour'' being a generic French term ...
s, and
musettes by the dozen. According to his biographer,
Cuthbert Girdlestone
Cuthbert Morton Girdlestone (17 September 1895 – 10 December 1975) was a British musicologist and literary scholar.
Born in Bovey Tracey, Devon, he was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and thereafter took up the chair in French in Ar ...
, "The immense superiority of all that pertains to Rameau in choreography still needs emphasizing", and the German scholar
Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen
Hermann Wolfgang Sartorius Freiherr von Waltershausen (Göttingen, 12 October 1882 – Munich, 14 June 1954) was a German composer, conductor, teacher and writer.
Life and career
He was the son of the economist August Sartorius von Waltershausen ...
affirmed:
Rameau was the greatest ballet composer of all times. The genius of his creation rests on one hand on his perfect artistic permeation by folk-dance types, on the other hand on the constant preservation of living contact with the practical requirements of the ballet stage, which prevented an estrangement between the expression of the body from the spirit of absolute music
Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly 'about' anything; in contrast to program music, it is non- representational.M. C. Horowitz (ed.), ''New Dictionary of the History of Ideas'', , vol.1, p. 5 The idea of abs ...
.
*Choruses:
Padre Martini, the erudite musicologist who corresponded with Rameau, affirmed that "the French are excellent at choruses", obviously thinking of Rameau himself. A great master of harmony, Rameau knew how to compose sumptuous choruses—whether
monodic
In music, monody refers to a solo vocal style distinguished by having a single melodic line and instrumental accompaniment. Although such music is found in various cultures throughout history, the term is specifically applied to Italian song of ...
,
polyphonic
Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
, or interspersed with passages for solo singers or the orchestra—and whatever feelings needed to be expressed.
*Arias: less frequent than in Italian opera, Rameau nevertheless offers many striking examples. Particularly admired arias include Télaïre's "Tristes apprêts" from ''Castor et Pollux''; "Ô jour affreux" and "Lieux funestes" from ''Dardanus''; Huascar's invocations in ''Les Indes galantes''; and the final ariette in ''Pigmalion''. In ''
Platée
''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Au ...
'' we encounter a showstopping ars poetica aria for the character of La Folie (the madness), "Formons les plus brillants concerts / Aux langeurs d'Apollon".
*Recitative: much closer to arioso than to ''recitativo secco''. The composer took scrupulous care to observe French
prosody and used his harmonic knowledge to give expression to his protagonists' feelings.
During the first part of his operatic career (1733–1739), Rameau wrote his great masterpieces destined for the Académie royale de musique: three ''tragédies en musique'' and two ''opéra-ballets'' that still form the core of his repertoire. After the interval of 1740 to 1744, he became the official court musician, and for the most part, composed pieces intended to entertain, with plenty of dance music emphasising sensuality and an idealised
pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts ...
atmosphere. In his last years, Rameau returned to a renewed version of his early style in ''Les Paladins'' and ''Les Boréades''.
His ''
Zoroastre
''Zoroastre'' (''Zoroaster'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 5 December 1749 by the Opéra in the first Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. ''Zoroastre'' was the fourth of Rameau's '' trag ...
'' was first performed in 1749. According to one of Rameau's admirers, Cuthbert Girdlestone, this opera has a distinctive place in his works: "The profane passions of hatred and jealousy are rendered more intensely
han in his other worksand with a strong sense of reality."
=Rameau and his librettists
=
Unlike Lully, who collaborated with
Philippe Quinault
Philippe Quinault (; 3 June 1635 – 26 November 1688), French dramatist and librettist, was born in Paris.
Biography
Quinault was educated by the liberality of François Tristan l'Hermite, the author of ''Marianne''. Quinault's first play w ...
on almost all his operas, Rameau rarely worked with the same librettist twice. He was highly demanding and bad-tempered, unable to maintain longstanding partnerships with his librettists, with the exception of
Louis de Cahusac
Louis de Cahusac (6 April 1706 – 22 June 1759) was an 18th-century French playwright and librettist, and Freemason, most famous for his work with the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. He provided the libretti for several of Rameau's operas, name ...
, who collaborated with him on several operas, including ''
Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour
''Les fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour, ou Les dieux d'Egypte'' is an ''opéra-ballet'' in three ''entrées'' and a prologue by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on March 15, 1747, at the La Grande Ecurie, Ve ...
'' (1747), ''
Zaïs ''Zaïs'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 29 February 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a ''pastorale héroïque'' in four acts and a prologue. The librettist was Louis de Cahusac.
