Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Philippe_Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jean-Philippe Rameau (French: [ filip amo]; 25 September 1683

12 September 1764) was one of the most important French composers
and music theorists of the Baroque era.[1] He replaced Jean-Baptiste
Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered
the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside
Franois Couperin.[2]
Little is known about Rameau's early years, and it was not until the
1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise
on Harmony (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of
masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe.
He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which
Jean-Philippe Rameau,
his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, Hippolyte et Aricie
by Jacques Aved, 1728
(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 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.
Contents
1 Life
1.1
1.2
1.3
2 Music
2.1
2.2
Early years, 16831732

Later years, 17331764
Rameau's personality
General character of Rameau's music

Rameau's musical works
2.2.1 Motets
2.2.2 Cantatas
2.2.3 Instrumental music
2.2.4 Opera
2.2.4.1 Rameau and his librettists
2.3 Reputation and influence
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3 Theoretical works
3.1 Treatise on Harmony, 1722
4 List of works
4.1 Instrumental works
4.2 Motets
4.3 Canons
4.4 Songs
4.5 Cantatas
4.6 Operas and stage works
4.6.1 Tragdies en musique
4.6.2 Opra-ballets
4.6.3 Pastorales hroques
4.6.4 Comdies lyriques
4.6.5 Comdie-ballet
4.6.6 Actes de ballet
4.6.7 Lost works
4.6.8 Incidental music for opras comiques
4.7 Writings
5 See also
6 References
7 External links
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,[3] which explains the scarcity of biographical information available.
Early years, 16831732

Rameau's early years are particularly obscure. He was born on 25 September 1683 in Dijon, and
baptised the same day.[4] His father, Jean, worked as an organist in several churches around Dijon,
and his mother, Claudine Demartincourt, 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 college at
Godrans, 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.[5] 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.[6] Here, in 1706, he published his
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earliest known compositions: the harpsichord works that make

up his first book of Pices de clavecin, which show the
influence of his friend Louis Marchand.[7]
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 and
Clermont. During this period, he composed motets 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, Trait de l'harmonie
(Treatise on Harmony). This soon won him a great reputation,
and it was followed in 1726 by his Nouveau systme de musique
thorique.[8] In 1724 and 1729 (or 1730), he also published two
more collections of harpsichord pieces.[9]
The Cathedral of Saint-Bnigne,

Dijon
Rameau took his first tentative steps into composing stage

music when the writer Alexis Piron 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.[10]
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.[11]
In spite of his fame as a music theorist, Rameau had trouble finding a post as an organist in
Paris.[12]
Later years, 17331764
Bust of Rameau by Caffieri, 1760
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 Houdar de la
Motte for a libretto in 1727, but nothing came of it; he was
finally inspired to try his hand at the prestigious genre of
tragdie en musique after seeing Montclair's Jepht in 1732.
Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie premiered at the Acadmie
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, but audiences were split over whether
this was a good thing or a bad thing. Some, such as the
composer Andr Campra, were stunned by its originality and
wealth of invention; others found its harmonic innovations
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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.[13]
Just before this time, Rameau had made the acquaintance of the powerful financier Alexandre Le
Riche de La Poupelinire, who became his patron until 1753. La Pouplinire's mistress (and later,
wife), Thrse des Hayes, was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music. In 1731, Rameau
became the conductor of La Pouplinire's private orchestra, which was of an extremely high
quality. He held the post for 22 years; he was succeeded by Johann Stamitz and then Gossec.[14] La
Pouplinire's salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day,
including Voltaire, who soon began collaborating with the composer.[15] Their first project, the
tragdie en musique Samson, was abandoned because an opera on a religious theme by Voltairea
notorious critic of the Churchwas likely to be banned by the authorities.[16] Meanwhile, Rameau
had introduced his new musical style into the lighter genre of the opra-ballet with the highly
successful Les Indes galantes. It was followed by two tragdies en musique, Castor et Pollux
(1737) and Dardanus (1739), and another opra-ballet, Les ftes d'Hb (also 1739). All these
operas of the 1730s are among Rameau's most highly regarded works.[17] 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 Acadmie royale de la musique.[18]
The year 1745 was a watershed 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. Rameau produced his most important comic
opera, Plate, as well as two collaborations with Voltaire: the opra-ballet Le temple de la gloire
and the comdie-ballet La princesse de Navarre.[19] They gained Rameau official recognition; he
was granted the title "Compositeur du Cabinet du Roi" and given a substantial pension.[20] 1745
also saw the beginning of the bitter enmity between Rameau and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 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,
called Les ftes de Ramire. 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.[21]
Rousseau was a major participant in the second great quarrel that erupted over Rameau's work, the
so-called Querelle des Bouffons of 175254, which pitted French tragdie en musique against
Italian opera buffa. 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.[22] In the mid-1750s, Rameau criticised Rousseau's contributions to the musical articles in
the Encyclopdie, which led to a quarrel with the leading philosophes d'Alembert and Diderot.[23]
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As a result, Rameau became a character in Diderot's then-unpublished dialogue, Le neveu de

