Monograph
By Jorg Cova, 2002
Abstract
Jean-Philippe Rameau is acknowledged in music history as a composer of theatrical dramatic music. However, his devotion to opera was the last stage of his musical output since his reputation as an opera composer stemmed from the representation of Hippolyte et Aricie, a lyric tragedy in five acts with prologue, staged in Paris on October 1, 1733 in the Académie Royale de Musique (Royal Academy of Music) today the Opéra de Paris, which was then settled in the Royal palace, after he had turned fifty. Before that, Rameau excelled as a philosopher and music theorist for what he gained repute, and as a composer of harpsichord music. He produced three books which he published between 1706 and 1730, as well as several other pieces and self-borrowed transcriptions. A survey over this music reveals that the harpsichord meant to Rameau the laboratory where he created and perfected his musical language that would later appear in his operas with the most striking emotional and dramatical bias.
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Publications:
Partially published as informative notes on ℗ harmonia mundi HMI 987039.40, 2003.
sesquialteramusic 