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Music Jean-Philippe Rameau
by
Charles Dill

Introduction

Jean-Philippe Rameau (b. 1683–d. 1764) was trained as a keyboardist. Most of his early career was as church organist; his best-known job was at Dijon. Consistent with his earlier pursuits in addition to keyboardist, Rameau continued to compose, publish, and perform keyboard music after moving to Paris in 1722, but from that point on his principal interests became opera and music theory. As an opera composer, Rameau’s output included five tragédies en musique (lyric tragedies)—one not performed until after his death and two additional ones never completed—and twenty-four operas in lighter genres. His operas were continuously revived until the Revolution, when French tastes changed substantially, and musicians and critics acknowledged their importance well into the early years of the 20th century, when a full-scale revival of interest in his works took place. From 1722 on, Rameau was also known as a music theorist. Using the harmonic series as his basis, he conceived harmonic function in terms of a fundamental bass, which allowed him to develop ideas of triadic inversion, along with assigned functions like tonic, subdominant, and dominant.

Reference Works

Although Rameau has not enjoyed the extended treatment some of his contemporaries have received, recent decades have seen a rapid growth in large-scale projects dedicated to him, partly in response to celebrations of the tricentennial of his birth in 1983. La Gorce 1987 is the most concentrated of these efforts, but articles from this period can be found throughout the present bibliography. Foster 1989, which took care to provide an up-to-date summary of research, is an outgrowth of this renewed interest and provides a valuable picture of research prior to and during this time. As is often the case with celebrations of composers, the period also saw calls for an improved scholarly apparatus, of which Bouissou and Herlin 2003– is one result. (For similar results, see Editions.) These recent efforts can justifiably be regarded as catalysts of a revolution in Rameau scholarship, stimulating the new and current ideas found in source, diplomatic, and textual criticism.

  • Bouissou, Sylvie, and Denis Herlin, eds. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Catalogue thématique des oeuvres musicales. 5 vols. Collection Sciences de la Musique. Paris: CNRS Éditions, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 2003–.

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    The critical catalogue of Rameau’s works, prepared in the context of Bouisou, et al. 1996 (cited under Editions). Volume 1 is devoted to nondramatic music and Volume 2 to librettos and literary sources; Volumes 3 and 4 will be devoted to dramatic works; and Volume 5 to bibliographic resources and an index.

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  • Foster, Donald H. Jean-Philippe Rameau: A Guide to Research. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities 895. New York: Garland, 1989.

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    A meticulous, comprehensive, and generously annotated bibliography. Its only flaw is the inevitable one: a considerable amount of research has subsequently been published, during a period in which the nature of Rameau research has changed dramatically. Still repays consultation.

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  • La Gorce, Jérôme de, ed. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Colloque international organisé par la Société Rameau, Dijon—21–24 septembre 1983. Paris: Champion, 1987.

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    Essays from a conference celebrating the third centenary of Rameau’s birth, with essays covering his early career, sources, style, theoretical background, and performance practice. The authors include the most important Rameau scholars and French Baroque specialists of the 20th century.

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Editions

The quality of an edition exerts enormous influence on musical perceptions, not to mention the formulation of research questions. Especially with regard to commentaries from the late- 19th and 20th centuries, it is useful to know which editions writers consulted, the weaknesses and biases of the editions, and how the task of editing was approached. In this context, the significance of the Chefs-d’oeuvre classiques de l’Opéra français (Michaelis, et al. 1971) cannot be underestimated; its creation in 1877 signaled a new interest in early French opera that led to Saint-Saëns, et al. 1968, first published in the early years of the 20th century. The next significant editorial work emerged in the 1960s, reflecting the interest in that period in keyboard repertory and correct performance practice. The facsimile editions of Rameau’s keyboard music in Gilbert 1979 and Jacobi 1990 point to growing concerns over the editorial principles of earlier editions, and, indeed, the problems in those earlier editions were substantial. The late 1960s and early 1970s also saw new interest in Rameau’s theoretical ideas, and important editions of his treatises followed, including Jacobi 1967–1972, also in facsimile; and Gossett 1971, a translation of Rameau’s best-known treatise. The 21st century has seen the establishment of a wide-ranging critical project (Bouissou and Herlin 2003–, cited in Reference Works; Bouissou, et al. 1996–) that will affect not only future scholarship but performances as well. In recent years, Rameau scholarship has also extended into his few but noteworthy examples of religious music; Duron 2005 follows the high scholarly standards established for the Rameau critical project.

  • Bouissou, Sylvie, et al., eds. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Opera omnia. 20 vols. Paris: G. Billaudot, 1996–.

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    The modern critical edition, with clear, up-to-date critical guidelines. The fourth series collects the dramatic works, arranged chronologically. For works extensively revised by Rameau, the edition provides a second complete, edited volume, chronologically ordered. The fifth and sixth series will include fragmentary, incomplete works, and facsimiles. Includes piano-vocal arrangements.

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  • Duron, Jean, ed. Jean-Philippe Rameau: La musique religieuse. Patrimoine Musical Français. Versailles, France: Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, 2005.

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    A critical edition of the four motets that can be securely attributed to Rameau. Includes an overview of Rameau’s religious music, a description of the sources, and a review of the compositional process for in convertendo. A number of facsimiles are included.

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  • Gilbert, Kenneth, ed. Pièces de clavecin. Le Pupitre 59. Paris: Heugel, 1979.

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    Modern edition of the three editions of 1706, 1724, and 1728, including facsimiles of Rameau’s ornamentation table and comments on playing from 1724. Works to correct some of the errors in the Rameau keyboard editions available in facsimile (see Harpsichord Music).

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  • Gossett, Philip, ed. and trans. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Treatise on Harmony. New York: Dover, 1971.

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    An annotated complete translation of Rameau’s first and most famous theoretical treatise into English. This treatise is the basis for most of his ideas that followed.

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  • Jacobi, Erwin R., ed. The Complete Theoretical Writings of Jean-Philippe Rameau. 6 vols. N.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1967–1972.

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    Collects Rameau’s theoretical writings in facsimile and organizes them chronologically. It is valuable because Rameau’s compositions and theoretical writings were associated in public commentary. Rameau often drew his musical examples from his own operas, as well as other prominent French composers, notably Lully.

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  • Jacobi, Erwin R., ed. Pièces de clavecin. 5th ed. Kassel, Germany: Bärenreiter, 1990.

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    Originally published 1958; based on the 1706, 1724, 1728, 1731, and 1741 published collections. Includes Rameau’s instructions for playing the harpsichord and facsimiles of his ornament tables.

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  • Michaëlis, T., C. Franck, F. A. Gevaert, et al., eds. Chefs-d’oeuvre classiques de l’Opéra français. New York: Broude, 1971.

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    Widely reproduced collection of piano-vocal scores, includes seven of Rameau’s operas. Outdated and unreliable, it continues to introduce new generations of music students to Rameau’s operas through its arrangements. These were the editions best known by those driving the Rameau revival of the early 20th century. Originally published in thirty-three volumes (Paris: Michaëlis, 1877–1884). The above is a facsimile edition composed of forty volumes.

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  • Saint-Saëns, Camille, et al., eds. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Oeuvres complètes. 20 vols. New York: Broude, 1968.

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    The edition that dominated Rameau scholarship in the 20th century. An elegantly produced series, it reflects musical interests at the turn of the 20th century and some of its musical texts are unreliable (see Sadler 1993 in Historical Reception). Some volumes contain generous introductory essays by Charles Malherbe. Revised passages are included as appendices. Originally published in 18 volumes (Paris: A. Durand et fils, 1895–1924).

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Biographical Studies

The most relevant biographical information can be found in the works listed throughout Reference Works and Editions. Aside from encyclopedia articles, however, Girdlestone 1969 is the only modern study devoted to Rameau’s entire career. There are also important areas in Rameau’s life that do not ordinarily receive treatment. The earliest biographies are valuable because they tell us a great deal about how Rameau was perceived by contemporaries; Decroix 1827, Reilly 1983, and Schneider 1985 all deal with primary sources from the 18th century. Information on Rameau’s early career is especially valuable because he began his operatic and theoretical careers so late in life, and we know so little about his preparation for them. Sadler 1974 and Zaslaw 1987 provide valuable insight into his formative stages.

  • Decroix, Jean-Joseph-Marie. “Rameau (Jean-Philippe).” In Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne. Edited by J-Fr. Michaud and Louis Gabriel Michaud. 85 vols. Paris: Michaud Frères, 1827.

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    An early biography of Rameau, written by a collector with an interest in the composer. Comments on music, music theory, and reception. Though old, this biographical dictionary can usually be found in research libraries. An edition by Beck, et al., 1811–1862, locates Decroix’s article in volume 37, pp. 28–35.

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  • Girdlestone, Cuthbert. Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work. 2d ed. New York: Dover, 1969.

