Jean-Philippe Rameau is a popular composer from France, famous for his musical experiments. He was famous throughout Europe, served as a court composer with the French king. He entered the history of world music as a theoretician of the Baroque trend, the creator of a new opera style. We will describe his detailed biography in this article.
Composer Biography
Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in 1683. He was born in the French city of Dijon.
His father was an organist, so the boy was introduced to music from childhood. As a result, he learned the notes before the alphabet. Education Jean-Philippe Rameau received in a Jesuit school. Parents strongly supported his passion for music. Therefore, as soon as he was 18 years old, he was sent to Italy to improve his musical education. Jean-Philippe Rameau studied in Milan.
Returning to his homeland, he first got a job as a violinist in an orchestra in the city of Montpellier, then he followed in the footsteps of his father, starting to work as an organist. He constantly performed in Lyon, his native Dijon, Clermont-Ferrand.
In 1722, Jean-Philippe Rameau, whose biography is in this article, finally settled in Paris. He began to compose music for the capital's theaters. It is noteworthy that he wrote not only secular, but also spiritual works. In 1745 he was appointed court composer at the court of Louis XV the Beloved.
The most famous works
Secular works brought fame to the hero of our article. Jean-Philippe Rameau created many plays for harpsichord, which in the 20th century became so popular that they even began to go through and study in children's music schools. Also among his works, it is worth noting as many as five concerts for violin, harpsichord and viola, characteristic plays that are distinguished by a bright and memorable style.
The composer also has spiritual works. First of all, these are three Latin motets, that is, polyphonic vocal works that were extremely popular in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, have not lost their relevance in the Renaissance.
Among the popular plays of Rameau, the works Chicken, Tambourine, Hammers, Dauphin, and Roll Call of Birds should be noted.
Musical experiments
Today, Rameau is primarily known as a bold musical experimenter. Especially often he set experiments when writing plays for harpsichord. Rameau experimented with rhythm, harmony and texture. Contemporaries directly called his workshop a creative laboratory.
A significant example of the plays "Cyclops" and "Savages". In them, Rameau managed to achieve amazing sound due to the unusual deployment of the tonal fret. It was quite inventive and unusual for musical works of that time. In the play “Anharmonic”, Rameau was one of the first in the world to apply anharmonic modulations, that is, he used sounds, chords, intervals and tones of the same height, which at the same time remained different in spelling.
The instrument of Jean-Philippe Rameau is an organ. He also experimented with him repeatedly, achieving a fundamentally new sound.
New opera style
Jean-Philippe Rameau created a new opera style. By this, he is perhaps most famous among his contemporaries. You can evaluate it by the most famous musical tragedies of the author. For example, this is Hippolytus and Arisia.
This is his first opera, the libretto of which was written by Simon Joseph Pellegren. The opera is based on the famous tragedy of Racine called "Fedra", which, in turn, is written on the basis of the tragedies "Hippolytus" Euripides and "Fedra" Seneca.
Interestingly, this opera was the only one among Rameau, which was not popular with the audience. But at the same time it provoked a lively debate. Adherents of opera traditions believed that it was too complex and artificial. Proponents of Ramo's music objected to them in every way.
It is noteworthy that Rameau wrote his first opera when he was almost 50 years old. Prior to that, he was known as the author of works on the theory of music and collections of easy pieces for harpsichord. Ramo himself for many years worked to create a large work worthy of the Royal Opera, but could not find a writer who could help him realize this plan. Only acquaintance with Abbot Pellegren, who by that time was already known as the author of the libretto for the opera Ievfaya, saved the situation.
Pellegren agreed to cooperate, but, according to rumors, demanded a bill of exchange from Rameau in case the work failed. One of the main innovations that the composer used in this opera was the connection that arose between the overture and the content of the opera itself. So he was able to illustrate the confrontation of the main characters of the work - Hippolyta and Fedra.
Rameau continued his work on creating a new opera style in the operas Castor and Pollux, the opera ballet Gallant India, the works of Dardan, Heba Festivals, or Lyric Gifts, Naida, Said, Zoroaster, "Boready", the lyrical comedy "Platea". Most of the operas were first staged on the stage of the Paris Opera.
Today, seven cantatas have become extremely popular, which were never published during his lifetime. Often, choristers also perform his "Anthem of the Night." True, it has recently become known that this is not a work of Rameau, but a later processing of the theme of the opera "Hippolytus and Arisia" by Noyon.
Treatises on the Theory of Music
At one time, Rameau became famous as a major music theorist, thanks to whom French classical music and opera stepped far forward. In 1722 he published the famous "Treatise on harmony, reduced to its natural principles."
The specialists of his work also enjoyed fame and still interest the methods of accompaniment on the harpsichord and organ, research on the origin of harmony, a demonstration of its foundations, observation of a person’s penchant for music.
In 1760, his treatise "The Laws of Practical Music" provoked lengthy discussions.
