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Jean-Philippe Rameau: Operas
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Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the truly multifaceted musicians of his day. Acclaimed for his innovative and popular operas, he was ... known as one of the greatest organists in France, and his theoretical writings continue to influence musical thinkers over two centuries later.
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Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, France two years before the birth of Handel and Bach. He published several treatises on music theory and collections of harpsichord pieces. His real love was for opera. He composed his first opera at the age of fifty. Rameau is regarded as the leading French composer of his time.
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Rameau was the leading French composer of his time, in particular after the death of Couperin in 1733. He made a significant and lasting contribution to musical theory. Born in Dijon, two years before the year of birth of Handel, Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, Rameau spent the earlier part of his career principally as organist at Clermont Cathedral. In 1722 or 1723... he settled in Paris, publishing further collections of harpsichord pieces and his important Treatise on Harmony, written before his removal to Paris. From 1733 he devoted himself largely to the composition of opera and to his work as a theorist, the first under the patronage of a rich amateur, in whose house he had an apartment.
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Just before this time, Rameau had made the acquaintance of the powerful financier Alexandre Le Riche de la Pouplinière who became his patron until 1753. La Pouplinière's mistress (and later wife) Thérèse des Hayes was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music. In 1731 Rameau became the conductor of La Pouplinière's private orchestra, which was of an extremely high quality. He held the post for 22 years (he was succeeded by Johann Stamitz and then Gossec).[12] La Pouplinière's salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day, including Voltaire who soon began collaborating with the composer. [13] Their first project, the tragédie en musique Samson, was abandoned because an opera on a religious theme by Voltaire, a notorious critic of the Church, was likely to be banned by the authorities.[14] Meanwhile Rameau had introduced his new musical style into the lighter genre of the opéra-ballet with the highly successful Les Indes galantes. It was followed by two tragédies en musique, Castor et Pollux (1737) and Dardanus (1739), and another opéra-ballet, Les fêtes d'Hébé (... 1739).
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Rameau's theories were not his only creations that caused debate. In 1733, at the age of 50, his first of thirty Operas, "Hippolyte et Aricie," was performed. It caused quite a stir by breaking the traditional mold for opera as well. His music was flexible, expressive and reinforced the action on the stage. His opera was was both loved and hated. He was accused of taking an "Italianate departure from the classical style of Lully." Patrons lined up as either "old guard Lullistes and the forward-looking Ramistes." His specialty was the tragédie lyrique genre.
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Avid reader of Zarlino, Kircher, and Descartes, as a youth Rameau set out to discover the laws of harmony for himself. His Traité de l'harmonie (1722) laid the foundation for a rational science of music, and his concept of the invertibility of triads--a stroke of genius by any measure--had great consequences for the teaching of theory. At first not received well in France, Rameau's ideas were introduced into Germany by Marpurg. Rameau was a first-rate composer as well as theorist, composing mainly operas but ... sacred, harpsichord, and chamber works. In the "War of the Buffoons" of 1752 Rameau was a defender of the French opera style of Lully and Destouches as opposed to the opera buffa of Pergolesi. In later years, however, Rameau said that if he had it to do over again he would have gone to Italy and studied with Pergolesi.
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