The details of Rameau's life are generally obscure, especially concerning his fi

rst forty years, before he moved to Paris for good. He was a secretive man, and
even his wife knew nothing of his early life,[3] which explains the scarcity of
biographical information available.
Early years, 16831732[]
The Cathedral of Saint-Bnigne, Dijon
Rameau's early years are particularly obscure. He was born on 25 September 1683
in Dijon, and baptised the same day.[4] His father, Jean, worked as an organist
in several churches around Dijon, and his mother, Claudine Demartincourt, was the
daughter of a notary. The couple had eleven children (five girls and six boys),
of whom Jean-Philippe was the seventh.
Rameau was taught music before he could read or write. He was educated at the Je
suit college at Godrans, but he was not a good pupil and disrupted classes with
his singing, later claiming that his passion for opera had begun at the age of t
welve.[5] Initially intended for the law, Rameau decided he wanted to be a music
ian, and his father sent him to Italy, where he stayed for a short while in Mila
n. On his return, he worked as a violinist in travelling companies and then as a
n organist in provincial cathedrals before moving to Paris for the first time.[6
] Here, in 1706, he published his earliest known compositions: the harpsichord w
orks that make up his first book of Pices de clavecin, which show the influence o
f his friend Louis Marchand.[7]
In 1709, he moved back to Dijon to take over his father's job as organist in the
main church. The contract was for six years, but Rameau left before then and to
ok up similar posts in Lyon and Clermont. During this period, he composed motets
for church performance as well as secular cantatas.
In 1722, he returned to Paris for good, and here he published his most important
work of music theory, Trait de l'harmonie (Treatise on Harmony). This soon won h
im a great reputation, and it was followed in 1726 by his Nouveau systme de musiq
ue thorique.[8] In 1724 and 1729 (or 1730), he also published two more collection
s of harpsichord pieces.[9]
Rameau took his first tentative steps into composing stage music when the writer
Alexis Piron asked him to provide songs for his popular comic plays written for
the Paris Fairs. Four collaborations followed, beginning with L'endriague in 17
23; none of the music has survived.[10]
On 25 February 1726 Rameau married the 19-year-old Marie-Louise Mangot, who came
from a musical family from Lyon and was a good singer and instrumentalist. The
couple would have four children, two boys and two girls, and the marriage is sai
d to have been a happy one.[11]
In spite of his fame as a music theorist, Rameau had trouble finding a post as a
n organist in Paris.[12]
Later years, 17331764[]
Bust of Rameau by Caffieri, 1760
It was not until he was approaching 50 that Rameau decided to embark on the oper
atic career on which his fame as a composer mainly rests. He had already approac
hed writer Houdar de la Motte for a libretto in 1727, but nothing came of it; he
was finally inspired to try his hand at the prestigious genre of tragdie en musi
que after seeing Montclair's Jepht in 1732. Rameau's Hippolyte et Aricie premiered
at the Acadmie Royale de Musique on 1 October 1733. It was immediately recognise
d as the most significant opera to appear in France since the death of Lully, bu
t audiences were split over whether this was a good thing or a bad thing. Some,
such as the composer Andr Campra, were stunned by its originality and wealth of i
nvention; others found its harmonic innovations discordant and saw the work as a
n attack on the French musical tradition. The two camps, the so-called Lullyiste
s and the Rameauneurs, fought a pamphlet war over the issue for the rest of the
decade.[13]
Just before this time, Rameau had made the acquaintance of the powerful financie

r Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinire, who became his patron until 1753. La Poup
linire's mistress (and later, wife), Thrse des Hayes, was Rameau's pupil and a grea
t admirer of his music. In 1731, Rameau became the conductor of La Pouplinire's p
rivate orchestra, which was of an extremely high quality. He held the post for 2
2 years; he was succeeded by Johann Stamitz and then Gossec.[14] La Pouplinire's
salon enabled Rameau to meet some of the leading cultural figures of the day, in
cluding Voltaire, who soon began collaborating with the composer.[15] Their firs
t project, the tragdie en musique Samson, was abandoned because an opera on a rel
igious theme by Voltairea notorious critic of the Churchwas likely to be banned by
the authorities.[16] Meanwhile, Rameau had introduced his new musical style int
o the lighter genre of the opra-ballet with the highly successful Les Indes galan
tes. It was followed by two tragdies en musique, Castor et Pollux (1737) and Dard
anus (1739), and another opra-ballet, Les ftes d'Hb (also 1739). All these operas of
the 1730s are among Rameau's most highly regarded works.[17] However, the compo
ser followed them with six years of silence, in which the only work he produced
was a new version of Dardanus (1744). The reason for this interval in the compos
er's creative life is unknown, although it is possible he had a falling-out with
the authorities at the Acadmie royale de la musique.[18]
The year 1745 was a watershed in Rameau's career. He received several commission
s from the court for works to celebrate the French victory at the Battle of Font
enoy and the marriage of the Dauphin to Infanta Maria Teresa Rafaela of Spain. R
ameau produced his most important comic opera, Plate, as well as two collaboratio
ns with Voltaire: the opra-ballet Le temple de la gloire and the comdie-ballet La
princesse de Navarre.[19] They gained Rameau official recognition; he was grante
d the title "Compositeur du Cabinet du Roi" and given a substantial pension.[20]
1745 also saw the beginning of the bitter enmity between Rameau and Jean-Jacque
s Rousseau. Though best known today as a thinker, Rousseau had ambitions to be a
composer. He had written an opera, Les muses galantes (inspired by Rameau's Ind
es galantes), but Rameau was unimpressed by this musical tribute. At the end of
1745, Voltaire and Rameau, who were busy on other works, commissioned Rousseau t
o turn La Princesse de Navarre into a new opera, with linking recitative, called
Les ftes de Ramire. Rousseau then claimed the two had stolen the cr for the word
s and music he had contributed, though musicologists have been able to identify
almost nothing of the piece as Rousseau's work. Nevertheless, the embittered Rou
sseau nursed a grudge against Rameau for the rest of his life.[21]
Rousseau was a major participant in the second great quarrel that erupted over R
ameau's work, the so-called Querelle des Bouffons of 175254, which pitted French
tragdie en musique against Italian opera buffa. This time, Rameau was accused of
being out of date and his music too complicated in comparison with the simplicit
y and "naturalness" of a work like Pergolesi's La serva padrona.[22] In the mid1750s, Rameau criticised Rousseau's contributions to the musical articles in the
Encyclopdie, which led to a quarrel with the leading philosophes d'Alembert and
Diderot.[23] As a result, Rameau became a character in Diderot's then-unpublishe
d dialogue, Le neveu de Rameau (Rameau's Nephew).
In 1753, La Pouplinire took a scheming musician, Jeanne-Thrse Goermans, as his mist
ress. The daughter of harpsichord maker Jacques Goermans, she went by the name o
f Madame de Saint-Aubin, and her opportunistic husband pushed her into the arms
of the rich financier. She had La Pouplinire engage the services of the Bohemian
composer Johann Stamitz, who succeeded Rameau after a breach developed between R
ameau and his patron; however, by then, Rameau no longer needed La Pouplinire's f
inancial support and protection.
Rameau pursued his activities as a theorist and composer until his death. He liv
ed with his wife and two of his children in his large suite of rooms in Rue des
Bons-Enfants, which he would leave every day, lost in thought, to take a solitar
y walk in the nearby gardens of the Palais-Royal or the Tuileries. Sometimes he
would meet the young writer Chabanon, who noted some of Rameau's disillusioned c
onfidential remarks: "Day by day, I'm acquiring more good taste, but I no longer
have any genius" and "The imagination is worn out in my old head; it's not wise
at this age wanting to practise arts that are nothing but imagination."[24]
Rameau composed prolifically in the late 1740s and early 1750s. After that, his