Rameau (Rameau's Nephew).
In 1753, La Pouplinire took a scheming musician, Jeanne-Thrse Goermans, as his mistress. The
daughter of harpsichord maker Jacques Goermans, she went by the name of Madame de SaintAubin, and her opportunistic husband pushed her into the arms of the rich financier. She had La
Pouplinire engage the services of the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz, who succeeded
Rameau after a breach developed between Rameau and his patron; however, by then, Rameau no
longer needed La Pouplinire'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."[24]
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, in 1760. This was due to be followed by a final tragdie en musique,
Les Borades; but for unknown reasons, the opera was never produced and had to wait until the late
20th century for a proper staging.[25] Rameau died on 12 September 1764 after suffering from a
fever. He was buried in the church of St. Eustache, Paris the following day.[26]
Rameau's personality
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
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."[27] Physically, Rameau was tall and exceptionally thin,[28] 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
Portrait of Rameau by
Carmontelle, 1760
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bears more than a passing physical resemblance[28]), who frequented La Pouplinire'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. We know that he helped
his nephew Jean-Franois when he came to Paris and also helped establish the career of ClaudeBnigne Balbastre 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 only
possessed one dilapidated single-keyboard harpsichord[29] in his rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants,
yet he also had a bag containing 1691 gold louis.[30]
Music
General character of Rameau's music
Nouvelles Suites de pices de

clavecin - Suite en la mineur
Gavotte et six doubles (6:47)
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.
I. Allemande (3:54)
Nevertheless, it is not solely addressed to the
intelligence, and Rameau himself claimed, "I try to
Performed in 1953 by Marcelle
conceal art with art." The paradox of this music was
Meyer
that it was new, using techniques never known
before, but it took place within the framework of
Problems playing these files? See media
old-fashioned forms. Rameau appeared
help.
revolutionary to the Lullyistes, disturbed by the
complex harmony of his music; and reactionary to the "philosophes," who only paid attention to its
content and who either would not or could not listen to the sound it made. The incomprehension he
received from his contemporaries stopped Rameau 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 render it correctly.
Rameau's musical works

Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups,[31] which differ greatly in
importance: a few cantatas; a few motets 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
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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 Ftes d'Hb, 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 Fidle.[32]
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 motets have been attributed to Rameau
with any certainty: Deus noster refugium, In convertendo, Quam dilecta, and Laboravi.[33]
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[34] and soon taken up by many famous composers of the day, such as
Montclair, Campra, and Clrambault. 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.[35][36]
Instrumental music
Along with Franois Couperin, Rameau is one of the two masters of the French school of
harpsichord music in the 18th century. Both composers made a decisive break with the style of the
first generation of harpsichordists, who confined their compositions to the relatively fixed mould of
the classical suite. This reached its apogee in the first decade of the 18th century with successive
collections of pieces by Louis Marchand, Gaspard Le Roux, Louis-Nicolas Clrambault,
Jean-Franois Dandrieu, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Charles Dieupart, and Nicolas Siret.
Rameau and Couperin have different styles. They seem not to have known one another (Couperin
was one of the official court musicians while Rameau was still an unknown; fame would only come
to him after Couperin's death). Rameau published his first book of harpsichord pieces in 1706 while
Couperin (who was fifteen years his senior) 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 character ("Les tendres plaintes", "L'entretien des Muses") pieces and
works of pure virtuosity that resemble 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 Daquin, Royer, and Jacques Duphly. The suites are
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grouped in the traditional way, by key.