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    Girdlestone sometimes approached his topic as an enthusiast rather than musicologist; nevertheless, this remains the most comprehensive treatment of Rameau in English. Girdlestone possessed a good ear and a genuine admiration for Rameau. Contains biographical information and chapters on the main tragédies and opéra-ballets. Earlier edition (London: Cassell, 1957). Later published as Jean-Philippe Rameau: Sa vie, son oeuvre (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1983).

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  • Reilly, Edward R. “Chabanon’s Éloge de M. Rameau.” Studies in Music from the University of Western Ontario 8 (1983): 1–24.

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    Rameau’s obituaries are always revealing. This is an annotated English translation of one by Rameau’s acquaintance, Chabanon, which was originally published as a pamphlet. It provides not only a biography, but also a frank assessment of the ambivalence Rameau encountered and of the musical values informing his compositions. Pamphlet originally published as Éloge de M. Rameau (Paris: M. Lambert, 1764).

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau, Piron and the Parisian Fair Theatres.” Soundings 4 (1974): 13–29.

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    Lays out what we know of Rameau’s collaborations with Piron in the decade prior to his first opera. These began as soon as Rameau arrived in Paris. Revealing a humble beginning, the works were written for Parisian fair theaters and mark an important stage in the development of his operatic style.

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  • Schneider, Herbert. “Rameau et sa famille: Nouveaux documents.” Recherches sur la musique française classique 23 (1985): 94–130.

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    Contains the documents pertaining to Rameau and his family from the Decroix collection (see also Decroix 1827). It is especially rich in material related to Rameau’s son, Claude-François (including a list of the contents of his library).

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  • Zaslaw, Neal. “Rameau’s Operatic Apprenticeship: The First Fifty Years.” In Jean-Philippe Rameau: Colloque international organisé par la Société Rameau, Dijon—21–24 septembre 1983. Edited by Jérôme de La Gorce, 23–50. Paris: Champion, 1987.

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    Begins with an account of the problems in researching Rameau’s early career and describes some of the more important formative stages. Two appendices outline a documentary biography for Rameau’s first fifty years and survey the earliest bibliographies pertaining to Rameau.

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Rameau as Theorist

Rameau was, in 18th-century terms, a musician pure and simple; that was how he received his training, and it was the context in which he was viewed socially. At the same time, however, he also received attention because, from 1722 on, he published treatises on music theory in the midst of an avid literary culture. As a theorist, Rameau was ambitious, openly desiring appreciation for his role as a Cartesian or Newtonian philosopher of music, but running afoul of the philosophes for his tendentious beliefs. General surveys of Rameau’s ideas are fewer in number than one might expect. Shirlaw 1970, though still widely available, has been superceded by Christensen 1993. Recent work, beginning with Christensen 1993, has sought to better understand the epistemological framework of Rameau’s theories, their nuances, and Rameau’s involvement with contemporary scientific and philosophical ideas. Especially useful for understanding Rameau’s place in 18th-century thought are Cohen 2001, Gur 2008, and Moreno 2004. Montagnier 2003 probes an interesting instance involving Rameau’s theoretical ideas and his musical practices, always an informative line of inquiry for dealing with Rameau.

  • Christensen, Thomas. Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment. Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis 4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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    The definitive commentary on Rameau’s theories, likely to stand for some time. Valuable not least for the connection between his theories and his operas. Chapters devoted to Enlightenment thought, Rameau’s precursors, his ideas of the fundamental bass, and the corps sonore.

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  • Cohen, David. “The ‘Gift of Nature’: Musical ‘Instinct’ and Musical Cognition in Rameau.” In Music Theory and Natural Order from the Renaissance to the Early Twentieth Century. Edited by Suzannah Clark and Alexander Rehding, 68–92. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.

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    An analysis of Rameau’s theoretical project from the standpoint of modern ideas of cognition. The essay investigates issues such as sensory perception, instinct, and nature. Shows how Rameau treated the ear not as an aspect of mind, but of the senses.

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  • Gur, Golan. “Body, Forces, and Paths: Metaphor and Embodiment in Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Conceptualization of Tonal Space.” Music Theory Online: A Journal of Criticism, Commentary, Research, and Scholarship 14.1 (March 2008).

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    Uses recent theories of metaphor to explore the metaphorical dimension in Rameau’s musical thought. Rameau’s ideas use metaphors of physical embodiment to characterize musical procedures in two ways, as force and as path.

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  • Montagnier, Jean-Paul C. “Heavenly Dissonances: The Cadential Six-Four Chord in French Grand Motets and Rameau’s Theory of the Accord par supposition.” Journal of Music Theory 47.2 (Fall 2003): 305–323.

    DOI: 10.1215/00222909-47-2-305Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces the practice of highly dissonant cadential ornamentation characteristic of the grand motet and considers the practice from the standpoint of Rameau’s theory of supposition.

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  • Moreno, Jairo. Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber. Musical Meaning and Interpretation. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.

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    The chapter “The Complicity of the Imagination: Representation, Subject, and System in Rameau” (pp. 85–127) studies Rameau’s conception of a listening subject as an innovative feature of his theoretical work. Pays particular attention to harmonic progressions and the fundamental bass. (The preceding chapter provides a study of Cartesian thought within music theory, making useful connections with Rameau’s intellectual development).

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  • Shirlaw, Matthew. The Theory of Harmony: An Inquiry into the Natural Principles of Harmony, with an Examination of the Chief Systems of Harmony from Rameau to the Present Day. Sarasota, FL: B. Coar, 1970.

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    Quite dated, but still widely available through this reprint edition. Roughly two-thirds of the book is devoted to surveying Rameau’s theoretical ideas. Other editions (London: Novello, 1917; New York: H. W. Gray, 1917; New York: Da Capo, 1969).

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Fundamental Bass and the Corps Sonore

A generative foundation was important to Rameau’s theories, because it allowed him to distinguish between actual bass or basse continue lines and a more abstract acoustic foundation that generated triads. The fundamental bass and Corps sonore (sonorous body), however, did more than this. The former allowed him to establish musical rationales for standard harmonic progressions and posit underlying reasons for special cases, such as chromaticism; the latter allowed him to generalize this principle as characteristic of all sound and thus attributable to nature. Treatment of these ideas is thus basic to Rameau research. Christensen 1987a, Christensen 1987b, Grant 1977, and Verba 1978 all work to contextualize these developments within 18th-century thought and practices. Beginning with the influential Keiler 1981, scholars also measured Rameau’s ideas against modern ideas about music, the better to understand both. Duchez 1986 and Lewin 1992 reflect a developing interest in how Rameau’s epistemology continues to affect modern theory.

  • Christensen, Thomas. “Rameau’s ‘L’Art de la Basse Fundamentale.” Music Theory Spectrum 9 (Spring 1987a): 18–41.

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    Traces Rameau’s pedagogical efforts in the 1740s. The article proposes Rameau’s authorship of a manuscript related to these, an indication of his efforts to simplify his ideas for practical application. See also Christensen’s letter, Music Theory Spectrum 12.2 (Autumn 1990), 276–277.

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  • Christensen, Thomas. “Eighteenth-Century Science and the Corps sonore: The Scientific Background to Rameau’s Principle of Harmony.” Journal of Music Theory 31.1 (Spring 1987b): 23–50.

    DOI: 10.2307/843545Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Explains the theory that replaced the fundamental bass as the foundation of Rameau’s theoretical system. The article details Rameau’s grasp of contemporary acoustic science, including Sauveur, Castel, Mairan, and Bernoulli, as well as their reactions to his theories.

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  • Duchez, Marie-Elisabeth. “Valeur épistémolgique de la théorie de la basse fondamentale de Jean-Philippe Rameau: Connaissance scientifique et représentation de la musique.” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 245 (1986): 91–130.

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    Evaluates Rameau’s theoretical and scientific justifications for the fundamental bass, taking into consideration modern notions of cognition and building on the issues of representation raised by Keiler 1981. Discusses 18th-century disputes over fundamental bass.

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  • Grant, Cecil Powell. “The Real Relationship between Kirnberger’s and Rameau’s Concept of the Fundamental Bass.” Journal of Music Theory 21.2 (Autumn 1977): 324–338.

    DOI: 10.2307/843493Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Looks at Rameau’s fundamental bass not as a mechanical procedure but as a hypothesis for demonstrating his harmonic beliefs and illustrating his speculations. Details what Kirnberger, an opponent of Rameau, owed in his own ideas to Rameau’s theories.

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  • Keiler, Allan R. “Music as Metalanguage: Rameau’s Fundamental Bass.” In Music Theory: Special Topics. Edited by Richmond Browne, 83–100. New York: Academic Press, 1981.

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    A study of how Rameau envisioned the connection between music and practice. Shows how the composer conceived music and musical notation as a means of commenting analytically on actual passages of a composition.

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  • Lewin, David. “Women’s Voices and the Fundamental Bass.” Journal of Musicology 10.4 (Fall 1992): 464–482.