rate of productivity dropped off, probably due to old age and ill health, althou
gh he was still able to write another comic opera, Les Paladins, in 1760. This w
as due to be followed by a final tragdie en musique, Les Borades; but for unknown
reasons, the opera was never produced and had to wait until the late 20th centur
y for a proper staging.[25] Rameau died on 12 September 1764 after suffering fro
m a fever. He was buried in the church of St. Eustache, Paris the following day.
[26]
Rameau's personality[]
Portrait of Rameauby Carmontelle, 1760
While the details of his biography are vague and fragmentary, the details of Ram
eau's personal and family life are almost completely obscure. Rameau's music, so
graceful and attractive, completely contradicts the man's public image and what
we know of his character as described (or perhaps unfairly caricatured) by Dide
rot in his satirical novel Le Neveu de Rameau. Throughout his life, music was hi
s consuming passion. It occupied his entire thinking; Philippe Beaussant calls h
im a monomaniac. Piron explained that "His heart and soul were in his harpsichor
d; once he had shut its lid, there was no one home."[27] Physically, Rameau was
tall and exceptionally thin,[28] as can be seen by the sketches we have of him,
including a famous portrait by Carmontelle. He had a "loud voice." His speech wa
s difficult to understand, just like his handwriting, which was never fluent. As
a man, he was secretive, solitary, irritable, proud of his own achievements (mo
re as a theorist than as a composer), brusque with those who contradicted him, a
nd quick to anger. It is difficult to imagine him among the leading wits, includ
ing Voltaire (to whom he bears more than a passing physical resemblance[28]), wh
o frequented La Pouplinire's salon; his music was his passport, and it made up fo
r his lack of social graces.
His enemies exaggerated his faults; e.g. his supposed miserliness. In fact, it s
eems that his thriftiness was the result of long years spent in obscurity (when
his income was uncertain and scanty) rather than part of his character, because
he could also be generous. We know that he helped his nephew Jean-Franois when he
came to Paris and also helped establish the career of Claude-Bnigne Balbastre in
the capital. Furthermore, he gave his daughter Marie-Louise a considerable dowr
y when she became a Visitandine nun in 1750, and he paid a pension to one of his
sisters when she became ill. Financial security came late to him, following the
success of his stage works and the grant of a royal pension (a few months befor
e his death, he was also ennobled and made a knight of the Ordre de Saint-Michel
). But he did not change his way of life, keeping his worn-out clothes, his sing
le pair of shoes, and his old furniture. After his death, it was discovered that
he only possessed one dilapidated single-keyboard harpsichord[29] in his rooms
in Rue des Bons-Enfants, yet he also had a bag containing 1691 gold louis.[30]
Music[]

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General character of Rameau's music[]
Rameau's music is characterised by the exceptional technical knowledge of a comp
oser who wanted above all to be renowned as a theorist of the art. Nevertheless,
it is not solely addressed to the intelligence, and Rameau himself claimed, "I
try to conceal art with art." The paradox of this music was that it was new, usi
ng techniques never known before, but it took place within the framework of oldfashioned forms. Rameau appeared revolutionary to the Lullyistes, disturbed by t
he complex harmony of his music; and reactionary to the "philosophes," who only
paid attention to its content and who either would not or could not listen to th
e sound it made. The incomprehension he received from his contemporaries stopped
Rameau from repeating such daring experiments as the second Trio des Parques in
Hippolyte et Aricie, which he was forced to remove after a handful of performan
ces because the singers had been either unable or unwilling to render it correct