Rameau's three collections appeared in 1706, 1724 and 1726 or 1727, respectively. After this, he
only composed a single piece for the harpsichord: "La Dauphine" (1747). Other works, such as
"Les petits marteaux," have been doubtfully attributed to him.
During his semiretirement in the years 1740 to 1744, he wrote the Pices de clavecin en concert
(1741), which some musicologists consider the pinnacle of French Baroque chamber music.
Adopting a formula successfully employed by Mondonville a few years earlier, these pieces differ
from trio sonatas in that the harpsichord is not simply there as basso continuo to accompany other
instruments (the violin, flute or viol) playing the melody but has an equal part in the "concert" with
them. Rameau also claimed that the pieces would be equally satisfying as solo harpsichord works
although this statement is far from convincing, since the composer took the trouble to transcribe
five of them himself those where the lack of other instruments would show the least.[37][38]
Opera
From 1733, Rameau dedicated himself almost exclusively 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 arias and the recitatives. 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) was essentially divided
into musical sections (da capo 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 comprehensiblelimiting
certain techniques such as the vocalise, which was reserved for special words such as gloire
("glory") or victoire ("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 on the other,
alongside virtuoso "ariettes" in the Italian style. This form of continuous music prefigures
Wagnerian drama even more than does the "reform" opera of Gluck.
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, Rameauthe born symphonist and
master of orchestrationcomposes novel and unique pieces. A few pieces are particularly
striking, such as the overture to Zas, 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 chaconnes of Les Indes galantes or Dardanus.
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Dance music: the danced interludes, which were obligatory even in tragdie 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. [39]
This "learned" composer, forever preoccupied by his next theoretical work, also was one who
strung together gavottes, minuets, loures, rigaudons, passepieds, tambourins, and musettes by
the dozen. According to his biographer, Cuthbert Girdlestone, "The immense superiority of all
that pertains to Rameau in choreography still needs emphasizing," and the German scholar
H.W. von Walthershausen 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.[40]
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 choruseswhether monodic,
polyphonic, or interspersed with passages for solo singers or the orchestraand whatever
feelings needed to be expressed.
Arias: less frequent than in Italian opera, Rameau nevertheless offers many striking examples.
Particularly admired arias include Tlare's "Tristes apprts," from Castor et Pollux; " jour
affreux" and "Lieux funestes," from Dardanus; Huascar's invocations in Les Indes galantes;
and the final ariette in Pigmalion. In Plate 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 (17331739), Rameau wrote his great masterpieces
destined for the Acadmie royale de musique: three tragdies en musique and two opra-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 atmosphere. In his last years, Rameau
returned to a renewed version of his early style in Les Paladins and Les Borades.
His Zoroastre 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 [than in his other works] and with a strong sense of reality."
Rameau and his librettists
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Unlike Lully, who collaborated with Philippe Quinault 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,
who collaborated with him on several operas, including Les ftes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour (1747),
Zas (1748), Nas (1749), Zoroastre (1749; revised 1756), La naissance d'Osiris (1754), and
Anacron (the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754). He is also credited with writing the
libretto of Rameau's final work, Les Borades (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 Pouplinire's salon, at
the Socit du Caveau, 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 (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 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).[41] Traetta had been advised by Count Francesco Algarotti, a leading proponent of
reform according to French models; Algarotti was a major influence on the most important
"reformist" composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck. Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the
1760sOrfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, and Paride ed Elenareveal 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.[42] 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,[43] 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, Rameau's did not. By the end of the 18th century, his operas had vanished from the
repertoire.[44]
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 apprts," but
"whereas the modern listener readily perceives the common ground with Berlioz' music, he himself
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was more conscious of the gap which separated them."[45] French humiliation in the FrancoPrussian War brought about a change in Rameau's fortunes. As Rameau biographer J. Malignon
wrote, "...the German victory over France in 187071 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."[46] In 1894, composer Vincent
d'Indy 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, who especially cherished
Castor et Pollux, revived in 1903: "Gluck'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-Sans (by
editing and publishing the Pices in 1895) and Paul Dukas 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, William Christie, and Marc Minkowski.
Theoretical works
Treatise on Harmony, 1722
Rameau's 1722 Treatise on Harmony initiated a revolution in
music theory.[47] Rameau posited the discovery of the
"fundamental law" or what he referred to as the "fundamental
bass" of all Western music. Rameau's methodology incorporated
mathematics, commentary, analysis and a didacticism that was
specifically intended to illuminate, scientifically, the structure
and principles of music. He attempted to derive universal
harmonic principles from natural causes.[48] Previous treatises
on harmony had been purely practical; Rameau added a
philosophical dimension,[49] and the composer quickly rose to
prominence in France as the "Isaac Newton of Music."[50] 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
Thmatique established by Sylvie Bouissou and
Denis Herlin.[51]
Title page of the Treatise on

