Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French
composerA composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s and
music theoristsMusic theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
of the
BaroqueBaroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
era. He replaced
Jean-Baptiste LullyJean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
as the dominant composer of
French operaFrench opera is one of Europe's most important operatic traditions, containing works by composers of the stature of Rameau, Berlioz, Bizet, Debussy, Poulenc and Olivier Messiaen...
and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside
François CouperinFrançois Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...
.
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 HarmonyTreatise on Harmony is a music treatise written by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The first publication of the treatise was in Paris, 1722 by Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard....
(1722). He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests. His debut,
Hippolyte et AricieHippolyte et Aricie was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which opened to great controversy at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris on October 1, 1733. The libretto, by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera takes the traditional form of a tragédie en...
(1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked for its revolutionary use of harmony by the supporters of Lully's style of music. 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.
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
Rameau's early years are particularly obscure. He was born on September 25, 1683 and baptised the same day. His father, Jean, worked as an organist in several churches around
DijonDijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....
, and his mother, Claudine Demartinécourt, was the daughter of a notary. The couple had eleven children (five girls and six boys), of which 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. 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
MilanMilan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
. On his return, he worked as a violinist in travelling companies and then as an organist in provincial cathedrals before moving to
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
for the first time. Here, in 1706, he published his earliest known compositions: the
harpsichordA harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
works that make up his first book of
Pièces de clavecin, which show the influence of his friend
Louis MarchandLouis Marchand 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 virtuosi of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, at the...
. 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
LyonLyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais....
and Clermont. During this period, he composed
motetIn classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
s for church performance as well as secular
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s. 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 PironAlexis Piron was a French epigrammatist and dramatist.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 clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied law...
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 February 25, 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
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
tragédie en musique after seeing Montéclair's
Jephté in 1732. Rameau's
Hippolyte et AricieHippolyte et Aricie was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which opened to great controversy at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris on October 1, 1733. The libretto, by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera takes the traditional form of a tragédie en...
premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique on October 1, 1733. It was immediately recognised as the most significant opera to appear in France since the death of
LullyJean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
, but audiences were split over whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Some, such as the composer
André CampraAndré Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...
, 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 powerful financier
Alexandre Le Riche de La PoupelinièreAlexandre Jean Joseph Le Riche de La Pouplinière was an immensely wealthy fermier général who was one of the greatest patrons of music and musicians of the eighteenth century. A true patron of the Enlightenment he gathered round him a circle of artists, men of letters and musicians...
, who became his patron until 1753. La Pouplinière'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 Pouplinière's private orchestra, which was of an extremely high quality. He held the post for 22 years; he was succeeded by
Johann StamitzJan Václav Antonín Stamic was a Czech composer and violinist. Johann was the father of Carl Stamitz and Anton Stamitz, also composers...
and then Gossec. La Pouplinière's salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day, including
VoltaireFrançois-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, who soon began collaborating with the composer. Their first project, the
tragédie en musique SamsonThree operas by the major French 18th century composer Jean-Philippe Rameau are known to have been lost.-Samson:Rameau intended this work on the theme of Samson and Delilah as the follow-up to his first opera Hippolyte et Aricie. Like that, Samson was a tragédie en musique in five acts...
, 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-balletOpéra-ballet was a popular genre of French Baroque opera, "that grew out of the ballets à entrées of the early seventeeth century". It differed from the more elevated tragédie en musique as practised by Jean-Baptiste Lully in several ways...
with the highly successful
Les Indes galantesLes Indes galantes is an opéra-ballet consisting of a prologue and four entrées by Jean-Philippe Rameau with libretto by Louis Fuzelier...
. It was followed by two
tragédies en musique,
Castor et PolluxCastor et Pollux is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard, whose reputation as a salon poet it made. This was the third opera by Rameau and his second in the form of the...
(1737) and
Dardanus (1739), and another
opéra-ballet, Les fêtes d'HébéLes fêtes d'Hébé, ou Les talents lyriques is an opéra-ballet in a prologue and three entrées by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The libretto was written by Antoine Gautier de Montdorge...