    DOI: 10.1525/jm.1992.10.4.03a00020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Treats the role of voice in weakening gender boundaries musically. Lewin finds he cannot imagine certain parts sung by males, which leads him to reconsider the proximity of the male voice to Rameau’s fundamental bass, showing how post-Enlightenment musical thought carries implicit forms of gendering.

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  • Verba, E. Cynthia. “Rameau’s Views on Modulation and Their Background in French Theory.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 31.3 (Autumn 1978): 467–479.

    DOI: 10.1525/jams.1978.31.3.03a00040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Treats overlapping ideas in French thought: mode, in the sense of major/minor, and modulation, incorporating both the idea of writing within a key and temporarily departing from it. The essay shows how, for Rameau, the two ideas were closely related, allowing an understanding of tonal relationships.

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Rousseau and the Encyclopedists

When Rameau chose not to write the articles on music for the Encyclopédie, the task fell to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, initiating an animosity between the two men, and between Rameau and the Encyclopedists, that affected Rameau’s reputation. Kintzler 1988 and Verba 1993 provide important intellectual background on the conflicts. Martin 2009, O’Dea 2003, and Wokler 1974 approach them from Rousseau’s point of view, while Robrieux 1985 focuses on Rameau’s position. Rousseau’s approach to music differed greatly from Rameau’s, and Rehding 2005 provides an interesting, and at times surprising, glimpse into the practical historical applications of both men’s theories. Christensen 1985 instead focuses on the writings of d’Alembert, who was perhaps Rameau’s most perceptive contemporary critic.

  • Christensen, Thomas. “Science and Music Theory in the Enlightenment: d’Alembert’s Critique of Rameau.” PhD diss., Yale University, 1985.

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    Studies d’Alembert’s role as advocate for and critic of Rameau’s music theories. This dissertation gives especially close attention to d’Alembert’s summarization of Rameau’s theories, the Élémens de musique théorique et pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau (Lyon: Bruyset, 1779).

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  • Kintzler, Catherine. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Splendeur et naufrage de l’esthétique du plaisir à l’âge classique. 2d ed. Collection Voies de L’histoire. Paris: Minerve, 1988.

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    Studies the mid-18th-century shift in French musical aesthetics, taking Rameau as the exemplar for the earlier period and Rousseau as representative of the later period. (Rousseau often used Rameau as a foil in his writings about music.) Shows how Rameau epitomized earlier values but also signaled their downfall. First published 1983 (Paris: Le Sycomore).

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  • Martin, Nathan. “Rameau and Rousseau: Harmony and History in the Age of Reason.” PhD diss., McGill University, 2009.

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    Analyzes Rousseau’s articles for the Encyclopédie to demonstrate the development of his disagreement with Rameau over the latter’s theoretical ideas. The most detailed treatment of Rousseau’s articles to date.

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  • O’Dea, Michael. “Consonances et dissonances: Rousseau et d’Alembert face à l’oeuvre théorique de Jean-Philippe Rameau.” Recherches sur Diderot et sur l’Encyclopédie 35 (October 2003): 105–130.

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    Details Rameau’s relationship with d’Alembert and Rousseau, tracking its deterioration as volumes of the Encyclopédie began to appear. Uses the article “Fondamental” (vol. 7, pp. 54–63), which addresses and criticizes the scientific assumptions underlying Rameau’s theory of the fundamental bass, to show how Diderot pushed back against Rameau’s criticisms of Rousseau’s articles on music in earlier volumes

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  • Rehding, Alexander. “Rousseau, Rameau, and Enharmonic Furies in the French Enlightenment.” Journal of Music Theory 49.1 (Spring 2005): 141–180.

    DOI: 10.1215/00222909-2007-004Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Focuses on Rameau’s and Rousseau’s beliefs about enharmonic progressions, the former stating the effect results from the interruption of the Fundamental Bass, the latter arguing that it results from microtonal variations between genera. Reveals new aspects of their underlying belief systems.

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  • Robrieux, Jean-Jacques. “Jean-Philippe Rameau et l’opinion philosophique en France au dix-huitième siècle.” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 238 (1985): 269–395.

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    A substantial treatment of Rameau’s relationship with the Encyclopedists, this study is valuable not least because it presents its subject against the backdrop of contemporary criticism of Rameau. Focuses on Rameau and Rousseau, but also covers d’Alembert’s role.

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  • Verba, Cynthia. Music and the French Enlightenment: Reconstruction of a Dialogue, 1750–1764. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.

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    The first two chapters of this study provide a useful overview of the interactions between Rameau and Rousseau on the topics of harmony and melody and the means of musical expression. These are then contextualized within larger historical developments involving d’Alembert and Diderot.

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  • Wokler, Robert. “Rameau, Rousseau, and the ‘Essai sur l’origine des langues.’” Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 117 (1974): 179–238.

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    A careful, extremely well-documented study of Rousseau’s critique of Rameau’s theories. This article argues that the Essai was conceived principally as an argument against Rameau, based on primary source material from the Bibliothèque de la ville de Neuchâtel (MS R60).

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Operas

Rameau’s first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), appeared when the composer was already fifty years old. Audiences immediately perceived it as a transformative work, marking a new direction for the predominant genre, the tragédie en musique (lyric tragedy). Some appreciated this as an exciting change, while others viewed it as a disturbing new trend. Both sets of beliefs continued to dog the composer throughout his career. In response to criticism, Rameau extensively revised his principal works, weakening some of his most innovative ideas, but also creating works that were, in many cases, dramatically more coherent, at least to modern observers. It is useful in this context to recall his reputation as a music theorist (see Rameau as Theorist). Because his operas were musically elaborate and his theories complicated, criticism often denigrated his operas as too theoretical and his theories as justifying his compositional excesses. Rameau, however, believed that he was discovering evidence in nature for his compositions and his theories, and that he was following the next logical stage in the development of French opera.

French Opera

Readers first approaching Rameau, or French Baroque opera in general, will find themselves acquiring new ways of thinking about opera and its social setting, so some background is necessary. Durey de Noinville 1972 and Wood and Sadler 2000 provide historical accounts of French opera from the 18th century, while Anthony 1997, Haeringer 1990, and Lesure 1972 offer modern narratives of its development. Although opera began as a court entertainment, its patent also established it as a public, profit-making venture. The relationship between court and public performance that evolved in France is thus different from the patterns found elsewhere in Europe, and the distinctions in France between court and public are not always obvious in primary sources. Isherwood 1973 is the longstanding model for discussion of music at court, and Cowart 2008 is likely to become one for the conventions in Paris. Like most French operas, Rameau’s are not formally clear in the manner of contemporary German and Italian opera. Where acts in the latter divide clearly into recitative and aria, French opera organizes itself around subtle forms of text-setting and distinguished itself most clearly into passages of Aristotelian action (recitative scenes or scènes) and musical passages intended as entertainment (divertissements). One of Rameau’s innovations was to expand the latter and make them more relevant dramatically. Anthony 1997 remains the most useful introduction to these musical conventions.

  • Anthony, James. French Baroque Music from Beaujoyeulx to Rameau. 2d ed. Portland, OR: Amadeus, 1997.

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    The first comprehensive study of French Baroque music in English. It discusses the origins and functions of French opera, its performers and performances, and formal layout, and it introduces the history of opera from Lully’s first works to Rameau’s. Later edition updated throughout, especially bibliography. Earlier editions (New York: W. W. Norton, 1974, 1978; London: B. T. Batsford, 1978). Also published as La Musique en France: L’époque baroque; De Beaujoyeulx à Rameau (Paris: Flammarion, 1981), with a revised edition appearing in 1992.

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  • Cowart, Georgia. The Triumph of Pleasure: Louis XIV and the Politics of Spectacle. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

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    Treats the growing rift between court performances at Versailles and Parisian performances sponsored by Philippe d’Orléans. From this point on, historically, the distinction between court and public performances widened, allowing for a more public-centered form of entertainment in the city. The emerging Parisian audience profoundly influenced Rameau’s reception.

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  • Durey de Noinville, Jacques-Bernard. Histoire du théâtre de l’Académie royale de musique en France depuis son établissement jusqu’à présent. 2d ed. Geneva, Switzerland: Minkoff, 1972.

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    Facsimile edition. A valuable primary source widely available in facsimile. Durey de Noinville addresses numerous topics: the early history of opera in France; Lully’s biography; biographies of actors, singers, dancers, and composers; and a chronological listing of operas, including revivals. It reprints key legislation affecting opera for the period 1713–1739. Originally published in Paris (Duchesne, 1757).

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  • Haeringer, Étienne. L’Esthetique de l’opéra en France au temps de Jean-Philippe Rameau. Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 279. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation at the Taylor Institution, 1990.

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    A book-length treatment of opera aesthetics, presented as a single volume of a periodical. It is organized into four subject areas: instrumental music, librettos, sets and costumes, and dance. The last two are not always treated in musicological sources. It contains useful citations of primary sources, but few citations of musicological research.

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  • Isherwood, Robert M. Music in the Service of the King: France in the Seventeenth Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1973.