The score is particularly ...
'' (1748), ''
Naïs'' (1749), ''
Zoroastre
''Zoroastre'' (''Zoroaster'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 5 December 1749 by the Opéra in the first Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. ''Zoroastre'' was the fourth of Rameau's '' trag ...
'' (1749; revised 1756), ''
La naissance d'Osiris'' (1754), and ''
Anacréon'' (the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754). He is also credited with writing the libretto of Rameau's final work, ''
Les Boréades
''Les Boréades'' is a ''tragédie lyrique mise en musique'', or a lyric tragedy put into music, a type of opera, in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). It is the last of his five such works. The libretto, attributed to Louis de Cahus ...
'' (c. 1763).
Many Rameau specialists have regretted that the collaboration with
Houdar de la Motte never took place, and that the ''Samson'' project with Voltaire came to nothing because the librettists Rameau did work with were second-rate. He made his acquaintance of most of them at
La Poupelinière's salon, at the , or at the house of the comte de Livry, all meeting places for leading cultural figures of the day.
Not one of his librettists managed to produce a libretto on the same artistic level as Rameau's music: the plots were often overly complex or unconvincing. But this was standard for the genre, and is probably part of its charm. The versification, too, was mediocre, and Rameau often had to have the libretto modified and rewrite the music after the premiere because of the ensuing criticism. This is why we have two versions of ''
Castor et Pollux
''Castor et Pollux'' (''Castor and Pollux'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 by the Académie royale de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard ...
'' (1737 and 1754) and three of ''
Dardanus'' (1739, 1744, and 1760).
Reputation and influence
By the end of his life, Rameau's music had come under attack in France from theorists who favoured Italian models. However, foreign composers working in the Italian tradition were increasingly looking towards Rameau as a way of reforming their own leading operatic genre, ''
opera seria''.
Tommaso Traetta
Tommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta (30 March 1727 – 6 April 1779) was an Italian composer of the Neapolitan School. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he was responsible for certain operatic r ...
produced two operas setting translations of Rameau libretti that show the French composer's influence, ''Ippolito ed Aricia'' (1759) and ''I Tintaridi'' (based on ''Castor et Pollux'', 1760). Traetta had been advised by Count
Francesco Algarotti
Count Francesco Algarotti (11 December 1712 – 3 May 1764) was an Italian polymath, philosopher, poet, essayist, anglophile, art critic and art collector. He was a man of broad knowledge, an expert in Newtonianism, architecture and opera. He was ...
, a leading proponent of reform according to French models; Algarotti was a major influence on the most important "reformist" composer,
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
. Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the 1760s—''
Orfeo ed Euridice'', ''
Alceste'', and ''
Paride ed Elena
' (; ''Paris and Helen'') is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. It is the third of Gluck's so-called reform operas for Vienna, following '' Orfeo ed Euridice'' and '' Alceste'', and the least often performed of the three. Like its predecess ...
''—reveal a knowledge of Rameau's works. For instance, both ''Orfeo'' and the 1737 version of ''Castor et Pollux'' open with the funeral of one of the leading characters who later comes back to life. Many of the operatic reforms advocated in the preface to Gluck's ''Alceste'' were already present in Rameau's works. Rameau had used accompanied recitatives, and the overtures in his later operas reflected the action to come, so when Gluck arrived in Paris in 1774 to produce a series of six French operas, he could be seen as continuing in the tradition of Rameau. Nevertheless, while Gluck's popularity survived the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
, Rameau's did not. By the end of the 18th century, his operas had vanished from the repertoire.
For most of the 19th century, Rameau's music remained unplayed, known only by reputation.
Hector Berlioz investigated ''Castor et Pollux'' and particularly admired the aria "Tristes apprêts", but "whereas the modern listener readily perceives the common ground with Berlioz' music, he himself was more conscious of the gap which separated them." French humiliation in the
Franco-Prussian War brought about a change in Rameau's fortunes. As Rameau biographer Jean Malignon wrote, "...the German victory over France in 1870–71 was the grand occasion for digging up great heroes from the French past. Rameau, like so many others, was flung into the enemy's face to bolster our courage and our faith in the national destiny of France." In 1894, composer
Vincent d'Indy
Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy (; 27 March 18512 December 1931) was a French composer and teacher. His influence as a teacher, in particular, was considerable. He was a co-founder of the Schola Cantorum de Paris and also taught at the P ...
founded the
Schola Cantorum to promote French national music; the society put on several revivals of works by Rameau. Among the audience was
Claude Debussy
(Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...