ly.
Rameau's musical works[]
Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups,[31] which diffe
r greatly in importance: a few cantatas; a few motets for large chorus; some pie
ces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments; and, f
inally, his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of
his career almost exclusively. Like most of his contemporaries, Rameau often reu
sed melodies that had been particularly successful, but never without meticulous
ly adapting them; they are not simple transcriptions. Besides, no borrowings hav
e been found from other composers, although his earliest works show the influenc
e of other music. Rameau's reworkings of his own material are numerous; e.g., in
Les Ftes d'Hb, we find L'Entretien des Muses, the Musette, and the Tambourin, take
n from the 1724 book of harpsichord pieces, as well as an aria from the cantata
Le Berger Fidle.[32]
Motets[]
For at least 26 years, Rameau was a professional organist in the service of reli
gious institutions, and yet the body of sacred music he composed is exceptionall
y small and his organ works nonexistent. Judging by the evidence, it was not his
favourite field, but rather, simply a way of making reasonable money. Rameau's
few religious compositions are nevertheless remarkable and compare favourably to
the works of specialists in the area. Only four motetshave been attributed to R
ameau with any certainty: Deus noster refugium, In convertendo, Quam dilecta, an
d Laboravi.[33]
Cantatas[]
The cantata was a highly successful genre in the early 18th century. The French
cantata, which should not be confused with the Italian or the German cantata, wa
s "invented" in 1706 by the poet Jean-Baptiste Rousseau[34] and soon taken up by
many famous composers of the day, such as Montclair, Campra, and Clrambault. Cant
atas were Rameau's first contact with dramatic music. The modest forces the cant
ata required meant it was a genre within the reach of a composer who was still u
nknown. Musicologists can only guess at the dates of Rameau's six surviving cant
atas, and the names of the librettists are unknown.[35][36]
Instrumental music[]
Along with Franois Couperin, Rameau is one of the two masters of the French schoo
l of harpsichord music in the 18th century. Both composers made a decisive break
with the style of the first generation of harpsichordists, who confined their c
ompositions to the relatively fixed mould of the classical suite. This reached i
ts apogee in the first decade of the 18th century with successive collections of
pieces by Louis Marchand, Gaspard Le Roux, Louis-Nicolas Clrambault, Jean-Franois
Dandrieu, Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, Charles Dieupart, and Nicolas Siret.
Rameau and Couperin have different styles. They seem not to have known one anoth
er (Couperin was one of the official court musicians while Rameau was still an u
nknown; fame would only come to him after Couperin's death). Rameau published hi
s first book of harpsichord pieces in 1706 while Couperin (who was fifteen years
his senior) waited until 1713 before publishing his first "ordres." Rameau's mu
sic includes pieces in the pure tradition of the French suite: imitative ("Le ra
ppel des oiseaux," "La poule") and character ("Les tendres plaintes", "L'entreti
en des Muses") pieces and works of pure virtuosity that resemble Scarlatti ("Les
tourbillons," "Les trois mains") as well as pieces that reveal the experiments
of a theorist and musical innovator ("L'Enharmonique", "Les Cyclopes"), which ha
d a marked influence on Daquin, Royer, and Jacques Duphly. The suites are groupe
d in the traditional way, by key.
Rameau's three collections appeared in 1706, 1724 and 1726 or 1727, respectively
. After this, he only composed a single piece for the harpsichord: "La Dauphine"
(1747). Other works, such as "Les petits marteaux," have been doubtfully attrib
uted to him.
During his semiretirement in the years 1740 to 1744, he wrote the Pices de clavec
in en concert (1741), which some musicologists consider the pinnacle of French B
aroque chamber music. Adopting a formula successfully employed by Mondonville a
few years earlier, these pieces differ from trio sonatas in that the harpsichord

is not simply there as basso continuo to accompany other instruments (the violi
n, flute or viol) playing the melody but has an equal part in the "concert" with
them. Rameau also claimed that the pieces would be equally satisfying as solo h
arpsichord worksalthough this statement is far from convincing, since the compose
r took the trouble to transcribe five of them himself those where the lack of ot
her instruments would show the least.[37][38]
Opera[]
From 1733, Rameau dedicated himself almost exclusively to opera. On a strictly m
usical level, 18th-century French Baroque opera is richer and more varied than c
ontemporary Italian opera, especially in the place given to choruses and dances
but also in the musical continuity that arises from the respective relationships
between the arias and the recitatives. Another essential difference: whereas It
alian opera gave a starring role to female sopranos and castrati, French opera h
ad no use for the latter. The Italian opera of Rameau's day (opera seria, opera
buffa) was essentially divided into musical sections (da capo arias, duets, trio
s, etc.) and sections that were spoken or almost spoken (recitativo secco). It w
as during the latter that the action progressed while the audience waited for th
e next aria; on the other hand, the text of the arias was almost entirely buried
beneath music whose chief aim was to show off the virtuosity of the singer. Not
hing of the kind is to be found in French opera of the day; since Lully, the tex
t had to remain comprehensiblelimiting certain techniques such as the vocalise, w
hich was reserved for special words such as gloire ("glory") or victoire ("victo
ry"). A subtle equilibrium existed between the more and the less musical parts:
melodic recitative on the one hand and arias that were often closer to arioso on
the other, alongside virtuoso "ariettes" in the Italian style. This form of con
tinuous music prefigures Wagnerian drama even more than does the "reform" opera
of Gluck.
Five essential components may be discerned in Rameau's operatic scores:

