The Rameau Compendium

284 Pages·2014·7.748 MB·English

by  Graham Sadler

T GRAHAM SADLER
H
E
his book is the most authoritative and R
up-to-date source of quick reference on
T H E
T
the Baroque composer and theorist Jean-
Philippe Rameau (1683–1764), covering a
every significant area of his life and creative m
activity. In particular, the dictionary and
e
work-list provide the reader with easy access a
to a wealth of cross-referenced material. u
The dictionary highlights recent discoveries
C Rameau
and developments, and corrects a number
O
of errors and misunderstandings. It includes
entries on institutions, places, individuals, M
genres, instruments, technical terms, P
iconography, editions, specific works and E
publications, and caters for the fact that some N CO M P e n d i u m
D
users will be at least as interested in Rameau’s
theoretical writings as in his life and music. I
U
Performers too are well served by the range of
M
entries, many of which illuminate aspects of
Front cover: Jean-Philippe
Rameau’s notation and performance practice Rameau, autograph
manuscript of Cantate pour le
that can prove puzzling to the non-specialist. jour de la Saint-Louis (Paris,
The biographical chapter not only provides Bibliothèque nationale de
France, MS. 18061), late
relevant factual information but also draws 1730s. Reproduced by
permission.
attention to significant patterns in Rameau’s
Back cover: Jean-Jacques
life and work. This book counters the Caffieri, bust of Rameau
G
widespread perception of the composer as (1760)
© Musée des Beaux-Arts de R
a dry, irascible, unsociable individual, Dijon. Photo François Jay.
A
revealing him in a far more sympathetic
H
light by giving due weight to hitherto
A
little-known information.
M