, who especially cherished ''Castor et Pollux'', revived in 1903: "
Gluck
Christoph Willibald (Ritter von) Gluck (; 2 July 1714 – 15 November 1787) was a composer of Italian and French opera in the early classical period. Born in the Upper Palatinate and raised in Bohemia, both part of the Holy Roman Empire, he g ...
's genius was deeply rooted in Rameau's works... a detailed comparison allows us to affirm that Gluck could replace Rameau on the French stage only by assimilating the latter's beautiful works and making them his own."
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (; 9 October 183516 December 1921) was a French composer, organist, conductor and pianist of the Romantic music, Romantic era. His best-known works include Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863), the Piano C ...
(by editing and publishing the ''Pièces'' in 1895) and
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas ( or ; 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His b ...
were two other important French musicians who gave practical championship to Rameau's music in their day, but interest in Rameau petered out again, and it was not until the late 20th century that a serious effort was made to revive his works. Over half of Rameau's operas have now been recorded, in particular by conductors such as
John Eliot Gardiner
Sir John Eliot Gardiner (born 20 April 1943) is an English conductor, particularly known for his performances of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Life and career
Born in Fontmell Magna, Dorset, son of Rolf Gardiner and Marabel Hodgkin, Ga ...
,
William Christie, and
Marc Minkowski.
One of his pieces is commonly heard in the
Victoria Centre
Victoria Centre is a shopping centre in Nottingham, England, constructed between 1967 and 1972. It contains fashion and high street chain stores as well as cafes, restaurants, a health and fitness centre, and the Nottingham Victoria bus station. ...
in Nottingham by the
Rowland Emett
Frederick Rowland Emett OBE (22 October 190613 November 1990), known as Rowland Emett (with the forename sometimes spelled "Roland" s his middle name appears on his birth certificateand the surname frequently misspelled "Emmett"), was an Engl ...
timepiece, the
Aqua Horological Tintinnabulator. Emett quoted that Rameau made music for his school and the shopping centre without him knowing it.
Theoretical works
''Treatise on Harmony'', 1722
Rameau's 1722 ''
Treatise on Harmony
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions."Trea ...
'' initiated a revolution in music theory.
Rameau posited the discovery of the "fundamental law" or what he referred to as the "fundamental bass" of all Western music. Heavily influenced by new Cartesian modes of thought and analysis, Rameau's methodology incorporated mathematics, commentary, analysis and a didacticism that was specifically intended to illuminate, scientifically, the structure and principles of music. With careful deductive reasoning, he attempted to derive universal harmonic principles from natural causes. Previous treatises on harmony had been purely practical; Rameau embraced the new philosophical rationalism, quickly rising to prominence in France as the "
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...
of Music".
His fame subsequently spread throughout all Europe, and his ''Treatise'' became the definitive authority on music theory, forming the foundation for instruction in western music that persists to this day.
List of works
RCT numbering refers to ''Rameau Catalogue Thématique'' established by Sylvie Bouissou and Denis Herlin.
Instrumental works
*''
Pièces de clavecin
The French Baroque composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote three books of ' for the harpsichord. The first, ', was published in 1706; the second, ', in 1724; and the third, ', in 1726 or 1727. They were followed in 1741 by ', in which the harpsichor ...
''. Trois livres. ''Pieces for harpsichord'', 3 books, published 1706, 1724, 1726/27(?)
**RCT 1 – ''Premier livre de Clavecin'' (1706)
**RCT 2 – ''Pièces de clavecin'' (1724) – Suite in E minor
**RCT 3 – ''Pièces de clavecin'' (1724) – Suite in D major
**RCT 4 – ''Pièces de clavecin'' (1724) – Menuet in C major
**RCT 5 – ''Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin'' (1726/27) – Suite in A minor
**RCT 6 – ''Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin'' (1726/27) – Suite in G
* ''
Pieces de clavecin en concerts
Piece or Pieces (not to be confused with peace) may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Games
* Piece (chess), pieces deployed on a chessboard for playing the game of chess
* Pieces (video game), ''Pieces'' (video game), a 1994 puzzle game f ...
'' Five albums of character pieces for harpsichord, violin and viol. (1741)
**RCT 7 – Concert I in C minor
**RCT 8 – Concert II in G major
**RCT 9 – Concert III in A major
**RCT 10 – Concert IV in B-flat major
**RCT 11 – Concert V in D minor
* RCT 12 – ''La Dauphine'' for harpsichord. (1747)
* RCT 12bis – ''Les petits marteaux'' for harpsichord.
