General Biography on Rameau

Program Note:

Equally famous is Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), whose legacy in composition and theory has cast a long shadow over French music history. His system of chord theory and fundamental bass progressions laid out in the 1722 Treatise on Harmony remains in common use today. At the time, he was best known for challenging Lully’s command of the opera world. Rameau often contributed to the 18th-century debate over national influences in French music. His simple airs and gracious instrumental writing helped forge the signature clarity of the new French style, as it moved away from the overly decorated mannerisms of the prior generations. With his attentions divided between composition, journalism, and polemics, Rameau concentrated most of his effort on stage works. Nevertheless, he made important contributions to keyboard literature, including both character pieces and organized dance suites.
Very little is known of Rameau’s early life except that he came from a musical family in Dijon, traveled for a time in Italy, and had his first professional jobs as an organist (following his father’s example). Better documented is his career after 1722, when he settled in Paris, brought forth his profoundly influential Treatise, and began working as a theater composer. Success in opera followed a few years later, though Rameau continued to work in smaller, private genres. He published two significant volumes of harpsichord music in 1724 and 1728. The earlier collection includes well-known character pieces such as “The Sighs,” “The Cyclops,” and “The Village Girl.” Rameau’s keyboard works often refer directly to the world around him: people he knew, things he saw, places he visited. His suites typically contain the traditional core of a Baroque suite (an Allemande, Courante, and Sarabande), though performers then and today often took liberties with the order and selection of such works. His Allemandes in particular dwarf all related examples in the genre in terms of breadth and expressivity, only excepting some by J. S. Bach.

(c) Jason Stell