Harmony
Gavotte and Variations
Gavotte and Variations (1)
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Instrumental works
Pices de clavecin.
Trois livres.
"Pieces for
harpsichord", 3
books, published
1706, 1724,
1726/27(?).
Tambourin
RCT 1
Premier livre
de Clavecin
(1706)
RCT 2
Pices de
clavecin
(1724) Suite
in E minor
RCT 3
Pices de
clavecin
(1724) Suite
in D major
RCT 4
Pices de
clavecin
(1724)
Menuet in C
major
RCT 5
Nouvelles
suites de
pices de
clavecin
(1726/27)
Suite in A
minor
RCT 6
Nouvelles
suites de
pices de
clavecin
(1726/27)
Suite in G
Pieces de Clavecin
en Concerts 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.
Problems playing these files? See media

help.
Motets
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RCT 13 Deus noster refugium

(c.17131715)
RCT 14 In convertendo (probably before
1720, rev. 1751)
RCT 15 Quam dilecta (c. 17131715)

RCT 16 Laboravi (published in the
Trait 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'pouse entre deux draps (3
sopranos) (formerly attributed to Franois
Couperin)
RCT 18ter Je suis un fou Madame (3
voix gales) (1720)
RCT 19 Mes chers amis, quittez vos

rouges bords (3 sopranos, 3 basses) (pub.
1780)
RCT 20 Rveillez-vous, dormeur sans fin
(5 voix gales) (pub. 1722)
RCT 20bis Si tu ne prends garde toi (2
sopranos, bass) (1720)
Songs
RCT 21.1 L'amante proccupe 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 carrire

or Un hros ouvre sa carrire (alto,
continuo) (1751, air belonging to Acante
et Cphise but censored before its first
performance and never reintroduced in the
work).
Cantatas
RCT 23 Aquilon et Orithie (between
1715 and 1720)[52]
RCT 28 Thtis (same period)
RCT 26 Limpatience (same period)
RCT 22 Les amants trahis (around 1720)

RCT 27 Orphe (same period)
RCT 24 Le berger fidle (1728)
RCT 25 Cantate pour le jour de la Saint
Louis (1740)
Operas and stage works