(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 watershed in Rameau's career. He received several commissions from the court for works to celebrate the French victory at the
Battle of FontenoyThe Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies – comprising mainly Dutch, British, and Hanoverian troops under the nominal command of the Duke of Cumberland – and a French army under Maurice de...
and the marriage of the Dauphin to Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain. Rameau produced his most important comic opera,
PlatéePlatée 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 by Jacques Autreau and had d'Orville modify it...
, as well as two collaborations with Voltaire: the
opéra-ballet Le temple de la gloireLe temple de la Gloire is an opéra-ballet in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 27 November 1745 at the Grande Ecurie, Versailles, and is set to a libretto by Voltaire.-Singers:*Envy*Apollo...
and the
comédie-ballet La princesse de NavarreLa princesse de Navarre is a comédie-ballet with music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and words by Voltaire, first performed on 23 February 1745 at La Grande Ecurie, Versailles.-Performance history:...
. 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 RousseauJean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
. 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
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
called
Les fêtes de RamireLes fêtes de Ramire 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 Versailles....
. 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 of 1752–54, which pitted French
tragédie en musique against Italian
opera buffaOpera buffa 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’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
. 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 padronaLa serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
. In the mid-1750s, Rameau criticised Rousseau's contributions to the musical articles in the
Encyclopédie, which led to a quarrel with the leading
philosophes d'AlembertJean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. He was also co-editor with Denis Diderot of the Encyclopédie...
and Diderot. As a result, Rameau became a character in Diderot's then-unpublished dialogue,
Le neveu de Rameau (
Rameau's Nephew).
In 1753, La Pouplinière 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 Pouplinière engage the services of the
BohemiaBohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
n composer
Johann StamitzJan Václav Antonín Stamic was a Czech composer and violinist. Johann was the father of Carl Stamitz and Anton Stamitz, also composers...
, who succeeded Rameau after a breach developed between Rameau and his patron; however, by then, Rameau no longer needed La Pouplinière'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 PaladinsLes Paladins is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760. The author of the libretto is unknown, but it has been attributed to Duplat de Monticourt...
, in 1760. This was due to be followed by a final
tragédie en musique, Les BoréadesLes Boréades or Abaris is an opera in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was the last of Rameau's five tragédies en musique...
; 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 September 12, 1764 after suffering from a fever. He was buried in the church of
St. EustacheL’église Saint-Eustache is a church in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, built between 1532 and 1632.Situated at the entrance to Paris’s ancient markets and the beginning of rue Montorgueil, the Église de Saint-Eustache is considered a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture...
, Paris the following day.
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 RameauRameau's Nephew, or the Second Satire is an imaginary philosophical conversation written by Denis Diderot, probably between 1761 and 1772....
. 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." 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 Pouplinière'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-François when he came to Paris and also helped establish the career of
Claude-Bénigne BalbastreClaude Balbastre was a French composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was one of the most famous musicians of his time.-Life:Claude Balbastre was born in Dijon in 1724...
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 in his rooms in Rue des Bons-Enfants, yet he also had a bag containing 1691 gold louis.
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 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, which differ greatly in importance: a few
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s; a few
motetIn classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
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
motetIn classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...
s have been attributed to Rameau with any certainty:
Deus noster refugium,
In convertendo,
Quam dilecta, and
Laboravi.
Cantatas
The
cantataA cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
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 RousseauJean-Baptiste Rousseau was a French poet.-Biography:Rousseau was born in Paris, the son of a shoemaker, and was well educated. As a young man, he gained favour with Boileau, who encouraged him to write. Rousseau began with the theatre, for which he had no aptitude...
and soon taken up by many famous composers of the day, such as Montéclair,
CampraAndré Campra was a French composer and conductor.Campra was one of the leading French opera composers in the period between Jean-Baptiste Lully and Jean-Philippe Rameau. He wrote several tragédies en musique, but his chief claim to fame is as the creator of a new genre, opéra-ballet...
, and
ClérambaultLouis-Nicolas Clérambault was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born and died in Paris.-Biography:...
. 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 CouperinFrançois Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...
, 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 MarchandLouis Marchand 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 virtuosi of his time. He worked as organist of numerous churches and, for a few years, at the...