* Several orchestral dance suites extracted from his operas.
Motets
* RCT 13 – ''Deus noster refugium'' (c. 1713–1715)
* RCT 14 – ''
In convertendo'' (probably before 1720, rev. 1751)
* RCT 15 – ''Quam dilecta'' (c. 1713–1715)
* RCT 16 – ''Laboravi'' (published in the ''Traité de l'harmonie'', 1722)
Canons
* RCT 17 – ''Ah! loin de rire, pleurons'' (soprano, alto, tenor, bass) (pub. 1722)
* RCT 18 – ''Avec du vin, endormons-nous'' (2 sopranos, Tenor) (1719)
* RCT 18bis – ''L'épouse entre deux draps'' (3 sopranos) (formerly attributed to
François Couperin)
* RCT 18ter – ''Je suis un fou Madame'' (3 ''voix égales'') (1720)
* RCT 19 – ''Mes chers amis, quittez vos rouges bords'' (3 sopranos, 3 basses) (pub. 1780)
* RCT 20 – ''Réveillez-vous, dormeur sans fin'' (5 ''voix égales'') (pub. 1722)
* RCT 20bis – ''Si tu ne prends garde à toi'' (2 sopranos, bass) (1720)
Songs
* RCT 21.1 – ''L'amante préoccupée'' or ''A l'objet que j'adore'' (soprano,
continuo) (1763)
* RCT 21.2 – ''Lucas, pour se gausser de nous'' (soprano, bass,
continuo) (pub. 1707)
* RCT 21.3 – ''Non, non, le dieu qui sait aimer'' (soprano,
continuo) (1763)
* RCT 21.4 – ''Un Bourbon ouvre sa carrière'' or ''Un héros ouvre sa carrière'' (alto,
continuo) (1751, air belonging to
Acante et Céphise but censored before its first performance and never reintroduced in the work).
Cantatas
* RCT 23 – ''Aquilon et Orithie '' (between 1715 and 1720)
* RCT 28 – ''Thétis'' (same period)
* RCT 26 – ''L'impatience'' (same period)
* RCT 22 – ''Les amants trahis'' (around 1720)
* RCT 27 – ''Orphée'' (same period)
* RCT 24 – ''Le berger fidèle ''(1728)
* RCT 25 – ''Cantate pour le jour de la Saint Louis'' (1740)
Operas and stage works
''Tragédies en musique''
* RCT 43 – ''
Hippolyte et Aricie
('' Hippolytus and Aricia'') was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was premiered to great controversy by the Académie Royale de Musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris on October 1, 1733. The French libretto, by Abbé S ...
'' (1733; revised 1742 and 1757)
* RCT 32 – ''
Castor et Pollux
''Castor et Pollux'' (''Castor and Pollux'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 by the Académie royale de musique at its theatre in the Palais-Royal in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard ...
'' (1737; revised 1754)
* RCT 35 – ''
Dardanus'' (1739; revised 1744 and 1760)
* RCT 62 – ''
Zoroastre
''Zoroastre'' (''Zoroaster'') is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 5 December 1749 by the Opéra in the first Salle du Palais-Royal in Paris. The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. ''Zoroastre'' was the fourth of Rameau's '' trag ...
'' (1749; revised 1756, with new music for Acts II, III & V)
* RCT 31 – ''
Les Boréades
''Les Boréades'' is a ''tragédie lyrique mise en musique'', or a lyric tragedy put into music, a type of opera, in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764). It is the last of his five such works. The libretto, attributed to Louis de Cahus ...
'' or ''Abaris'' (unperformed; in rehearsal 1763)
''Opéra-ballets''
* RCT 44 – ''
Les Indes galantes
(French: "The Amorous Indies") is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Louis Fuzelier. It takes the form of an ''opéra-ballet'' with a prologue and (in its final form) four ''entrées'' (acts). Following an allegorical prologue, ...
'' (1735; revised 1736)
* RCT 41 – ''
Les fêtes d'Hébé
''Les fêtes d'Hébé, ou Les talens lyriques '' (''The Festivities of Hebe, or The Lyric Talents'') is an ''opéra-ballet'' in a prologue and three ''entrées'' (acts) by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The libretto was written by Anto ...
