RAMEAU, JEAN PHILIPPE

Distinguished composer and theorist; b. Dijon, France, Sept. 25, 1683; d. Paris, Sept. 12, 1764. In a long, busy career Rameau was eminent in three musical areas that were much more disparate then than now. In his earlier years he was considered primarily a theorist, and his Traité d'harmonie of 1722 is one of the landmarks of the science. In it he proposed theories of the invertibility of triads, the "fundamental bass" (function of chord roots irrespective of inversions), and the cycle of fifths—theories definitive in virtually all texts on tonal harmony since then. He composed many harpsichord works, both solo pieces (three books: 1706, 1724, 1731) and pieces en concert (with other instruments, 1741). He was also an organist and produced a handful of motets in connection with his church positions. In 1733, already age 50, Rameau began a new career in opera. He produced more than two dozen works, among them Les Indes galantens (1735), Castor et Pollux (1737), and a comedy, Les Paladins (1760). His imaginative instrumentation and characterization caused considerable discussion; his work was always controversial. His contemporaries considered him a philosopher, and he continued didactic writing throughout his life.

Bibliography: Oeuvres complètes, ed. c. saint-saËns, 18 v. (Paris 1895–1913), now somewhat outdated; the keyboard works have recently been reedited by e. jacobi; "Traité de l'harmonie," o. strunk, ed., Source Readings in Music History (New York 1950) 564–574, excerpt. p. m. masson, L'Opéra de Rameau (Paris 1930). p. berthier, Réflexions sur l'art et la vie de Jean-Philippe Rameau (Paris 1957). c. m. girdlestone, Jean-Philippe Rameau (London 1957). m. m. keane, The Theoretical Writings of Jean-Philippe Rameau (Washington 1961). Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, ed. n. slonimsky (5th, rev. ed. New York 1958) 1303–05. d. j. grout, A Short History of Opera, 2 v. (2d, rev. and enl. ed. New York 1965). j.-m. bardez, "Jean-Philippe Rameau: Pièces de Clavecin en Concert, " Analyse Musicale 25 (1991) 77–97. t. christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment (Cambridge, England 1993). c. dill, Monstrous Opera: Rameau and the Tragic Tradition (Princeton 1998). b. hyer, "Sighing Branches: Prosopopoeia in Rameau's Pigmalion, " Music Analysis 13 (1994) 7–50. h. krebs, "Schenker's Changing View of Rameau: A Comparison of Remarks in Harmony, Counterpoint, and Rameau or Beethoven?, " Theoria: Historical Aspects of Music Theory 3 (1998) 59–72. w. landowska, "French Music Of the Past: Jean Philippe Rameau." in Landowska On Music, ed. and trans. d. restout (New York 1964) 267–273. p. f. rice, "Mid-Eighteenth Century Changes in French Opera: The Two Versions of Rameau's Zoroastre. " Recherches sur la Musique française classicque 21 (1983) 128–144. p. saby, "Le travail de la forme dans les chœurs dramatiques de Jean-Philippe Rameau," Analyse Musicale 20 (1990) 9–15. h. schneider, "Rameau et sa famille: Nouveaux documents," Recherches sur la Musique française classicque 23 (1985) 94–130.

[e. borroff]