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    Treats the ideological uses surrounding music in Louis XIV’s court, from the development of opera through the emergence of Lully and on to the king’s final years. Richly illustrated, with generous citations. Opera’s early ties to court influenced how audiences perceived Rameau’s works in the 18th century.

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  • Kintzler, Catherine. Poétique de l’opéra français: De Corneille à Rousseau. Collection Voies de l’histoire, Série “Culture et société.” Paris: Minerve, 1991.

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    An extensive chronological review of the aesthetics underlying French opera, devoting particular attention to its poetic dimension. This is important, because the French historically regarded opera, and notably the tragédie, as primarily a literary genre. A philosopher, Kintzler is especially alert to the subtle categorical distinctions in discussions of opera.

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  • Lesure, François. L’Opéra classique français, XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Geneva, Switzerland: Minkoff, 1972.

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    An iconographic study, reproducing engravings, paintings, and pen-and-ink drawings relevant to the theater, including sets, costumes, and performances.

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  • Wood, Caroline, and Graham Sadler. French Baroque Opera: A Reader. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.

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    A generous selection and translation of primary source readings on French opera, from its origins to around 1770. Especially strong in opera criticism. Readers encounter representative Rameau criticism and observe firsthand how Rameau criticism fit into the context of French opera criticism as a whole.

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Rameau’s Operas

The books in this category attempt in various ways to address Rameau’s operatic career as a whole, to understand what made him unique, and to assess his musical techniques. The oldest of them, Masson 1972, is still highly valued and routinely cited. Neither Dill 1998 nor Kintzler 1988 is as comprehensive; they ground Rameau’s operas within 18th-century belief systems, while Rice 2004 focuses on works within the context of a particular, often overlooked, location.

  • Dill, Charles. Monstrous Opera: Rameau and the Tragic Tradition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998.

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    Studies the controversies attending Rameau’s tragédies lyriques, emphasizing the close reading of primary sources and musical texts. It compares these with more traditional, conservative beliefs about music to show how Rameau was simultaneously so popular and so controversial.

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  • Kintzler, Catherine. Jean-Philippe Rameau: Splendeur et naufrage de l’esthétique du plaisir à l’âge classique. 2d ed. Collection Voies de L’histoire. Paris: Minerve, 1988.

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    Traces how French opera changed in the mid-18th-century, taking Rameau’s, rather than Lully’s, as the exemplar for the earlier period and Rousseau’s ideas about opera as representative of the later period. Shows how Rameau epitomized earlier values but also signaled their downfall. First edition 1983 (Paris: Le Sycomore).

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  • Masson, Paul-Marie. L’Opéra de Rameau. New York: Da Capo, 1972.

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    The earliest modern treatment of Rameau’s operas. Oriented toward style criticism in the manner of Adler, but it remains the cornerstone for modern studies of Rameau. The analyses are perceptive and musical, and more of them are collected here than in any work since. First published as PhD dissertation (Paris: Henri Laurens, 1930).

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  • Rice, Paul F. Fontainebleau Operas for the Court of Louis XV of France by Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764). Studies in the History and Interpretation of Music 107. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2004.

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    Most studies limit themselves to surveying Rameau’s works stylistically. This book instead focuses on particular works performed at a single location during a particular period, providing insights that could not be observed any other way. Especially important given the emerging awareness of differing receptions at court and in Paris.

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Rameau’s Operas and His Theories

Society treated Rameau as a musician with pretensions of being something more, and regarded his theoretical ideas, as practiced in his operas, with skepticism. It can be difficult to make generalizations linking Rameau’s theory and practice because he was so willing to let both evolve and influence each other. Christensen 1993 is the most important study of Rameau’s theories; Hyer 1996, a review of Christensen 1993, imagines what the next phase of research might look like. Both measure Rameau’s ideas against specific passages from his operas. Dill 2002 and Verba 1973 deal with how Rameau’s chromatic practices fit with his theoretical ideas, as does Christensen 1993. Hyer 1994 introduces the important issue of signification as it applies both to the theoretical writings and the operas.

  • Christensen, Thomas. Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment. Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis 4. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

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    Not exclusively devoted to Rameau’s operas, but valuable for the connection between his theories and his operas. Chapters devoted to Enlightenment thought, Rameau’s precursors, his ideas of the fundamental bass and the corps sonore. Especially useful commentaries on Pigmalion and the “Trio des Parques” (Trio of Furies) from Hippolyte et Aricie.

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  • Dill, Charles. “Rameau’s Imaginary Monsters: Knowledge, Theory, and Chromaticism in ‘Hippolyte et Aricie.’” Journal of the American Musicological Society 55.3 (Autumn 2002): 433–476.

    DOI: 10.1525/jams.2002.55.3.433Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Reveals how Rameau struggled with classifying knowledge in 18th-century terms. The connection between his theories and compositions was unstable, adapting as his ideas changed. This essay studies his use of chromaticism in Hippolyte et Aricie, showing how it measures up to his evolving theoretical ideas of chromaticism.

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  • Hyer, Brian. “‘Sighing Branches’: Prosopopoeia in Rameau’s ‘Pigmalion.’” Music Analysis 13.1 (March 1994): 7–50.

    DOI: 10.2307/854279Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Uses a reading of a scene in Pigmalion to illustrate the semiotics underlying Rameau’s assignment of harmonic functions. Where Rameau believed he was identifying attributes existing in nature, the author shows he was elaborating a system in which harmonies implied the tonic through signification. Analyzes scenes from Castor et Pollux and Les Boréades.

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  • Hyer, Brian. “Before Rameau and After.” Music Analysis 15.1 (March 1996): 75–100.

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    Review of Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment, by Thomas Christensen. Surveys earlier theories that Rameau borrowed from and reassembled to suit his beliefs. The essay offers a perceptive reading of how the reception of his theories differed from those of his contemporaries and a critique of historiographic assumptions underlying Rameau research. Includes a useful analysis of the conclusion of Castor et Pollux.

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  • Verba, E. Cynthia. “The Development of Rameau’s Thoughts on Modulation and Chromatics.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 26.1 (Spring 1973): 69–91.

    DOI: 10.1525/jams.1973.26.1.03a00020Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Works with texts by Rameau and Rousseau that analyze the same Lully monologue. Rameau’s analysis leads the author to discuss Rameau’s theorization of the chromatic and enharmonic genera and their application in Castor et Pollux. This essay is the basis for most later discussions of Rameau’s chromaticism.

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Selected Operas

From the early studies of Masson 1972 (see Rameau’s Operas) and Girdlestone 1969 (see Biographical Studies) on, researchers have been fascinated by Rameau’s individual works and, in most cases, particular passages from them: the compositions are simply too rich, too interesting to pass over, and they reveal as much information about the composer’s creativity as does any other source. In more recent decades, Rameau’s literary sources and the ways in which he adapted them for musical setting have also proved to be useful lines of inquiry. Here again, the process of relating text to music—or, for that matter, revising earlier musical settings—reflects Rameau’s tendency to reinterpret his material, sometimes drastically, in light of his changing musical ideas.

Hippolyte et Aricie (1733)

Rameau’s first opera, composed when he was fifty years old, reveals a composer with a radical vision for French opera that was already fully formed. In many ways, it remains the composer’s most innovative work. Burgess 1998 and Thomas 2002 give us glimpses of Rameau working with (and against) older notions of spoken and lyric tragedy, while Sadler 1983 takes us inside the musical revisions Rameau began as the first performances were taking place. Rosow 1998 and Verba 1999 both analyze Rameau’s methods of setting text and employing musical conventions dramaturgically to affect scene structure.

  • Burgess, Geoffrey. “‘Le théâtre ne change qu’à la troisième scène’: The Hand of the Author and Unity of Place in Act V of Hippolyte et Aricie.” Cambridge Opera Journal 10.3 (November 1998): 275–287.

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    Provides insight into the importance of vraisemblance (believability) for opera reception. Though sung tragedy rarely followed Aristotelian unities, sets only changed with each new act; here, however, the poet left the set from Act 4 in place until the third scene of Act 5. This created logical and political problems for the work and its reception.

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  • Rosow, Lois. “Structure and Expression in the Scènes of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie.” Cambridge Opera Journal 10.3 (November 1998): 259–273.

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    Traces how French verse structure affected musical composition. The author, who has done substantial work on French versification, analyzes selected scenes, demonstrating that musical setting closely follows rhyme scheme. An appendix provides facsimiles of Act 2, scene 1 drawn from the 1733 print.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau, Pellegrin and the Opéra: The Revisions of ‘Hippolyte et Aricie’ during Its First Season.” Musical Times 124 (September 1983): 533–537.

    DOI: 10.2307/962383Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Rameau’s first tragédie and first opera performed at the Opéra set the pattern for Rameau’s later working methods. Here, as with later works, he began the process of revising almost immediately. Sadler surveys the alterations, providing useful insights into Rameau’s decision-making processes.