'' or ''les Talens Lyriques'' (1739)
* RCT 39 – ''
Les fêtes de Polymnie'' (1745)
* RCT 59 – ''
Le temple de la gloire'' (1745; revised 1746)
* RCT 38 – ''
Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour
''Les fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour, ou Les dieux d'Egypte'' is an ''opéra-ballet'' in three ''entrées'' and a prologue by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on March 15, 1747, at the La Grande Ecurie, Ve ...
'' or ''Les Dieux d'Egypte'' (1747)
* RCT 58 – ''
Les surprises de l'Amour
''Les surprises de l'Amour'' is an ''opéra-ballet'' in two ''entrées'' (three or four in later versions) and a prologue by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was first performed in Versailles on 27 November 1748. The opera is set to ...
'' (1748; revised 1757)
''Pastorales héroïques''
* RCT 60 – ''
Zaïs ''Zaïs'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 29 February 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a ''pastorale héroïque'' in four acts and a prologue. The librettist was Louis de Cahusac.
The score is particularly ...
'' (1748)
* RCT 49 – ''
Naïs'' (1749)
* RCT 29 – ''
Acante et Céphise'' or ''La sympathie'' (1751)
* RCT 34 – ''
Daphnis et Eglé'' (1753)
''Comédies lyriques''
* RCT 53 – ''
Platée
''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Au ...
'' or ''Junon jalouse'' (1745)
"Score"
''Platée
''Platée'' is an opera in a prologue and three acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Adrien-Joseph Le Valois d'Orville. Rameau bought the rights to the libretto ''Platée ou Junon jalouse'' (''Plataea, or Juno Jealous'') by Jacques Au ...
''
* RCT 51 – ''Les Paladins
''Les Paladins'' is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760 at the Paris Opera. The author of the libretto is not known for sure but was probably one of the Duplat de Monticourt brothers. Rameau called ''Les Paladins'' ...
'' or ''Le Vénitien'' (1760)
''Comédie-ballet''
* RCT 54 – ''La princesse de Navarre
''La princesse de Navarre'' (''The Princess of Navarre'') is a ''comédie-ballet'' by Voltaire, with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 23 February 1745 at La Grande Ecurie, Versailles.
Performance history
It was commissioned to c ...
'' (1744)
''Actes de ballet''
* RCT 33 – ''Les courses de Tempé'' (1734)
* RCT 40 – ''Les fêtes de Ramire
''Les fêtes de Ramire'' (''The Celebrations of Ramiro '') is an opera in the form of a one-act ''acte de ballet'' by Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire, first performed on 22 December 1745 at the Palace of Versailles.
Voltaire wrote ...
'' (1745)
* RCT 52 – '' Pigmalion'' (1748)
* RCT 42 – ''La guirlande ''La guirlande'' (full name: ''La guirlande, ou Les fleurs enchantées'') is an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Jean-François Marmontel. It takes the form of an ''acte de ballet'' (a one-act opera with many danc ...
'' or ''Les fleurs enchantées'' (1751)
* RCT 57 – ''Les sibarites ''Les sibarites'' (''The Sybarites'') is an opera in the form of a one-act ''acte de ballet'' by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 13 November 1753 at Fontainebleau. The libretto is by Jean-François Marmontel. It tells the story of a wa ...
'' or ''Sibaris'' (1753)
* RCT 48 – '' La naissance d'Osiris'' or ''La Fête Pamilie'' (1754)
* RCT 30 – '' Anacréon'' (1754)
* RCT 58 – ''Anacréon'' (completely different work from the above, 1757, 3rd ''Entrée'' of ''Les surprises de l'Amour
''Les surprises de l'Amour'' is an ''opéra-ballet'' in two ''entrées'' (three or four in later versions) and a prologue by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was first performed in Versailles on 27 November 1748. The opera is set to ...
'')
* RCT 61 – '' Zéphire'' (date unknown)
* RCT 50 – '' Nélée et Myrthis'' (date unknown)
* RCT 45 – '' Io'' (unfinished, date unknown)
Lost works
* RCT 56 – ''Samson
Samson (; , '' he, Šīmšōn, label= none'', "man of the sun") was the last of the judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Book of Judges (chapters 13 to 16) and one of the last leaders who "judged" Israel before the institution o ...
'' (''tragédie en musique'') (first version written 1733–1734; second version 1736; neither were ever staged )
* RCT 46 – ''Linus
Linus, a male given name, is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Linos''. It's a common given name in Sweden. The origin of the name is unknown although the name appears in antiquity both as a musician who taught Apollo and as a son of Apollo who di ...