,
Gaspard Le RouxGaspard Le Roux was a French harpsichordist active in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century. Little is known of his life; only by one quotation in a list of professors considered in Paris, and a single collection of suites for one and two harpsichords which appeared in 1705: it is one of the...
,
Louis-Nicolas ClérambaultLouis-Nicolas Clérambault was a French musician, best known as an organist and composer. He was born and died in Paris.-Biography:...
,
Jean-François DandrieuJean-François Dandrieu was a French Baroque composer, harpsichordist and organist.He was born in Paris into a family of artists and musicians. A gifted and precocious child, he gave his first public performances when he was 5 years old, playing the harpsichord for Louis XIV, King of France, and...
,
Elisabeth Jacquet de la GuerreÉlisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre was a French musician, harpsichordist and composer.-Life and works:...
,
Charles DieupartCharles Dieupart was a French harpsichordist, violinist, and composer. Although he was known as Charles to his contemporaries, his real name may have been François. He was most probably born in Paris, but spent much of his life in London, where he settled sometime after 1702/3...
, and
Nicolas SiretNicolas Siret 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 Paul...
.
Rameau and Couperin have very different styles and Rameau cannot be considered the follower of the older composer. 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
ScarlattiGiuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...
("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 DuphlyJacques Duphly was a French harpsichordist and organist, and the composer of bright, lively, and attractive keyboard music.- Biography :...
. The suites are 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
Pièces de clavecin en concert (1741). Adopting a formula successfully employed by
MondonvilleMondonville is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.-Population:-References:*...
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.
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
ariaAn aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s and the
recitativeRecitative , also known by its Italian name "recitativo" , is a style of delivery in which a singer is allowed to adopt the rhythms of ordinary speech...
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 seriaOpera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
,
opera buffaOpera buffa 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’, ‘dramma bernesco’, ‘dramma comico’, ‘divertimento giocoso' etc...
) was essentially divided into musical sections (
da capoDa Capo is a musical term in Italian, meaning from the beginning . It is often abbreviated D.C. It is a composer or publisher's directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space. In small pieces this might be the same thing as a repeat, but in larger works D.C...
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
vocaliseA vocalise is a vocal exercise without words, which is sung on one or more vowel sounds.-In classical music:Vocalise dates back to the mid-18th century...
, 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
ariosoIn classical music, arioso is a style of solo opera singing between recitative and aria. Literally, arioso means airy. The term arose in the 16th century along with the aforementioned styles and monody. It is commonly confused with recitativo accompagnato....
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
A ritornello is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. The first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria may be in "ritornello form", in which the ritornello is the opening theme, always played by tutti, which returns in whole or in part and in different keys throughout...
, 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 modelThe French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period. Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs. They are complementary in styles , and the first ends with a half-cadence that requires an answering structure with a...
, 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 chaconneA chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
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 originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
s, minuetA minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
s, loureThe loure, also known as the gigue lente or slow gigue, is a French Baroque dance, probably originating in Normandy and named after the sound of the instrument of the same name ....
s, rigaudonThe rigaudon 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 ....
s, passepiedThe passepied is a 17th- and 18th-century dance that originated in Brittany. The term can also be used to describe the music to which a passepied is set...
s, tambourinA tambourin is a piece of music that imitates a drum, usually as a repetitive not-very-melodic figure in the bass.A tambourin itself is a small, two-headed drum of Arabic origin, mentioned as early as the 1080s . It was played together with a small flute .A tambourin, as a dance, hails from Provence...
s, and musettesBal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s.Auvergnats settled in large numbers in the 5th, 11th, and 12th districts of Paris during the 19th century, opening cafés and bars where patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of musette de...
by the dozen. According to his biographer, Cuthbert GirdlestoneCuthbert Morton Girdlestone was a British musicologist and literary scholar. He was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and thereafter took up the chair in French in Armstrong College, later to be King's College in Newcastle in 1926, a position he held until 1960...
, "The immense superiority of all that pertains to Rameau in choreography still needs emphasizing," and the German scholar H.W. von Walthershausen affirmed:
- 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 poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
, polyphonicIn music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, 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.
