Beethoven, Handel, Mozart: These three musicians changed classical music forever. But there is another, lesser-known musician, who played a crucial part in Western classical music: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764). A talented musician, groundbreaking theorist, and prolific Baroque composer, Rameau revolutionized French opera and all operatic music from then on.
Very little is known about Rameau’s early life. According to records, Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, France. His father, a church organist, was said to have taught Rameau how to play the harpsichord before he could even read or write. Music seemed to be in his bones; the young Rameau attended Jesuit college, but often disrupted classes with abrupt bouts of singing.
‘Isaac Newton of Music’
While Rameau’s parents initially wanted their son to become a lawyer, the young man decided otherwise. After a short trip to Italy in 1701, Rameau came back to France and became a church organist, playing in various churches in Lyon, Clermont, Avignon, and Dijon. As an organist, he composed many religious works, mostly motets (religious compositions for either solo voice or choir with instrumental accompaniment) and cantatas (musical compositions for solo vocalists and choirs).After 20 years working across France as a professional violinist and organist, Rameau settled in Paris, where he decided to become a serious composer. There, he published his earliest recorded compositions, notably “Pièces de clavecin,” (1706) “Grand Motets,” (1713–1714) and “Cantates Profanes” (1728). However, it was Rameau’s contribution to music theory that truly made him popular.
In 1722, the 39-year-old Rameau published his “Traité de l'harmonie” (“Treatise on Harmony”), the first of his many theoretical works. Interestingly enough, Rameau was the only major composer who gained a reputation as a theorist before being acclaimed for his compositions. His first treatise started advancements in music theory, and Rameau soon became known as the “Isaac Newton of Music.” Rameau considered music to be a science and attempted to derive universal harmonic principles from natural sources. Using mathematical proofs, he demonstrated that all harmony is based on the “root,” or fundamental note, of a chord.
Operatic Legacy
Rameau’s works changed French opera forever. At the time, he was viewed as Jean-Baptiste Lully’s successor, the favored composer of Louis XIV. While the well-established Lully was known for his French poise and reserve, Rameau preferred passion and intensity, and the latter became the most famous composer of the late Baroque era.
While Rameau pretended to respect the forms inherited by Lully, he enriched them with his insatiable creativity, fiery dynamism, ornated music, rhythmic variety, and sophisticated orchestral colors imbued with the spirit of dance. He transformed Lully’s legacy with never-before-heard harmonies and original melodies. He followed the French operatic tradition of having a form of “entertainment” in each act, like orchestral symphonies or dances, such as tambourins and menuets, in between arias on stage. Rameau created a new form of spectacle, fairy-tale-like and extravagant, in one word—baroque.
Besides being a groundbreaking music theorist, Rameau was also a prolific opera composer. His operas dramatically transformed French opera, and influenced major composers such as Christophe Willibald Gluck and Richard Wagner.
When Rameau turned 50, his career as a great composer truly began. After 1733, his professional life changed when Rameau started to compose operas. His first opera, “Hippolyte et Aricie,” (“Hippolytus and Aricia”) caught the attention of Louis XV, and Rameau became the official composer of the Royal Cabinet. In 1745, he wrote several operas to celebrate major royal events, such as the victory of the French at the Battle of Fontenoy and the wedding of the King’s son, the Dauphin, to Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain. The latter became one of his most celebrated operas, “Platée.”
Besides “Platée,” other works include: “Les Indes Galantes” (1735) “Castor et Pollux” (1737), “Dardanus” (1739), “Les Fêtes d'Hébé” (1739), “Zoroastre” (1749), and “Les Paladins” (1757). He went on to compose lyrical tragedies, opera-ballets, and pastoral works, often several a year. It is estimated that Rameau wrote at least 25 full-length operas and several short pieces in the last 30 years of his life. His last opera, “Les Boréades,” (1763) was published a year before his death.
Ahead of His Time
Rameau’s musical theories and novel approach to opera are widely recognized and used today, but they were controversial in his time. When Rameau’s “Hippolyte et Aricie” premiered at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris, it caused a great uproar, being applauded as much as criticized.Rameau’s first opera, based on Racine’s great tragedy “Phèdre,” broke the rules that had been laid down by Lully during the reign of the Sun King. Most critics thought the style was too vigorous, too dynamic, and too flourished, contrasting with the French style until then. A quarrel erupted over Rameau’s work, with the “Rameauneurs,” who supported Rameau’s work, opposing the “Lullyistes,” who considered it an attack on the French musical tradition.
Rameau was also involved in the “Querelle des Bouffons,” (quarrel of the comic actors) a famous rivalry between the French tragedic genre of opera (“tragédie en musique”) and the Italian “buffa” genre. This dispute opposed those who privileged the new Italian style, and those who viewed it as a threat to the traditional French opera. Posthumously, Rameau was also involved in a controversy that opposed supporters of Rameau (the “ramistes”) to supporters of Gluck (the “gluckistes”).
Ultimately, Rameau came to represent the French tradition in opera. Opera remained formal in Rameau’s hands, but the composer brought a new power, vividness, and excitement to French opera.
By the end of the 18th century, Rameau’s music fell out of fashion, and only came back in the 20th century. Today, music experts recognize his influence and importance in the history of classical music.