Tragdies en musique
RCT 43 Hippolyte et Aricie (1733;
revised 1742 and 1757)
RCT 32 Castor et Pollux (1737; revised
1754)
RCT 35 Dardanus (1739; revised 1744

and 1760), score
(http://www.library.unt.edu/music/assets
/vrbr/Rameau1744.pdf)
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RCT 62 Zoroastre (1749; revised 1756,

with new music for Acts II, III & V)
RCT 31 Les Borades or Abaris

(unperformed; in rehearsal 1763)
Opra-ballets
RCT 44 Les Indes galantes (1735;
revised 1736)
RCT 41 Les ftes d'Hb or les Talens
Lyriques (1739)
RCT 39 Les ftes de Polymnie (1745)
RCT 59 Le temple de la gloire (1745;

revised 1746)
RCT 38 Les ftes de l'Hymen et de
l'Amour or Les Dieux d'Egypte (1747)
RCT 58 Les surprises de l'Amour (1748;
revised 1757)
Pastorales hroques
RCT 60 Zas (1748)
RCT 49 Nas (1749)
RCT 29 Acante et Cphise or La

sympathie (1751)
RCT 34 Daphnis et Egl (1753)
Comdies lyriques
RCT 53 Plate or Junon jalouse (1745),
score (http://www.library.unt.edu/music
/assets/vrbr/Rameau.pdf)
RCT 51 Les Paladins or Le Vnitien

(1760)
Comdie-ballet
RCT 54 La princesse de Navarre (1744)
Actes de ballet
RCT 33 Les courses de Temp (1734)
RCT 40 Les ftes de Ramire (1745)
RCT 52 Pigmalion (1748)
RCT 42 La guirlande or Les fleurs
enchantes (1751)
RCT 57 Les sibarites or Sibaris (1753)
RCT 48 La naissance d'Osiris or La Fte
Pamilie (1754)
RCT 30 Anacron (1754)

RCT 58 Anacron (completely different
work from the above, 1757, 3rd Entre of
Les surprises de l'Amour)
RCT 61 Zphire (date unknown)
RCT 50 Nle et Myrthis (date
unknown)
RCT 45 Io (unfinished, date unknown)
Lost works
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RCT 56 Samson (tragdie en musique)

(first version written 1733-1734; second
version 1736; neither were ever staged )
RCT 46 Linus (tragdie en musique)

(1751, score stolen after a rehearsal)
RCT 47 Lisis et Dlie (pastorale)
(scheduled on November 6, 1753)
Incidental music for opras comiques

Music mostly lost.
RCT 36 L'endriague (in 3 acts, 1723)
RCT 37 L'enrlement 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
Trait de l'harmonie rduite ses
principes naturels (Paris, 1722)
Nouveau systme de musique thorique
(Paris, 1726)
Dissertation sur les diffrents mthodes
d'accompagnement pour le clavecin, ou
pour l'orgue (Paris, 1732)
Gnration harmonique, ou Trait de
musique thorique et pratique (Paris,
1737)
Mmoire o l'on expose les fondemens du
Systme de musique thorique et pratique
de M. Rameau (1749)
Dmonstration du principe de l'harmonie
(Paris, 1750)
Nouvelles rflexions de M. Rameau sur sa
'Dmonstration du principe de l'harmonie'
(Paris, 1752)
Observations sur notre instinct pour la
musique (Paris, 1754)
Erreurs sur la musique dans

l'Encyclopdie (Paris, 1755)
Suite des erreurs sur la musique dans
l'Encyclopdie (Paris, 1756)
Reponse de M. Rameau MM. les editeurs
de l'Encyclopdie sur leur dernier
Avertissement (Paris, 1757)
Nouvelles rflexions sur le principe sonore
(17589)
Code de musique pratique, ou Mthodes
pour apprendre la musique...avec des
nouvelles rflexions sur le principe sonore
(Paris, 1760)
Lettre M. Alembert sur ses opinions en
musique (Paris, 1760)
Origine des sciences, suivie d'un
controverse sur le mme sujet (Paris,
1762)
See also
Querelle des Bouffons
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References
Notes
1. New Grove p. 243: "A theorist of European stature, he was also France's leading 18th-century
composer."
2. Girdlestone p. 14: "It is customary to couple him with Couperin as one couples Haydn with Mozart or
Ravel with Debussy."
3. Beaussant p. 21
4. Date of birth given by Chabanon in his loge de M. Rameau(1764)
5. New Grove pp. 207208
6. Girdlestone p. 3
7. Norbert Dufourcq, Le clavecin, p. 87
8. Girdlestone p. 7
9. New Grove
10. New Grove p. 215
11. Girdlestone p. 8
14. Girdlestone, p. 475
18. Beaussant p. 18
22. Viking p. 830
24. Quoted in Beaussant p. 19
25. Viking p. 846
27. Malignon p. 16
29. Compare the inventories of Franois Couperin (one large harpsichord, three spinets and a portable
organ) and Louis Marchand (three harpsichords and three spinets) after their deaths.
31. Apart from the pieces written for the Paris fairs, which haven't survived
32. Beaussant pp. 34043
36. Girdlestone pp. 6371
37. Girdlestone pp. 1452
39. According to the ballet master Gardel: "He divined what the dancers themselves did not know. We look
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upon him rightly as our first master." Quoted by Girdlestone, p. 563.