- Recitative: much closer to arioso than to recitativo secco. The composer took scrupulous care to observe French prosody
In linguistics, prosody is the rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech. Prosody may reflect various features of the speaker or the utterance: the emotional state of the speaker; the form of the utterance ; the presence of irony or sarcasm; emphasis, contrast, and focus; or other elements of...
and used his harmonic knowledge to give expression to his protagonists' feelings.
During the first part of his operatic career (1733–39), 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
pastoralThe adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
atmosphere. In his last years, Rameau returned to a renewed version of his early style in
Les Paladins and
Les Boréades.
His
ZoroastreZoroastre is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 5 December 1749 at the Opéra in Paris. The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. Zoroastre was the fourth of Rameau's tragédies en musique to be staged and the last to appear during the composer's own lifetime...
was first performed in 1749. According to one of Rameau's admirers,
Cuthbert GirdlestoneCuthbert Morton Girdlestone was a British musicologist and literary scholar. He was educated at Cambridge and the Sorbonne, and thereafter took up the chair in French in Armstrong College, later to be King's College in Newcastle in 1926, a position he held until 1960...
, 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
Unlike Lully, who collaborated with
Philippe QuinaultPhilippe Quinault , 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 was produced at the Hôtel de Bourgogne in 1653, when he was only eighteen...
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 CahusacLouis de Cahusac was a French playwright and librettist, most famous for his work with the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau...
).
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 the acquaintance of most of them at La Pouplinière's salon, at the Société 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 seriaOpera seria is an Italian musical term which refers to the noble and "serious" style of Italian opera that predominated in Europe from the 1710s to c. 1770...
.
Tommaso TraettaTommaso Michele Francesco Saverio Traetta was an Italian composer.-Biography:Traetta was born in Bitonto, a town near Bari, near the top of the heel of the boot of Italy. He eventually became a pupil of the composer, singer and teacher Nicola Porpora in Naples, and scored a first success with his...
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, a leading proponent of reform according to French models; Algarotti was a major influence on the most important "reformist" composer, Christoph Willibald von Gluck. Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the 1760s—
Orfeo ed EuridiceOrfeo ed Euridice is an opera composed by Christoph Willibald Gluck based on the myth of Orpheus, set to a libretto by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. It belongs to the genre of the azione teatrale, meaning an opera on a mythological subject with choruses and dancing...
,
AlcesteAlceste is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck from 1767. The libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and based on the play Alcestis by Euripides. The premiere took place in Vienna.-Preface and reforms:...
, and
Paride ed ElenaParide ed Elena is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, the third and final of his Italian reformist works, following Orfeo ed Euridice and Alceste. Like its predecessors, its libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi. The opera tells the story of the events between the Judgment of Paris and...
—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 RevolutionThe French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
, 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 BerliozHector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
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 WarThe Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
brought about a change in Rameau's fortunes. As Rameau biographer J. 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'IndyVincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
founded the
Schola CantorumThe Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private music school in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera...
to promote French national music; the society put on several revivals of works by Rameau. Among the audience was
Claude DebussyClaude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
, who especially cherished
Castor et Pollux, revived in 1903: "
GluckChristoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
'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-SaënsCharles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
(by editing and publishing the Pièces in 1895) and
Paul DukasPaul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
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 GardinerSir John Eliot Gardiner CBE FKC is an English conductor. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique...
,
William ChristieWilliam Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
, and
Marc MinkowskiMarc Minkowski is a French conductor of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics and one of the founders of neonatology...
.
Theoretical works
Treatise on Harmony, 1722
Rameau's 1722
Treatise on Harmony 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. 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. Previous treatises on harmony had been purely practical; Rameau added a philosophical dimension, and the composer quickly rose to prominence in France as the "Isaac Newton 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. Trois livres. "Pieces for harpsichord", 3 books, published 1706, 1724, 1726/27(?).
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 minor
Pieces de Clavecin en ConcertsThe Pièces de clavecin en concert, published in 1741, constitute the only chamber music by Jean-Philippe Rameau and were composed in full maturity; they came after his music for solo harpsichord, and just before Les Indes galantes....