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  • Thomas, Downing A. “The Disruption of Poetics II: Hippolyte et Aricie and the Reinvention of Tragedy.” In Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Régime, 1647–1785. By Downing A. Thomas, 154–175. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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    This chapter is the only one in the book devoted entirely to Rameau. It addresses the relationship between language and music in the 17th century: Racine treated his version of the story (Phèdre) as a rejection of the newly created tragédie lyrique; Thomas then shows how Rameau recreated tragedy as a musical and theatrical spectacle.

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  • Verba, E. Cynthia. “What Recitatives Owe to the Airs: A Look at the Dialogue Scene, Act 1, Scene 2 of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie—Version with Airs.” Cambridge Opera Journal 11.2 (July 1999): 103–134.

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    French opera intermixed short airs with recitative, and the relationship between them is not always clear. In this essay, Verba offers a close reading of a scene from the 1742 revival to describe how recitative and air work together dramatically to characterize the scene.

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Les Indes galantes (1735)

The first of Rameau’s two principal opéra-ballets, both from the 1730s, Les Indes contains remarkably beautiful music. Sadler 1979 looks into the version of the opera published at the time—as a set of transcriptions for harpsichord. The opera’s subject matter has drawn researchers from various fields within cultural studies; Bloechl 2008 and Savage 1983 provide the most detailed accounts of what Rameau knew of Native American music and how he set about writing something to suggest it in the theater.

  • Bloechl, Olivia A. Native American Song at the Frontiers of Early Modern Music. New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.

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    The chapter “Rameau’s Les Sauvages and the Aporia of Musical Nature” (pp. 177–215) tracks Rameau’s responses to performances by Native Americans in 1725. He wrote a keyboard piece and, in Les Indes galantes, an entrée based on them. Bloechl shows how his music does not adapt Native American music or conform to portrayals of it. The entrée idealizes “primitive” life, but also suggests European intrusion.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau’s Harpsichord Transcriptions from Les Indes galantes.” Early Music 7.1 (January 1979): 18–24.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/7.1.18Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Unlike the prints for Rameau’s other operas, Rameau released this one as a rearrangement of the instrumental music into keyboard suites. Sadler studies the alterations Rameau had to make to render his music idiomatic to the keyboard.

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  • Savage, Roger. “Rameau’s American Dancers.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 441–452.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.441Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Chronicles the reception of Native American music in France, using travel narratives, visual sources, and contemporary transcriptions. Particular attention is given to the Les Sauvages entrée, but also to Campra and La Motte’s Europe galant and Rameau’s late work, Les Paladins.

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Castor et Pollux (1737)

Castor et Pollux followed an abortive tragédie project with Voltaire, Samson, and is thought to contain at least some of the music originally written for that project. Castor also appears to undertake dramaturgical innovations Voltaire had planned for their project. Dill 1989 and Dill 1992 look into the relationship between the two projects and how it may have affected the reception of Castor. The remaining two articles listed study Rameau’s setting of text: Legrand 1998 notes Rameau’s sensitivity to rhetorical principles, while Dill 2008 turns attention to the unusual moral universe depicted in the opera.

  • Dill, Charles. “The Reception of Rameau’s Castor et Pollux in 1737 and 1754.” PhD diss., Princeton University, 1989.

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    Considers the reasons for Rameau’s revisions. It reviews the circumstances surrounding the reception of the two versions, analyzes contrary views of the composer as revolutionary and reformer, and reviews how changes in dramatic structure and recitative construction responded to criticism.

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  • Dill, Charles. “Creative Process in Rameau’s Castor et Pollux.” In Studies in the History of Music. Vol. 3, The Creative Process. By Charles Dill, 93–106. New York: Broude, 1992.

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    Traces Rameau’s work on Samson to suggest musical and dramaturgical connections between the two projects. Posits Samson’s chorus “Tribus captives” as the musical source for Castor’s “Que tout gémisse.”

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  • Dill, Charles. “Rameau avec Lacan.” Acta Musicologica 80.1 (2008): 33–58.

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    Unravels the moral assumptions at work in Castor et Pollux, as well as in Rameau’s conception of musical composition, arguing that they appeared at an unusually early point in 18th-century thought.

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  • Legrand, Raphaëlle. “La Rhétorique en scène: Quelques perspectives pour l’analyse de la tragédie en musique.” Revue de musicologie 84.1 (1998): 79–91.

    DOI: 10.2307/947332Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Argues that French opera, always sensitive to text, reveals a formal sensitivity to rhetoric as well, despite the absence of the kind of rhetorical theoretical language one finds in contemporary Germany. Analyzes the famous monologue “Tristes apprêts,” as well as scenes from Lully and Charpentier.

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Les Fêtes d’Hébé (1739)

Les Fêtes d’Hébé enjoyed immediate success, whereas audiences needed time to get to know most of Rameau’s works because of their complexity. Cyr 1975 is the critical study of the opera that served until the new edition in Bouissou, et al. 1996– (see Editions).

  • Cyr, Mary. “Rameau’s Les Fêtes d’Hébé.” 2 vols. PhD diss., University of California at Berkeley, 1975.

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    The first volume contains an analysis of the surviving sources for the opera, as well as useful observations on vocal performance. The second volume is a critical edition of the work.

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Dardanus (1739)

Dardanus appeared at the height of the debate between the admirers of Rameau and those who wanted to return to the simpler works of Lully. It contains some of Rameau’s most extensive revisions. Masson 1954 remains a useful examination of the opera’s first two versions. Lallement 2009 and Pitou 1973 both study the information available on a staging of the work from 1763, providing insight into costumes and dramaturgical practices.

  • Lallement, Nicole. “Iconography of Rameau’s Opera: The Dardanus Example.” Music in Art 34.1–2 (Spring, Fall 2009): 165–175.

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    Complements Pitou 1973 with reproductions of visual resources pertaining to the performance discussed there. Expands into primary sources beyond the archives discussed by Pitou.

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  • Masson, Paul-Marie. “Les deux versions du ‘Dardanus’ de Rameau.” Acta Musicologica 26.1–2 (January, July 1954): 36–48.

    DOI: 10.2307/931635Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Dardanus appeared at the height of anti-Rameau fervor, and Masson traces the influence of criticism on the opera. Rameau made extensive revisions for the 1744 revival. The author provides close readings of the libretto and the music for the two versions.

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  • Pitou, Spire. “Rameau’s Dardanus at Fontainebleau in 1763.” Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 116 (1973): 281–305.

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    Presents information ordinarily unavailable—the costumes and sets for an 18th-century production. Pitou draws on the Archives Nationales, providing detailed descriptions of costumes for each character and supernumerary, as well as descriptions of the sets for each act.

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Platée (1745)

There was no real tradition of comic opera in France until later in the 18th century, and as a result this effort is unusual, both because it did not fit into familiar categories and because it is not always clear how its humor worked. Anderson 1983 and Bouissou 2005 offer insight into what made the work funny, while the latter and Thomas 2006 look into the opera’s subsequent reception during the querelle des bouffons.

  • Anderson, Nicholas. “Platée: Burlesque or Grotesque?” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 505–508.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.505Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    A useful overview of a rare comic opera. A genre of comic opera did not truly exist at this time, making Rameau’s composition especially interesting, because it was both awkward and controversial. Anderson explains how some of the humor works.

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  • Bouissou, Sylvie. “Platée de Rameau à l’avant-garde d’une évolution du goût.” In La “Querelle des bouffons” dans la vie culturelle française du XVIIIe siècle. Edited by Andrea Fabiano, 25–41. Collection Sciences de la Musique, Série Études. Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2005.

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    Tracing the links between Rameau’s opera and the querelle des bouffons, this essay sorts out the complex source situation underlying the work and suggests how Rameau intended its humor to operate.

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  • Thomas, Downing A. “Rameau’s Platée Returns: A Case of Double Identity in the Querelle des bouffons.” Cambridge Opera Journal 18.1 (March 2006): 1–19.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0954586706002084Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Outlines the revival of Platée during the querelle des bouffons. Because there was little to situate it within French tradition, commentators were uncertain what category it belonged to, French or Italian comic opera. The author shows how it underscored issues emerging in the querelle (e.g., the use of mute e in French vocal music).

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Les Surprises de l’Amour (1748)

This opera is perhaps most memorable for having been requested by Madame de Pompadour, who created two of its soprano roles. Bouissou 1990 offers an overview of the work’s sources and complicated revisions.

  • Bouissou, Sylvie. “Les Tendances des réécritures de Rameau dans Les Surprises de l’Amour (1748, 1757–59).” In Atti del XIVe congresso della Società internazionale di musicologia: Trasmissione e recezione delle forme di cultura musicale. Vol. 3. Edited by Angelo Pompilio, Lorenzo Bianconi, Donatella Restani, Lorenzo Bianconi, and F. Alberto Gallo, 827–838. Turin, Italy: EDT, 1990.

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    Sorts out the complex revision history of this piece and summarizes it. This essay is a valuable model for dealing with Rameau’s revisions, working with sources, and reaching conclusions about his musical decision-making.