41. Viking pp. 111011
42. Girdlestone pp .2012
45. Hugh Macdonald The Master Musicians: Berlioz (1982) p. 184
46. Quoted by Graham Sadler in "Vincent d'Indy and the Rameau Oeuvres compltes: a case of forgery?",
Early Music, August 1993, p. 418
47. Christensen, Thomas (2002). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge University
Press. p. 54. ISBN 0-521-62371-5.
50. Christensen, Thomas (2002). The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge University
Press. p. 759. ISBN 0-521-62371-5.
51. Bouissou,S. and Herlin, D., Jean-Philippe Rameau : Catalogue thmatique des uvres musicales (T. 1,
Musique instrumentale. Musique vocale religieuse et profane), CNRS dition et ditions de la BnF,
Paris 2007
52. All dates from Beaussant p. 83
Sources
Beaussant, Philippe, Rameau de A Z (Fayard, 1983)
Girdlestone, Cuthbert, Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work (Dover paperback edition,
1969)
Holden, Amanda, (Ed) The Viking Opera Guide (Viking, 1993)
Sadler, Graham, (Ed.), The New Grove French Baroque Masters (Grove/Macmillan, 1988)
F. Annunziata, Una Tragdie Lyrique nel Secolo dei Lumi. Abaris ou Les Borades di Jean
Philippe Rameau, https://www.academia.edu/6100318
External links
(en) Gavotte with Doubles (http://bach.nau.edu/Rameau
Wikimedia Commons
/GavotteDoubles.html) Hypermedia by Jeff Hall & Tim
has media related to
Smith at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext
Jean-Philippe Rameau.
(http://bach.nau.edu/) Shockwave Player required
("Gavotte with Doubles" link NG)
Wikiquote has
quotations related to:
(en) jp.rameau.free.fr (http://jp.rameau.free.fr
Jean-Philippe Rameau
/jpr-map.htm) Rameau Le Site
(fr) musicologie.org (http://www.musicologie.org
/Biographies/rameau_jp.html) Biography, List of Works, bibliography, discography,
theoretical writings, in French
(en) Jean-Philippe Rameau / Discography (http://www.discographie-rameau.com)
Magnatune (http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/pinnock-rameau/) Les Cyclopes by Rameau
in on-line mp3 format (played by Trevor Pinnock)
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Jean-Philippe Rameau (https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8638) at

Find a Grave
Jean-Philippe Rameau, "L'Orchestre de Louis XV" Suites d'Orchestre, Le Concert des
Nations (http://www.classicalacarte.net/Fiches/9882.htm), dir. Jordi Savall, Alia Vox, AVSA
9882
Sheet music
Free scores by Jean-Philippe Rameau at the International Music Score Library Project
Free scores by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
Rameau (http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=RameauJP) free
sheet music from the Mutopia Project
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean-Philippe_Rameau&
oldid=741519710"
Categories: 1683 births 1764 deaths People from Dijon Baroque composers
Composers for harpsichord French classical composers French male classical composers
French music theorists French opera composers Burials at glise Saint-Eustache, Paris
French ballet composers Composers awarded knighthoods 18th-century classical composers
French male writers
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