Pieces of "pure" music (overtures, ritornelli, music which closes scenes

). Unlike the highly stereotyped Lullian overture, Rameau's overtures show an ex
traordinary variety. Even in his earliest works, where he uses the standard Fren
ch model, Rameauthe born symphonist and master of orchestrationcomposes novel and
unique pieces. A few pieces are particularly striking, such as the overture to Z
as, depicting the chaos before the creation of the universe, that of Pigmalion, s
uggesting the sculptor's chipping away at the statue with his mallet, or many mo
re conventional depictions of storms and earthquakes, as well perhaps as the imp
osing final chaconnes of Les Indes galantes or Dardanus.

Dance music: the danced interludes, which were obligatory even in tragdie
en musique, allowed Rameau to give free rein to his inimitable sense of rhythm,
melody, and choreography, acknowledged by all his contemporaries, including the
dancers themselves.[39] This "learned" composer, forever preoccupied by his nex
t theoretical work, also was one who strung together gavottes, minuets, loures,
rigaudons, passepieds, tambourins, and musettes by the dozen. According to his b
iographer, Cuthbert Girdlestone, "The immense superiority of all that pertains t
o Rameau in choreography still needs emphasizing," and the German scholar H.W. v
on Walthershausen affirmed:
Rameau was the greatest ballet composer of all times. The genius of his creation
rests on one hand on his perfect artistic permeation by folk-dance types, on th
e other hand on the constant preservation of living contact with the practical r
equirements of the ballet stage, which prevented an estrangement between the exp
ression of the body from the spirit of absolute music.[40]

Choruses: Padre Martini, the erudite musicologist who corresponded with

Rameau, affirmed that "the French are excellent at choruses," obviously thinking
of Rameau himself. A great master of harmony, Rameau knew how to compose sumptu
ous choruseswhether monodic, polyphonic, or interspersed with passages for solo s
ingers or the orchestraand whatever feelings needed to be expressed.

Arias: less frequent than in Italian opera, Rameau nevertheless offers m

any striking examples. Particularly admired arias include Tlare's "Tristes apprts,"
from Castor et Pollux; " jour affreux" and "Lieux funestes," fromDardanus; Huasc
ar's invocations in Les Indes galantes; and the final ariette in Pigmalion. In P

late we encounter a showstopping ars poetica aria for the character of La Folie (
the madness), "Formons les plus brillants concerts / Aux langeurs d'Apollon".