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Zoroastre (1749)

This is Rameau’s last tragédie en musique to be performed at the Opéra. At this point historically, there was a sharp decline in the number of new tragédies performed there. A rapid change in taste among the Parisian public was marked by the subsequent querelle des bouffons, a debate over the French operatic tradition and Italian comic opera. Russo 1989 considers what these circumstances may have meant for the poetic and musical texts of the opera. Russo 1989, along with Rice 1983 and Sadler 1979, also treats Rameau’s musical revisions to the work.

  • Rice, Paul F. “Mid-Eighteenth Century Changes in French Opera: The Two Versions of Rameau’s Zoroastre.” Recherches sur la Musique Française Classique 21 (1983): 128–144.

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    A useful summary of the differences between two versions of the opera, the first version of 1749 and the revival of 1756.

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  • Russo, Paolo. “Les incertitudes de la tragédie lyrique: Zoroastre de Louis de Cahusac.” Revue de Musicologie 75.1 (1989): 47–64.

    DOI: 10.2307/928968Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Recounts the circumstances under which Zoroastre was performed, noting that by 1749 the Opéra had moved to mostly light genres: it was thus an anachronism, as was Rameau’s later tragédie for the theater, Les Boréades. Traces critical reception, the composer’s revisions, and the influence of the comédie larmoyante.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “ Rameau’s ‘Zoroastre’: The 1756 Reworking.” Musical Times 120 (April 1979): 301–303.

    DOI: 10.2307/961984Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Reviews the alterations made in the 1749 text for the 1756 revival.

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Les Paladins (1760)

Les Paladins bears the dubious distinction of being Rameau’s least successful opera. This circumstance has less to do with the music than with the changes in taste that had occurred during the 1750s (see also Zoroastre [1749]). The source situation allows for an unusually clear view of the composer’s compositional process. R. Peter Wolf, who has written extensively about this piece, here provides an edition (Wolf 1977), a facsimile edition of the production manuscript (Rameau 1986), and an account of its sources from creation to staging (Wolf 1983).

  • Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Les Paladins, comédie lyrique. Edited by R. Peter Wolf. New York: Pendragon Press, 1986.

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    A beautifully produced facsimile of the manuscript used for the 1760 production (Paris, Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, A.201), with annotations by Rameau. Contains a biography of Rameau; an introduction to the work, its performers, and its sources; and a facsimile of the libretto.

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  • Wolf, R. Peter. “Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Comédie lyrique Les Paladins (1760): A Critical Edition and Study.” 2 vols. PhD diss., Yale University, 1977.

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    A detailed critical study; the second volume is a critical edition.

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  • Wolf, R. Peter. “Les Paladins: From Autograph to Production.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 497–504.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.497Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    An unusual approach, tracking the progress of the opera from creation through revision and on to staging from the perspective of the available primary sources. It provides a useful narrative of opera production.

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Les Boréades

Les Boréades was Rameau’s last opera and last tragédie en musique, composed some fourteen years after Zoroastre. Little is known about the circumstances behind its composition, and it remained unperformed at the time of Rameau’s death. Térey-Smith 1971 provides the critical study of the opera that has served until the new edition in Bouissou, et al. 1996– (see Editions), while a facsimile of Rameau’s autograph manuscript was briefly available in the early 1980s. Sylvie Bouissou has done the most work on the opera, summarized in Bouissou 1992.

  • Bouissou, Sylvie. Jean-Philippe Rameau: “Les Boréades,” ou La tragédie oubliée. Paris: Méridiens-Klincksieck, 1992.

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    A thorough study of the context and creation of Rameau’s final tragédie, unperformed at the time of his death. Effectively confronts the complicated issue of how the composer’s views had changed since his previous, substantially earlier tragédie, Zoroastre.

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  • Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Les Boréades, tragédie lyrique de Jean-Philippe Rameau (1764): Facsimilé de la partition originale. Paris: Stil, 1982.

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    A reproduction of Rameau’s autograph manuscript for the opera (F-Pn, Rés. Vmb Ms. 4).

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  • Térey-Smith, Mary. “Jean-Philippe Rameau: Abáris, ou les Boréades; A Critical Edition.” 2 vols. PhD diss., University of Rochester, 1971.

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    Includes a background for the opera, comparisons with Rameau’s other operas, as well as critical background for the edition.

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Source Studies

Most of the work included here contains facsimiles of pages from 18th-century sources. Two issues predominate in source studies involving the operas. First, there is the question of which manuscript sources best reveal the operas’ texts in their multiple forms, requiring scholars to decide among manuscripts that are not always in Rameau’s hand, but also to piece together the broad range of vocal, choral, and orchestral parts from throughout the period in order to establish correct readings. Massip 1987, Rosow 1987, Rosow 1980, and Sawkins 1983 address these questions by looking into particular families of sources and copying practices at the Opéra. Second, there is the question of compositional process, or how Rameau approached the task of composing music, including the revision of his scores. Green 1992 is a monumental study of this issue, while Wolf 1983 gives a useful overview of Rameau’s procedures later in his career. Sadler 1989 takes a third, very different approach to the source question, delving into compositions that appear to have served as musical sources Rameau later drew on in composing.

  • Green, Thomas. “Early Rameau Sources: Studies in the Origins and Dating of the Operas and Other Musical Works.” 3 vols. PhD diss., Brandeis University, 1992.

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    An authoritative account of extant sources from Rameau’s lifetime, including the composer’s autographs, his correspondence, the compositional structure of his scores, dating of works, and analyses of particular passages. Difficult to obtain.

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  • Massip, Catherine. “Rameau et l’édition de ses oeuvres: Bref aperçu historique et méthodologique.” In Jean-Philippe Rameau: Colloque international organisé par la Société Rameau, Dijon, 21–24 septembre 1983. Edited by Jérôme de La Gorce, 145–157. Paris: Champion, 1987.

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    An invaluable survey of published sources of Rameau’s works from the 18th century. It describes the nuances and problems attendant to working with these materials. In addition to the commentary, the footnotes provide useful listings of extant published sources.

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  • Rosow, Lois. “Lallemand and Durand: Two Eighteenth-Century Music Copyists at the Paris Opéra.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 33.1 (Spring 1980): 142–163.

    DOI: 10.1525/jams.1980.33.1.03a00040Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Provides information on how the Opéra prepared works for performance. It identifies the two principal scribes employed to copy parts, presenting biographical information but, more important, presenting information on their position within the institution’s administrative structure, their duties, where and how they worked, and their remuneration.

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  • Rosow, Lois. “From Destouches to Berton: Editorial Responsibility at the Paris Opéra.” Journal of the American Musicological Society 40.2 (Summer 1987): 285–309.

    DOI: 10.1525/jams.1987.40.2.03a00030Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces editorial responsibility for revivals at the Opéra through the mid-18th century. The position of inspecteur général, answerable not to shareholders but the secrétaire d’État, was responsible for modest editorial work until 1757, when there was a gradual shift in the Académie’s administrative structure.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “A Re-examination of Rameau’s Self-Borrowings.” In Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque: Essays in Honor of James R. Anthony. Edited by John Hajdu Heyer, 259–289. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

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    Like most 18th-century composers, Rameau reused compositions; the problem is distinguishing reuse from resemblance. Sadler takes a levelheaded approach to this problem, concluding with an appendix that lays out the most convincing examples, along with probable examples of borrowing and borrowings of uncertain authenticity.

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  • Sawkins, Lionel. “New Sources for Rameau’s Pigmalion and Other Works.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 490–496.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.490Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Addresses source materials left behind when the fonds du Conservatoire transferred to the Bibliothèque National. This includes parts for Pigmalion, Anacréon, and La Naissance d’Osiris. Some of Sawkins’s material presented here complements Rosow 1980.

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  • Wolf, R. Peter. “Les Paladins: From Autograph to Production.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 497–504.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.497Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    An unusual approach, tracking the progress of the opera from creation through revision and on to staging from the perspective of the available manuscript sources. It provides a useful narrative of opera production.

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Performance Practice

The actual performance of Rameau’s operas presents challenges. Performing forces varied over the course of his career, as did the distribution of parts, and works like Cyr 1982, Cyr 1995, La Gorce 1990, and Sadler 1981–1982 all deal with how this affected Rameau’s orchestras and choruses. With respect to singing and continuo parts, many of the musical nuances remained unnotated; Sadler 1980 contributes valuable information on Rameau’s continuo parts, and McGegan and Spagnoli 1987 provides a key to vocal ornaments. Other vocal practices were conceived according to a French understanding of Italian opera. Cyr 1980 addresses this directly by deriving information from primary sources. Further, French music-theatrical practices approached matters such as voice types and ranges in a manner at odds with contemporary European practices; Cyr 1977 looks into the haute-contre voice type peculiar to France.

  • Cyr, Mary. “On Performing 18th-Century Haute-Contre Roles.” Musical Times 118 (April 1977): 291–295.

    DOI: 10.2307/958048Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Discusses the high male voice known as the haute-contre, which was especially popular in Rameau’s time. Cyr reviews what is known about the voice and its range, turning to examples from roles written for particular singers. Traces the history of the haute-contre to its decline in the years following Rameau.