'' (''tragédie en musique'') (1751, score stolen after a rehearsal)
* RCT 47 – '' Lisis et Délie'' (''pastorale'') (scheduled on November 6, 1753)
Incidental music for ''opéras comiques''
Music mostly lost.
* RCT 36 – ''L'endriague'' (in 3 acts, 1723)
* RCT 37 – ''L'enrôlement d'Arlequin'' (in 1 act, 1726)
* RCT 55 – ''La robe de dissension'' or ''Le faux prodige'' (in 2 acts, 1726)
* RCT 55bis – ''La rose'' or ''Les jardins de l'Hymen'' (in a prologue and 1 act, 1744)
Writings
* ''Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels
''Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels'' (Treatise on Harmony reduced to its natural principles) is a music treatise written by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was first published in Paris in 1722 in music, 1722 by Jean-Baptiste-Chr ...
'' (Paris, 1722)
* '' Nouveau système de musique théorique'' (Paris, 1726)
* ''Dissertation sur les différents méthodes d'accompagnement pour le clavecin, ou pour l'orgue'' (Paris, 1732)
* ''Génération harmonique, ou Traité de musique théorique et pratique'' (Paris, 1737)
* ''Mémoire où l'on expose les fondemens du Système de musique théorique et pratique de M. Rameau'' (1749)
* ''Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie'' (Paris, 1750)
* ''Nouvelles réflexions de M. Rameau sur sa 'Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie (Paris, 1752)
* ''Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique'' (Paris, 1754)
* ''Erreurs sur la musique dans l'Encyclopédie'' (Paris, 1755)
* ''Suite des erreurs sur la musique dans l'Encyclopédie'' (Paris, 1756)
* ''Reponse de M. Rameau à MM. les editeurs de l'Encyclopédie sur leur dernier Avertissement'' (Paris, 1757)
* ''Nouvelles réflexions sur le principe sonore'' (1758–59)
* ''Code de musique pratique, ou Méthodes pour apprendre la musique...avec des nouvelles réflexions sur le principe sonore'' (Paris, 1760)
* ''Lettre à M. Alembert sur ses opinions en musique'' (Paris, 1760)
* ''Origine des sciences, suivie d'un controverse sur le même sujet'' (Paris, 1762)
References
Notes
Sources
*
*
*
*
Further reading
* Annunziata, Filippo Claudio
''Una ''tragédie lyrique'' nel secolo dei Lumi. ''Abaris ou Les Boréades'' di Jean Philippe Rameau''
magister thesis 2012–2013, University of Milan
The University of Milan ( it, Università degli Studi di Milano; la, Universitas Studiorum Mediolanensis), known colloquially as UniMi or Statale, is a public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Europe ...
, via academia.edu
Academia.edu is a for-profit open repository of academic articles free to read by visitors. Uploading and downloading is restricted to registered users. Additional features are accessible only as a paid subscription. Since 2016 various social ...
* Gibbons, William. ''Building the Operatic Museum: Eighteenth-Century Opera in Fin-de-siècle Paris'' (University of Rochester Press, 2013)
* Trowbridge, Simon, ''Rameau'' (2nd edition, Englance Press, 2017)
External links
*
* (en
Gavotte with Doubles
Hypermedia by Jeff Hall & Tim Smith at th
BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
– Shockwave Player required – ("Gavotte with Doubles" link NG)
* (en
Rameau – Le Site
* (fr
Biography, List of Works, bibliography, discography, theoretical writings, in French
* (en
Jean-Philippe Rameau / Discography
Magnatune
Les Cyclopes by Rameau in on-line mp3 format (played by Trevor Pinnock
Trevor David Pinnock (born 16 December 1946 in Canterbury, England) is a British harpsichordist and conductor.
He is best known for his association with the period-performance orchestra The English Concert, which he helped found and direct ...
)
*
Jean-Philippe Rameau, "L'Orchestre de Louis XV" – Suites d'Orchestre, Le Concert des Nations
dir. Jordi Savall, Alia Vox, AVSA 9882
Sheet music
*
*
Rameau
free sheet music from the Mutopia Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rameau, Jean-Philippe
1683 births
1764 deaths
18th-century classical composers
18th-century French composers
18th-century French male musicians
Composers awarded knighthoods
Composers for harpsichord
French Baroque composers
French ballet composers
French opera composers
French male classical composers
French male non-fiction writers
French music theorists
Male opera composers
Musicians from Dijon
Burials at Saint-Eustache, Paris
17th-century male musicians