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)
- 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
François Couperin was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist. He was known as Couperin le Grand to distinguish him from other members of the musically talented Couperin family.-Life:Couperin was born in Paris...
)
- 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
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
) (1763)
- RCT 21.2 – Lucas, pour se gausser de nous (soprano, bass, continuo
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
) (pub. 1707)
- RCT 21.3 – Non, non, le dieu qui sait aimer (soprano, continuo
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
) (1763)
- RCT 21.4 – Un Bourbon ouvre sa carrière or Un héros ouvre sa carrière (alto, continuo
Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords, and non-chord tones, in relation to a bass note...
) (1751, air belonging to Acante et CéphiseAcante et Céphise, ou La sympathie is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 19 November 1751 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque in three acts. The librettist was Jean-François Marmontel. The opera was written to celebrate the birth of the Duke of...
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)
Tragédies en musique
- RCT 43 – Hippolyte et Aricie
Hippolyte et Aricie was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which opened to great controversy at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris on October 1, 1733. The libretto, by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera takes the traditional form of a tragédie en...
(1733; revised 1742)
- RCT 32 – Castor et Pollux
Castor et Pollux is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 24 October 1737 at the Académie royale de musique in Paris. The librettist was Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard, whose reputation as a salon poet it made. This was the third opera by Rameau and his second in the form of the...
(1737; revised 1754)
- RCT 35 – Dardanus
Dardanus is an opera in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The French libretto was by Charles-Antoine Leclerc de La Bruère.-Performance history:It was first performed at the Académie de musique in Paris on November 19, 1739...
(1739; revised 1744 and 1760), score
- RCT 62 – Zoroastre
Zoroastre is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 5 December 1749 at the Opéra in Paris. The libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. Zoroastre was the fourth of Rameau's tragédies en musique to be staged and the last to appear during the composer's own lifetime...
(1749; revised 1756, with new music for Acts II, III & V)
- RCT 31 – Les Boréades
Les Boréades or Abaris is an opera in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was the last of Rameau's five tragédies en musique...
or Abaris (unperformed; in rehearsal 1763)
Opéra-ballets
- RCT 44 – Les Indes galantes
Les Indes galantes is an opéra-ballet consisting of a prologue and four entrées by Jean-Philippe Rameau with libretto by Louis Fuzelier...
(1735; revised 1736)
- RCT 41 – Les fêtes d'Hébé
Les fêtes d'Hébé, ou Les talents lyriques is an opéra-ballet in a prologue and three entrées by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The libretto was written by Antoine Gautier de Montdorge...
or les Talens Lyriques (1739)
- RCT 39 – Les fêtes de Polymnie
Les fêtes de Polymnie is an opéra-ballet in three entrées and a prologue by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 12 October 1745 at the Opéra, Paris, and is set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac...
(1745)
- RCT 59 – Le temple de la gloire
Le temple de la Gloire is an opéra-ballet in five acts by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The work was first performed on 27 November 1745 at the Grande Ecurie, Versailles, and is set to a libretto by Voltaire.-Singers:*Envy*Apollo...
(1745; revised 1746)
- RCT 38 – Les fêtes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour
Les fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour 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, Versailles, and is set to a libretto by Louis de Cahusac. The opera was originally composed as...
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 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 a libretto by Gentil-Bernard...
(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....
(1748)
- RCT 49 – Naïs
Naïs is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 22 April 1749 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque in three acts and a prologue. The librettist was Louis de Cahusac, in the fourth collaboration between him and Rameau...
(1749)
- RCT 29 – Acante et Céphise
Acante et Céphise, ou La sympathie is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 19 November 1751 at the Opéra in Paris. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque in three acts. The librettist was Jean-François Marmontel. The opera was written to celebrate the birth of the Duke of...
or La sympathie (1751)
- RCT 34 – Daphnis et Eglé
Daphnis et Eglé is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 30 October 1753 at Fontainebleau. It takes the form of a pastorale héroïque in one act. The librettist was Charles Collé, and this was the only artistic collaboration between Collé and Rameau. Paul F...