Recitative: much closer to arioso than to recitativo secco. The composer

took scrupulous care to observe French prosody and used his harmonic knowledge
to give expression to his protagonists' feelings.
During the first part of his operatic career (17331739), Rameau wrote his great m
asterpieces destined for the Acadmie royale de musique: three tragdies en musique
and two opra-ballets that still form the core of his repertoire. After the interv
al of 1740 to 1744, he became the official court musician, and for the most part
, composed pieces intended to entertain, with plenty of dance music emphasising
sensuality and an idealised pastoral atmosphere. In his last years, Rameau retur
ned to a renewed version of his early style in Les Paladins and Les Borades.
His Zoroastre was first performed in 1749. According to one of Rameau's admirers
, Cuthbert Girdlestone, this opera has a distinctive place in his works: "The pr
ofane passions of hatred and jealousy are rendered more intensely [than in his o
ther works] and with a strong sense of reality."
Rameau and his librettists[]
Unlike Lully, who collaborated with Philippe Quinault on almost all his operas,
Rameau rarely worked with the same librettist twice. He was highly demanding and
bad-tempered, unable to maintain longstanding partnerships with his librettists
, with the exception of Louis de Cahusac, who collaborated with him on several o
peras, including Les ftes de l'Hymen et de l'Amour (1747), Zas (1748), Nas (1749),
Zoroastre (1749; revised 1756), La naissance d'Osiris(1754), and Anacron (the fir
st of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754). He is also cred with writing the libr
etto of Rameau's final work, Les Borades (c. 1763).
Many Rameau specialists have regretted that the collaboration with Houdar de la
Motte never took place, and that the Samson project with Voltaire came to nothin
g because the librettists Rameau did work with were second-rate. He made his acq
uaintance of most of them at La Pouplinire's salon, at the Socit du Caveau, or at t
he house of the Comte de Livry, all meeting places for leading cultural figures
of the day.
Not one of his librettists managed to produce a libretto on the same artistic le
vel as Rameau's music: the plots were often overly complex or unconvincing. But
this was standard for the genre, and is probably part of its charm. The versific
ation, too, was mediocre, and Rameau often had to have the libretto modified and
rewrite the music after the premiere because of the ensuing criticism. This is
why we have two versions of Castor et Pollux (1737 and 1754) and three of Dardan
us (1739, 1744, and 1760).
Reputation and influence[]
By the end of his life, Rameau's music had come under attack in France from theo
rists who favoured Italian models. However, foreign composers working in the Ita
lian tradition were increasingly looking towards Rameau as a way of reforming th
eir own leading operatic genre, opera seria. Tommaso Traetta produced two operas
setting translations of Rameau libretti that show the French composer's influen
ce, Ippolito ed Aricia (1759) and I Tintaridi (based onCastor et Pollux, 1760).[
41] Traetta had been advised by Count Francesco Algarotti, a leading proponent o
f reform according to French models; Algarotti was a major influence on the most
important "reformist" composer, Christoph Willibald Gluck. Gluck's three Italia
n reform operas of the 1760sOrfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, and Paride ed Elenareveal
a knowledge of Rameau's works. For instance, both Orfeo and the 1737 version of
Castor et Pollux open with the funeral of one of the leading characters who late
r comes back to life.[42] Many of the operatic reforms advocated in the preface
to Gluck's Alceste were already present in Rameau's works. Rameau had used accom
panied recitatives, and the overtures in his later operas reflected the action t
o come,[43] so when Gluck arrived in Paris in 1774 to produce a series of six Fr
ench operas, he could be seen as continuing in the tradition of Rameau. Neverthe
less, while Gluck's popularity survived the French Revolution, Rameau's did not.
By the end of the 18th century, his operas had vanished from the repertoire.[44
]
For most of the 19th century, Rameau's music remained unplayed, known only by re

putation. Hector Berlioz investigated Castor et Pollux and particularly admired

the aria "Tristes apprts," but "whereas the modern listener readily perceives the
common ground with Berlioz' music, he himself was more conscious of the gap whi
ch separated them."[45] French humiliation in the Franco-Prussian War brought ab
out a change in Rameau's fortunes. As Rameau biographer J. Malignon wrote, "...t
he German victory over France in 187071 was the grand occasion for digging up gre
at heroes from the French past. Rameau, like so many others, was flung into the
enemy's face to bolster our courage and our faith in the national destiny of Fra
nce."[46] In 1894, composer Vincent d'Indy founded the Schola Cantorum to promot
e French national music; the society put on several revivals of works by Rameau.
Among the audience was Claude Debussy, who especially cherished Castor et Pollu
x, revived in 1903: "Gluck's genius was deeply rooted in Rameau's works... a det
ailed comparison allows us to affirm that Gluck could replace Rameau on the Fren
ch stage only by assimilating the latter's beautiful works and making them his o
wn." Camille Saint-Sans (by ing and publishing the Pices in 1895) and Paul Dukas w
ere two other important French musicians who gave practical championship to Rame
au's music in their day, but interest in Rameau petered out again, and it was no
t until the late 20th century that a serious effort was made to revive his works
. Over half of Rameau's operas have now been recorded, in particular by conducto
rs such as John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, and Marc Minkowski.