GRAHAM SADLER is Professor Emeritus S
A
at the University of Hull, Research Professor
D
at Birmingham Conservatoire and Research
L
Fellow at the University of Oxford. He
E
is known internationally as an authority R
on French music of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620-2731 (US)
www.boydellandbrewer.com
The Rameau
Compendium
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The Boydell Composer Compendium Series
The aim of the Composer Compendium series is to provide up-to-date reference
works on major composers and their music that can both provide instant infor-
mation and act as a gateway to further reading. The authors are all leading
authorities on the composers in question who have been given the remit not
only to assemble and present already existing data but also, where appropriate,
to make personal interpretations, to introduce new facts and arguments and
to shed light on the many discourses surrounding the chosen musicians from
their lifetime up to the present day.
The core of each volume is a dictionary section with entries for people,
institutions and places connected with the composer; musical, analytical and
historical terminology of particular relevance to them; significant events in the
reception history of their music; the genres in which they composed; individual
compositions or groups of compositions – in short, anyone and anything
judged to be pertinent. Entries in the dictionary section are carefully cross-
referenced to each other and also to a very comprehensive bibliography section
at the end of the volume. Between the dictionary and the bibliography there
is a work list based on the latest information, and the volume is prefaced by
a concise biography of the composer. Numerous music examples and illustra-
tions are included. By means of this simple formula, the series aims to provide
handbooks of wide and durable interest responding to the needs of scholars,
performers and music-lovers alike.
Michael Talbot
Series editor
Proposals are welcomed and should be sent in the first instance to the publisher
at the address below. All submissions will receive prompt and informed
consideration.
Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF
email: [email protected]
Previous volumes in this series:
The Vivaldi Compendium, Michael Talbot, 2011
Also available in paperback
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The Rameau
Compendium
Graham Sadler
the boydell press
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© Graham Sadler 2014
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Graham Sadler to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2014
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 84383 905 7
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mount Hope Ave, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or
accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred
to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper
Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
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To Shirley
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Contents
viii List of Illustrations
ix Introduction
1 Biography
15 Dictionary
224 Works
241 Bibliography
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Illustrations
Table of ornaments in Rameau’s Pièces de clavessin of 1724 (Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale de France, Département de la Musique, Vm7 1873). Reproduced by
permission. 20
Rameau, Code de musique pratique, 1760 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de
France, Rés. V. 1616), supplement of music examples, plate 22. Reproduced
by permission. 37
Anon., view of Clermont Cathedral seen from the rue des Notaires, c. 1820–30
(Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Est. Réserve VE-26 [Q]). Reproduced
by permission. 60
Rameau, Acante et Céphise, 1751 (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France,
Département de la Musique, Rés. Vm2. 119), Act II scene 6, p. 80. Reproduced
by permission. 82
Rameau, Démonstration du principe de l’harmonie, 1750 (Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale de France, V-25152), p. 247. Reproduced by permission. 101
Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin, ‘Avez-vous Jamais vü le Celebre Rameau’,
c.1740–1775, in Livre de Caricatures tant bonnes que mauvaises; watercolour, ink
and graphite on paper; 187 x 132mm ; Waddesdon, The Rothschild Collection
(The National Trust); acc. no. 675.240. Photo : Imaging Services Bodleian
Library © The National Trust, Waddesdon Manor. 120
Jean-Benjamin de La Borde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, 1780
(Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de la Musique, 4-Vm.
231), vol. II, after p. 51. Reproduced by permission. 132
Production score of Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
de France, Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, A. 128. a), Act II scene 2, p. 50.
Reproduced by permission. 140
Jean-Benjamin de La Borde, Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, 1780
(Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de la Musique, 4-Vm.
231), vol. I, after p. 142. Reproduced by permission. 147
Production score of Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale
de France, Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra, A. 128. a.), Act II scene 2, p. 47.
Reproduced by permission. 149
Rameau, ‘Les Niais de Sologne’, Pièces de clavessin (1724) (Paris, Bibliothèque
Nationale de France, Département de la Musique, Vm7 1873) 163
Anonymous etching, ‘Jean-Baptiste Rameau’ (sic), after Carmontelle (Paris,
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de la Musique, Est. Rameau
J.P. 032). Reproduced by permission. 175
‘Triomphe de Rameau’, etching by Claude Mathieu Fessard, after Charles-
Nicolas Cochin II (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Département de la
Musique. Estampe Rameau J.P., 036). Reproduced by permission. 214
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Introduction
More by accident than design, the publication of this Compendium coincides
with the 250th anniversary of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s death in 1764. For all
that such commemorations have their uses in focusing a spotlight on the
individual concerned, there is nevertheless no need to justify the present
project on those grounds alone. Interest in Rameau has increased enormously
during the past fifty years. His operas are no longer regarded as peripheral by
performers but are increasingly staged in the world’s major opera houses and
festivals. His keyboard and other chamber music has established itself in the
mainstream of the French Baroque repertory, while the stature of his activity
as a music theorist continues to grow as the extraordinary sophistication of his
achievement in this sphere is more widely recognized. These welcome develop-
ments have gone hand in hand with a huge increase in the amount of scholarly
research on Rameau and his period. Archival studies have added ‘new’ facts
to his biography, lost works have come to light, and there is scarcely an aspect
of his multifarious activity as composer, theorist, teacher or performer that
has not benefited from closer scrutiny and reassessment. Even so, the sheer
quantity and diversity of recent research can sometimes appear daunting. While
a substantial proportion of such work has been published in English, much of
it appears in French or other languages, and some material is not readily acces-
sible. Hence the need for a reference work that not only provides up-to-date
information on a broad range of topics relating to Rameau and his world but
also draws attention to the most authoritative writings on the subject.
The lion’s share of the compendium – well over four-fifths of its content –
is devoted to the Dictionary section. Here I have aimed at maximum breadth
and diversity, with a wide range of entries on persons, places, institutions,
musical works, theoretical writings and many other matters connected with
Rameau. The coverage extends to some possibly unexpected areas: even the
most seasoned Ramellian may be surprised – but, I hope, intrigued – to find
such keywords as ‘Goethe’, ‘Fandango’ or the ‘Noblemen and Gentlemen’s
Catch Club’. Still, the focus of the book is unashamedly ‘Rameau-centric’.
Pleasing though it might have been to include entries on all the more important
musicians and intellectuals active in France during the composer’s lifetime,
I have deliberately limited the choice to those with whom a specific link to
Rameau can be demonstrated. The same is true of musical and dramatic genres,
technical and critical terms, and so on. Special prominence is given to French
terminology of the period. During the seventeenth and much of the eighteenth
centuries, France maintained a performing tradition quite distinct from that
of Italy and elsewhere – a tradition, moreover, for which the ‘international’
Italian musical terminology is often unsuited. I have therefore included in the
Dictionary many French terms on generic distinctions, notational peculiarities,
performance practice and the like, particularly those that have been widely
adopted in modern writings on the composer and his era.
It goes without saying that the Dictionary is not designed to be read from A
to Z. (Inquisitive minds may nevertheless be tempted to continue reading by
some possibly unexpected juxtapositions: ‘Divertissement’ and ‘Do do, l’enfant
do’, for instance, or ‘Parodie’ and ‘Paroles qui ont précédé le Te Deum’.) Rather,
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