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  • Cyr, Mary. “Eighteenth-Century French and Italian Singing: Rameau’s Writing for the Voice.” Music and Letters 61.3–4 (July–October 1980): 318–337.

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    Cyr uses manuscripts annotated by singers to demonstrate the kinds of vocal performance Rameau preferred. The article provides a history of performances of Italian music during Rameau’s time and focuses on his two principal singers, Marie Fel and Pierre Jélyotte.

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  • Cyr, Mary. “Basses and Basse continue in the Orchestra of the Paris Opéra, 1700–1764.” Early Music 10.2 (April 1982): 155–170.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/10.2.155Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces the use of the double bass, the kinds of instruments employed, its contributions to orchestration, and its role in continuo parts.

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  • Cyr, Mary. “The Paris Opéra Chorus during the Time of Rameau.” Music and Letters 76.1 (February 1995): 32–51.

    DOI: 10.1093/ml/76.1.32Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    The size and layout of choruses changed considerably. Cyr reviews Rameau’s choruses, their overall size, their distributions of parts, and their ranges. She then reviews revisions Rameau made in choruses.

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  • La Gorce, Jérôme de. “L’Orchestre de l’Opéra et son évolution de Campra à Rameau.” Revue de Musicologie 76.1 (1990): 23–44.

    DOI: 10.2307/947152Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces the development of the French opera orchestra in the 18th century through Rameau’s career, focusing on two kinds of primary sources: extant parts in the Bibliothèque de l’Opéra and theatrical almanacs from the period 1748–1764. Tracks the shift from five- to four-part string writing. Extensive appendices dealing with parts.

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  • McGegan, Nicholas, and Gina Spagnoli. “Singing Style at the Opéra in the Rameau Period.” In Jean-Philippe Rameau: Colloque international organisé par la Société Rameau, Dijon, 21–24 septembre 1983. Edited by Jérôme de La Gorce, 209–226. Paris: Champion: Slatkine, 1987.

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    A systematic look at the vocal ornaments used, with important information on pronunciation and accentuation.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “The Role of the Keyboard Continuo in French Opera, 1673–1776.” Early Music 8.2 (April 1980): 148–157.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/8.2.148Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Reviews how continuo forces were distributed and figured. It focuses on Rameau, where there is more conclusive evidence. Rameau figured vocal music, but not choruses, overtures, dances, and other instrumental music. Sadler analyzes the continuo parts from selected Rameau operas, comparing them with other works performed at the time.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau and the Orchestra.” Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association 108 (1981–1982): 47–68.

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    Follows how Rameau’s orchestration changed over the course of his career. This first involves noting the problems with orchestration in the old Oeuvres complètes edition. Divides the orchestra into its choirs to illustrate the principal changes.

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Staging

Because musicological research tends to focus on style and performance practice, it is easy to lose sight of Rameau’s immersion in a musical culture dependent on theaters, managers, singers, and dancers. The operation of theaters is an especially valuable resource in studying Rameau, and the essays cited in this section cover important matters of stage comportment and dance fundamental to Rameau’s conception of his music. La Gorce 1983a, La Gorce 1983b, and Zaslaw 1983 establish to a remarkable extent what opera sets looked like. Sadler 1983 and Sadler 1987 make a similar contribution for the Opéra’s personnel, using an 18th-century inventory that describes its singers and dancers and comments on their abilities. And finally, Banducci 2004 and Betzweiser 2000 have discovered important information on stage movement, both for individual singers and for choruses. In this same context, Cahusac 1971 offers insight into dance as conceived and practiced in at least some of Rameau’s works.

  • Banducci, Antonia. “Staging and Its Dramatic Effect in French Baroque Opera: Evidence from Prompt Notes.” Eighteenth-Century Music 1.1 (March 2004): 5–28.

    DOI: 10.1017/S1478570604000016Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Not devoted to Rameau’s operas, but provides information on how his operas were staged. Draws on promptbooks from 18th-century performances, including one for Rameau’s Les Fêtes d’Hébé, to illustrate conventions in acting.

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  • Betzweiser, Thomas. “Musical Setting and Scenic Movement: Chorus and Choeur dansé in Eighteenth-Century Parisian Opera.” Cambridge Opera Journal 12.1 (March 2000): 1–28.

    DOI: 10.1017/S095458670000001XSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Choruses usually remained stationary, singing and leaving the acting to singers and dancers onstage. Betzweiser presents a history of instances where the chorus sang and danced, focusing on the musical style of these choruses and the kinds of scenic movement associated with them. Includes examples from a number of Rameau operas.

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  • Cahusac, Louis de. Epître sur les dangers de la poésie: Suivie de La Danse ancienne et moderne ou Traité historique de la danse. Dance Collection, Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, PDA 19. Geneva, Switzerland: Slatkine, 1971.

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    Cahusac was Rameau’s librettist for five works in the period 1745–1749, and the second treatise in this collection, on dance, is one of the most extended commentaries we have by Rameau’s collaborators. Provides a history of dance and operatic dance and argues for the author’s dramatic theories. Originally published as 4 vols. in 1 (La Haye: Jean Neaulme, 1739–1754). The above is a facsimile edition.

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  • La Gorce, Jérôme de. “Twenty Set Models for the Paris Opéra in the Time of Rameau.” Translated by Neal Zaslaw. Early Music 11.4 (October 1983a): 429–440.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.429Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Surveys twenty set models located at the Chateau de Chambord. These models or maquettes were designed for productions at the Paris Opéra, 1757–1761, including four of Rameau’s operas, as well as others to which he contributed music.

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  • La Gorce, Jérôme de. “Décors et machines à l’Opéra au temps de Rameau: Inventaire (1748).” Recherches sur la musique française classique 21 (1983b): 145–157.

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    This article presents a transcription of an inventory (Paris, Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, Registre 2 [1748]) describing stage sets and properties belonging to the Académie Royale de la Musique in 1748.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau’s Singers and Players at the Paris Opéra: A Little-Known Inventory of 1738.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 453–467.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.453Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    The complement to Sadler 1987. Sadler provides valuable information on individual performers, including evaluations of their singing and acting abilities, along with a summary of what they were paid.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “The Paris Opéra Dancers in Rameau’s Day: A Little-Known Inventory of 1738.” In Jean-Philippe Rameau: Colloque international organisé par la Société Rameau, Dijon, 21–24 septembre 1983. Edited by Jérôme de La Gorce, 519–531. Paris: Champion, 1987.

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    Useful for its introduction to the informative “Amelot” manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra MS II.4119), and particularly its pages devoted to individual members of the troupe. It also provides valuable information on individual dancers, including evaluations of their abilities, along with a summary of what they were paid.

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  • Zaslaw, Neal. “At the Paris Opéra in 1747.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 514–516.

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    Important visual information on stagings at the Opéra during Rameau’s lifetime. Zaslaw analyzes a pen, watercolor, and gouache drawing of a performance of Lully’s Armide, depicting not only the stage, but also the audience. Recent research in 18th-century opera in general has emphasized the interrelationship of these two visual fields.

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Critical Reception

Rameau’s treatment by his contemporaries ranged from enthusiastic enjoyment to violent rejection: as a result, he was swept up in cultural and historical forces much larger than an individual composer or audience member. Primary critical sources dealing with his works, such as those collected in Launay 1973 and in Wood and Sadler 2000, require close reading. Secondary sources like Masson 1911, Sadler 1988, Haeringer 1990, Klingsporn 1996, and Thomas 2002 thus prove all the more instructive, not only for their citations of primary sources, but also the manner in which they work with those sources to draw historical conclusions. Haeringer 1990 and Thomas 2002 are especially useful because they introduce categories and considerations beyond those found in strictly musicological research.

  • Haeringer, Étienne. Special Issue: L’Esthetique de l’opéra en France au temps de Jean-Philippe Rameau. Studies in Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 279 (1990).

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    A book-length treatment of opera aesthetics. It is organized into four subject areas: instrumental music, librettos, sets and costumes, and dance. The last two categories are usually not treated in musicological sources. It contains useful citations of primary sources, but few citations of musicological research.

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  • Klingsporn, Regine. Jean-Philipe Rameaus Opern im ästhetischen Diskurs ihrer Zeit: Opernkomposition, Musikanschauung und Opernpublikum in Paris 1733–1753. Stuttgart: M und P, Verlag für Wissenschaft und Forschung, 1996.

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    Surveys the diverse critical issues relevant during the principal and most interesting phase of Rameau’s career, using them as a basis for interpreting his operas. Well researched, with useful citations of primary sources.

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  • Launay, Denise. La Querelle des bouffons: Textes des pamphlets. 3 vols. Geneva, Switzerland: Minkoff, 1973.

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    The querelle took place 1752–1754, after Rameau had concluded the most productive phase of his career. His operas nevertheless served as touchstones for various positions commentators assumed in the querelle. This collection reprints in facsimile all the treatises pertaining to the querelle, including some of Rameau’s theoretical writings.

