Rameau, Jean-Philippe

The son of an organist, he knew the notes before he learned to read. He studied at a Jesuit school. At 18, his father was sent to Italy to improve his musical education in Milan . When he returned, he performed as a violinist in the Montpellier Orchestra, served as an organist in Dijon , Clermont-Ferrand , Lyon . From 1722 settled in Paris. He wrote for Parisian theaters, composed spiritual and secular music, from 1745 he became a court composer.

Rameau became famous as a secular composer (3 Latin motets for spiritual texts belong to the early pre-Paris period of creativity). In the 20th century, he gained universal fame (right up to the piano music repertoire) as the author of pieces for harpsichord (compilations 1706, 1724, 1727) and five “concerts” for harpsichord, violin and viola da gamba (compilation published in 1741) containing suites and bright characteristic pieces ^[1] . Among them, the most famous are Tambourin, Chicken (La poule), Dauphine (La Dauphine), Hammers (Les petits marteaux) ^[2] , Birds roll call (Le Rappel des oiseaux). Pieces for harpsichord - a creative laboratory of Rameau-composer, a place for conducting experiments in the field of harmony , rhythm, texture. For example, the plays “Savages” (Les sauvages) and “Cyclopes” (Les Cyclopes) are extraordinarily inventive in terms of deploying the tonal scale, and the piece “Enharmonic” (L'Enharmonique) is one of the first examples in the history of music of anharmonic modulation.

Rameau created a new opera style, presented in his most famous "musical tragedies" " Hippolytus and Arisia " (1st ed. 1733, 2nd ed. 1742, 3rd ed. 1757) and "Castor and Pollux" (1 I-ed. 1737, 2nd ed. 1754) and in the opera-ballet " Gallant India " ( Les Indes galantes ) ^[3] (1st and 2nd ed. 1735, 3rd ed. 1736). Other operas include Dardan (1st ed. 1739; 2nd ed. 1744, 3rd ed. 1760), Heba Festivals, or Lyric Gifts (1739), Said (Zayed, 1748), “Naida” (1749), “Zoroaster” (“Zarathustra”, 1st ed. 1749, 2nd ed. 1756), “Boready” (1763; 1st stage production - Aix-en-Provence festival, 1982), “lyric comedies” “ Platea ” (Versailles, 1745; 2nd ed. 1749) and “Paladins” (1760). The premieres of all the operas mentioned (unless otherwise indicated) took place on the stage of the Paris Opera.

Rameau also owns seven (not published during his lifetime) cantatas , including Thetis and Impatience (L'Impatience). Popular with modern choristers The Hymn of the Night (“Hymne à la nuit”) is in fact not a composition by Rameau, but by Jean Nione (1888–1962), a treatment for the chorus of the priestess duet (Rendons un éternel hommage, act I, Scene 3) from the opera Hippolytus and Arisia.

The works of Rameau (for their more accurate identification) are usually referred to in the Buissou-Erlin-Deneshaw thematic catalog (adopted RCT , from fr. Rameau Catalog Thématique ) ^[4] .

(in parentheses are the dates of publication; all in Paris):

• A treatise on harmony reduced to its natural principles (Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels, 1722 )
• The new system of theoretical music (Nouveau système de musique théorique, 1726 )
• Discourse on the various ways of accompaniment on the harpsichord or organ (Dissertation sur les différentes méthodes d'accompagnement pour la clavecin ou pour l'orgue, 1732)
• The origin of harmony, or Treatise on theoretical and practical music (Génération harmonique, ou traité de musique théorique et pratique, 1737)
• Demonstration of the basics of harmony (Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie, 1750)
• New thoughts of Mr. Rameau on the demonstration of the basics of harmony (Nouvelles réflexions de M Rameau sur sa démonstration du principe de l'harmonie, 1752)
• Observations on our penchant for music and its [penchant] basics (Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique et sur son principe, 1754)
• Errors in musical articles of the Encyclopedia (Erreurs sur la musique dans l'Encyclopédie, 1755)
• The laws of practical music ... (Code de musique pratique, ou Méthodes pour apprendre la musique ... avec de nouvelles réflexions sur le principe sonore, 1760)

