Jean Philippe Rameau

The Real Relationship between Kirnberger's and Rameau's "Concept of the Fundamental Bass"

It is ironic that the very theoretical precept for which Jean-Philippe Rameau is perhaps best known remains today his most seriously misunderstood theory: the concept of the fundamental bass. Part of the problem is that this bass, as Rameau conceived it, is not merely an inflexible, mechanical procedure as some believe, but a general hypothesis by which he can demonstrate his own unique harmonic perspective, composed as it is of a wide variety of speculative presumptions and ideals. Hence, while Rameau routinely uses the fundamental bass to reduce literal pitches to a tertiary arrangement, there are many instances where he reaches beyond the written score with it, seeking to establish by inference the aural or logical implications of a passage in terms consistent with the perspective of his system. In the following excerpt from The Theory of Harmony, Matthew Shirlaw accurately distinguishes between the literal and inferential application of the fundamental bass in Rameaus work.

Les Indes galantes

Jean-Philippe Rameau Jean-Philippe Rameau est ne a Dijon le 25 septembre 1683 et est mort a Paris le 12 septembre 1764. Il etait un compositeur francais et theoricien de la musique. La creation la plus celebre du compositeur est lopera-ballet « Les Indes galantes » compose en 1735. Cette partie de sa production est curieusement restee oubliee pendant pres de deux siecles. Il fera de la musique pour Louis XIV, appele aussi le Roi Soleil. Ce dernier etait aussi musicien et grand amateur de danses. C’est l’epoque de la musique Baroque. Un opera-ballet est une sorte d’opera en francais dans lequel on integre des danses. Un opera est une histoire qui est racontee en chantant.

Eighteenth-Century Science and the "Corps Sonore:" The Scientific Background to Rameau's "Principle of Harmony"

There was nothing Jean-Philippe Rameau held more sacred in his music theory than the corps sonore. The corps sonore (literally the sonorous body) was Rameaus term for any vibrating system such as a vibrating string which emitted harmonic partials above its fundamental frequency. Its importance in Rameaus theory can scarcely be exaggerated. Rameau was convinced, the good Cartesian that he was, that music was governed by rational laws, and that these laws could be deduced with geometric rigor from a single principle. He believed the theorists most critical task was to identify this unique principle and to demonstrate its musical consequences. And in all of his theoretical publications save his first, the corps sonore served as this principle. In treatise after treatise, Rameau would attempt anew to prove that the corps sonore was the single unique principle of music, how it alone bore all elements and rules governing musical practice. Indeed, this theme became something of an idle fixe in his writings. Nothing else so dominated his thought. Rameaus fascination with the corps sonore became by the end of his life an obsession; the corps sonore assumed cosmic proportions in his writings as a veritable icon, the progenitor of all the arts, sciences, and even religion. Notwithstanding these metaphysical excesses, Rameau always believed that the corps sonore was first and foremost a scientific verity, definable

Issé : pastorale héroïque

This is the first publication in the new facsimile series under the general editorship of Barry S. Brook. In addition to an extensive Introduction in both English and French, this score and libretto of the 1697 opera also contains facsimiles of the dance materials with annotations by Wendy Hilton, and a section on design by Jerome de La Gorce