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  • Masson, Paul-Marie. “Lullistes et Ramistes, 1733–1752.” Année musicale 1 (1911): 187–211.

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    Those who found Rameau’s music intrusive looked to Lully as the ideal model. Masson maps out a chronology of this dispute over the course of Rameau’s career, demonstrating how criticism eased somewhat in the second half of the 1740s. Nevertheless, as the author shows, criticism persisted until Rameau’s death

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Patrons and Pasquinades: Rameau in the 1730s.” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 113.2 (1988): 314–337.

    DOI: 10.1093/jrma/113.2.314Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Extends Rameau’s association with the tax-farmer Pouplinière back farther than was previously recognized and makes the case for Rameau’s association with the Prince de Carignan. Also surveys primary sources related to Rameau’s early reception, reproducing some that are otherwise difficult to locate.

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  • Thomas, Downing A. Aesthetics of Opera in the Ancien Régime, 1647–1785. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

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    A recent and widely cited survey of French opera criticism, providing a detailed overview, but also consideration of individual works.

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  • Wood, Caroline, and Graham Sadler, eds. French Baroque Opera: A Reader. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.

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    A generous selection of primary source readings on French opera, from its origins to around 1770. Especially strong in opera criticism. Readers encounter representative Rameau criticism and observe firsthand how it fit into the context of French opera criticism as a whole.

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Harpsichord Music

Rameau’s published keyboard music included four collections, some of which were later republished with additional pieces. In addition to the editions of Gilbert 1979 and Jacobi 1990 (see Editions), facsimile editions of two particular collections, both published in 1967, are also available (Rameau 1967a and Rameau 1967b). To fully appreciate Rameau’s writing, however, one must know something of the compositions by his contemporaries, and here Gustafson and Fuller 1990, with its wide-ranging and meticulous coverage of sources, proves an especially valuable tool. Fuller 1983 is an excellent illustration of the kind of source criticism these pieces require, and Sadler 1979 points to an instance where Rameau’s harpsichord works intersected with his operas.

  • Fuller, David. “Les Petits marteaux de M. Rameau.” Early Music 11.4 (October 1983): 516–517.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/11.4.516Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Identifies a keyboard work for beginners as having been composed by Rameau.

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  • Gustafson, Bruce, and David Fuller. A Catalogue of French Harpsichord Music, 1699–1780. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990.

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    A critical account of source material for keyboard music. Includes information on prints, their history, and contents, as well as a selected but extensive account of manuscript sources. Includes appendices listing music chronologically and by medium.

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  • Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin. Monuments of Music and Music Literature in Facsimile, first series, Music 13. New York: Broude, 1967a.

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    Beautiful reproduction of the original print. Includes Rameau’s introductory remarks on tempo and his brief remarks on the chromatic and enharmonic genera. Originally published c. 1729–1730 (Paris: Boivin, Leclerc); see Gustafson and Fuller 1990, p. 204.

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  • Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Pièces de clavessin avec une method pour la mechanique des doigts. New York: Broude, 1967b.

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    A beautiful reproduction of the original print, including the composer’s comments on playing the harpsichord and his ornament table. Facsimile of edition originally published 1724 (Paris: Hochereau, Boivin).

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Rameau’s Harpsichord Transcriptions from Les Indes galantes.” Early Music 7.1 (January 1979): 18–24.

    DOI: 10.1093/earlyj/7.1.18Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Unlike the prints for Rameau’s other operas, Rameau released this one as a rearrangement of the instrumental music as keyboard suites. Sadler studies the alterations Rameau had to make in order to render his music idiomatic to the keyboard.

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Compositions in Other Genres

Rameau’s compositions include genres for which he is less well known, including religious music, chamber music, and cantatas. Of these, the cantatas have received the most attention, both in the form of general history (Tunley 1997) and source criticism (Cyr 1979, Cyr 1983), but there are also noteworthy contributions for his religious music. (See especially Duron 2005 in Editions.) Montagnier 2003 is valuable in this context for offering both historical overview and analytic insight, an approach more often found in opera studies.

  • Cyr, Mary. “A New Rameau Cantata.” Musical Times 120 (November 1979): 907–909.

    DOI: 10.2307/960767Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Announces a unique manuscript copy of a heretofore unknown cantata by Rameau. Its authenticity is confirmed by a letter from Rameau’s son, Claude-François.

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  • Cyr, Mary. “Towards a Chronology of Rameau’s Cantatas.” Musical Times 124 (September 1983): 539–541.

    DOI: 10.2307/962384Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    An introduction to the cantatas, detailing the issues surrounding them, reviewing the sources, as well as suggesting dating.

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  • Montagnier, Jean-Paul C. “Heavenly Dissonances: The Cadential Six-Four Chord in French Grand Motets and Rameau’s Theory of the Accord par supposition.” Journal of Music Theory 47.2 (Fall 2003): 305–323.

    DOI: 10.1215/00222909-47-2-305Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces the practice of highly dissonant cadential ornamentation characteristic of the grand motet and considers the practice from the standpoint of Rameau’s theory of supposition.

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  • Tunley, David. The Eighteenth Century French Cantata. 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1997.

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    A history of the cantata, this resource particularly emphasizes the works of Clérambault, who wrote so many cantatas, but it also contains references to Rameau’s cantatas. Includes a chapter on performance practice and appendices containing a listing of repertory, as well as summaries of selected resources. Originally published 1974 (London: Dennis Dobson).

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Historical Reception

If, during his lifetime, Rameau’s reputation was frequently compared to and even eclipsed by that of Jean-Baptiste Lully, he was nevertheless honored posthumously, because his music stood up better in comparison to 19th-century innovations, especially those of Richard Wagner. Johnson 1995 provides an important introduction by tracing the development of modern listening habits in Paris. Wassermann 1993 and Ellis 2005 then review which works by Rameau were known in France in the mid-19th century. As nationalism became an increasingly important feature of the political landscape and music discourse, Rameau’s value increased. (France’s other great early composers of opera, Lully and Gluck, had been born elsewhere.) Paul 1972 was among the first to delve into Rameau’s complex political and musical status in Third Republic France, and Pasler 2009 adds detail to Paul’s efforts. Sadler 1993 connects these developments directly to the creation and production of Saint-Saëns, et al. 1968 (see Editions), while Suschitzky 2002 views Rameau reception through the lens of his most famous editor, Claude Debussy.

  • Ellis, Katharine. Interpreting the Musical Past: Early Music in Nineteenth-Century France. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.

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    The chapter “La Musique française at the Crossroads” (pp. 119–146) provides an introduction to what 19th-century commentators knew of Rameau and early French opera in general.

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  • Johnson, James H. Listening in Paris: A Cultural History. Studies on the History of Society and Culture 21. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

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    Traces the move to the modern, silent approach to audience participation. While many of the events described take place after Rameau’s career, the first two chapters present a reasonably accurate view of opera audiences of the ancien régime and of the reception of Rameau’s works. Contains generous citations of primary sources.

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  • Pasler, Jann. Composing the Citizen: Music as Public Utility in Third Republic France. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.

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    The most thorough account of music’s role in the Third Republic, rich in details on Rameau’s reception. There is especially good information on the programming of Rameau’s works during this period.

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  • Paul, Charles B. “Rameau, d’Indy and French Nationalism.” Musical Quarterly 58.1 (January 1972): 46–56.

    DOI: 10.1093/mq/LVIII.1.46Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Provides a detailed description of the political currents leading to renewed interest in Rameau during the Third Republic. It is especially useful in sorting out Vincent d’Indy’s beliefs and political leanings, which were instrumental for Rameau’s newfound popularity.

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  • Sadler, Graham. “Vincent d’Indy and the Rameau Oeuvres complètes: A Case of Forgery?” Early Music 21.3 (August 1993): 415–421.

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    A valuable study of the old Oeuvres complètes, this article lays out in clear terms which of its volumes are reliable and which unreliable. Rameau’s most important operas are found in the unreliable volumes. Sadler summarizes the issues and offers political perspective on the renewed interest in Rameau in Third Republic France.

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  • Suschitzky, Anya. “Debussy’s Rameau: French Music and Its Others.” Musical Quarterly 86.3 (Fall 2002): 398–448.

    DOI: 10.1093/musqtl/gdg016Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Debussy’s enthusiasm helped foment the revival of Rameau’s operas. The article addresses how Debussy became preoccupied with Rameau and how Debussy saw himself in relation to ideas of French history popular at the time.

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  • Wassermann, Christine. “Die Wiederentdeckung Rameaus in Frankreich im 19. Jahrhundert.” Archiv für Musikwissenschaft 50.2 (1993): 164–186.

    DOI: 10.2307/931189Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Traces the programming and performance of Rameau from his death up to Debussy’s interest in him, with special emphasis on performing institutions. Notably, it also traces musicological interest in Rameau during the same period.

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LAST MODIFIED: 06/29/2011

DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199757824-0042

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