(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 by Jacques Autreau and had d'Orville modify it...
or Junon jalouse (1745), score
- RCT 51 – Les Paladins
Les Paladins is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 12 February 1760. The author of the libretto is unknown, but it has been attributed to Duplat de Monticourt...
or Le Vénitien (1760)
Actes de ballet
- RCT 33 – Les courses de Tempé (1734)
- RCT 40 – Les fêtes de Ramire
Les fêtes de Ramire 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 Versailles....
(1745)
- RCT 52 – Pigmalion
For the opera by Georg Benda see Pygmalion Pigmalion is an opera in the form of a one-act acte de ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau first performed on 27 August 1748 at the Opéra in Paris. The libretto is by Ballot de Sovot. The work has generally been regarded as the best of Rameau's one-act pieces...
(1748)
- RCT 42 – La guirlande
La guirlande 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...
or Les fleurs enchantées (1751)
- RCT 57 – Les sibarites
Les sibarites 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 war between Sybaris and Croton. The conflict ends when the king and queen of the two...
or Sibaris (1753)
- RCT 48 – La naissance d'Osiris
La naissance d'Osiris, ou La fête Pamilie is an opera in the form of a one-act acte de ballet by Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed on 12 October 1754 at Fontainebleau to celebrate the birth of the future King Louis XVI. The libretto is by Rameau's frequent collaborator Louis de Cahusac...
or La Fête Pamilie (1754)
- RCT 30 – Anacréon
Anacréon is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau which was first performed at Fontainebleau on 23 October 1754. Its libretto is by Louis de Cahusac. It takes the form of an acte de ballet in one act. Rameau also composed another opera called Anacréon in 1757...
(1754)
- RCT 58 – Anacréon
Anacréon is an opera by the French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, first performed at the Opéra, Paris, on 31 May 1757 as part of a revised version of the opéra-ballet Les surprises de l'Amour. It takes the form of a one-act acte de ballet and has a libretto by Pierre-Joseph-Justin Bernard . Rameau...
(completely different work from the above, 1757, 3rd Entrée of Les surprises de l'AmourLes surprises de l'Amour is an opéra-ballet in two entrées 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 a libretto by Gentil-Bernard...
)
- RCT 61 – Zéphire
Zéphire is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the form of a one-act acte de ballet. Nothing is known about the date of its composition and in all likelihood it was probably not performed in Rameau's lifetime...
(date unknown)
- RCT 50 – Nélée et Myrthis
Nélée et Myrthis is an opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the form of a one-act acte de ballet. Nothing is known about the date of its composition, performance during Rameau's lifetime or the name of its librettist. It may have been intended to form part of a larger opéra-ballet to be called Les...
(date unknown)
- RCT 45 – Io
Io is an unfinished opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau in the form of a one-act acte de ballet. The date of its composition is unknown and it was probably unperformed during Rameau's lifetime...
(unfinished, date unknown)
Lost works
- RCT 56 – Samson (tragédie en musique) (partially performed in 1734)
- RCT 46 – Linus (tragédie en musique) (1752, score stolen after a rehearsal)
- RCT 47 – Lysis 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 (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 (1758–9)
- 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)
Media
Sources
- Cuthbert Girdlestone Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work (Dover paperback edition, 1969)
- The New Grove French Baroque Masters ed. Graham Sadler (Grove/Macmillan, 1988)
- The Viking Opera Guide ed. Amanda Holden (Viking, 1993)
- Rameau de A à Z Philippe Beaussant (Fayard, 1983)
External links
- (en) Gavotte with Doubles Hypermedia by Jeff Hall & Tim Smith at the BinAural Collaborative Hypertext – Shockwave Player required
- (en) jp.rameau.free.fr Rameau – Le Site
- (fr) musicologie.org 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 CBE is an English conductor, harpsichordist, and occasional organist and pianist.He is best known for his association with the period-performance orchestra The English Concert which he helped found and directed from the keyboard for over 30 years in baroque and early classical...
)
- http://www.classicalacarte.net/Fiches/9882.htm 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
The Mutopia Project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books.The music is reproduced from old scores that are out of copyright...