After the death of Rameau, his legacy was eclipsed for a long time by the glory of Gluck as a reformer of the opera scene. Throughout the 19th century, Rameau was forgotten and almost never performed (although his music was carefully studied by Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner ). Only at the turn of the XIX — XX centuries. value of ramo and his music began to grow. In June 1903, Claude Debussy attended a performance of Rameau’s ballet Garland, at the end of which he shouted: “Long live Rameau! Down with Gluck ! ” According to the memoirs of the critic Louis Lalua , it is from this day that you should date the special attachment of Debussy to Rameau ^[5] . Debussy's homage to Rameau is the second play, Dedication to Rameau, from his piano series Images . According to Debussy ^[6] :

Today he is recognized as the largest French composer, the most prominent figure in the music of the first half - the middle of the XVIII century. Denis Didro mentions him in his novel Nephew of Rameau .

In honor of Rameau, a crater on Mercury is named.

• Rameau J.-Ph. Complete Theoretical Writings, edited by Erwin R. Jacobi in 6 volumes // American Institute of Musicology. Miscellanea 3 / 1-6. [sl], 2000, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1969, 1972 (facsimile of all Rameau’s musical treatises with a scientific introduction by the editor).
• Hayes, Deborah . Rameau's theory of harmonic generation: an annotated translation and commentary of Génération harmonique by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Ph. D. diss. Stanford University, 1968 (English translation of the Origin of Harmony; the dissertation is also published as a microfilm in Ann Arbor, 1974).
• Rameau J.-Ph. . Treatise on harmony transl. and ed. by Philip Gosset. New York: Dover, 1971 (English translation of A Treatise on Harmony).
• Hayes, Deborah . Dissertation on the different methods of accompaniment by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Ann Arbor (Michigan), 1974 (English translation of the treatise, "Reasoning on the Different Accompaniment Techniques," exists only as a microfilm).
• Briscoe, Roger Lee . Rameau's Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie and Nouvelles réflexions de M Rameau sur sa démonstration du principe de l'harmonie. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1975 (English translation of the tracts “Demonstration of the foundations of harmony” and “New thoughts of Mr. Rameau on the demonstration of the foundations of harmony”).
• Chandler BG Rameau's Nouveau système de musique théorique: an annotated translation with commentary. Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1975 (English translation of the treatise "A New System of Theoretical Music").
• Lippman E. Musical aesthetics: a historical reader. Vol. 1: From the Antiquity to the eighteenth century. New York, 1986, pp. 339–359 (English translation of the treatise “Observations on our addiction ...”).

• Girdlestone C. Jean-Philippe Rameau: His life and work. 2nd ed. New York: Dover Publications, 1969.631 p. ISBN 0-486-26200-6 .
• Beaussant Ph. Rameau de A à Z. Paris: Fayard, 1983. 397 p. ISBN 2-213-01277-6 .
• Lester, Joel . Compositional theory in the eighteenth century. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1992.
• Lester J. Rameau and musical thought in the Enlightenment // The Cambridge History of Western music theory, ed. by Thomas Christensen. Cambridge, Mass., 2002, pp. 753–778.
• Kholopov Yu. N. Creator of the new science of harmony - Jean-Philippe Rameau // Kholopov Yu. N. [et al. Authors.] Musical-theoretical systems. - M., 2006. - p. 181-191.
• Jean-Philippe Rameau: Catalog thématique des oeuvres musicales, ed. S. Bouissou, D. Herlin, P. Denécheau. Paris 2007–2012.
• Bouissou S. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Musicien des lumières. Paris: Fayard, 2014. ISBN 9782213637860 .
• Sadler G. The Rameau compendium. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2014. ISBN 9781843839057 .
• Harris-Warrick R. Dance and drama in French Baroque opera. Cambridge: CUP, 2016. ISBN 978-1-107-13789-9 .

• List of operas and ballets by Jean-Philippe Rameau
• Pieces for Harpsichord (List) (English)
• Dauphin (Fr.)
• Concert Pieces for Harpsichord (List) (English)
• Motets on Lat. spiritual texts (fr.)

• Rameau, Jean-Philippe: sheet music at International Music Score Library Project
• Works by Jean Philippe Rameau on Classical Connect
• Amateur website about Rameau (Fr.)
• “Anthem of the Night” by Rameau (excerpt from the movie “Chorists”)
• Harris-Warrick R. Dance and drama in French Baroque opera. Cambridge 2016 (preview)