Overlooked? Jean-Philippe Rameau

            Jean-Philippe Rameau was a composer of Opera, harpsichord works, motets and trio sonatas; he lived from 1683-1764 most of that time in Paris.  The oxford text notes his first major success in opera being the piece; Hippolyte et Aricie (produced in 1733). As a composer of opera Rameau was very significant because he “[was] the first composer to successfully challenge Lully’s heritage on its own ground.” As I read the text, I feel as though the works of Rameau take more of an evolutionary character rather than a revolutionary one. The oxford text notes that “Rameau did not forsake the middle ground between aria and recitative that Lully’s style occupied, nor the dramatic use of choral resources, nor the integration of ballets ‘action into his scores.” This says to me that Rameau saw less of a division between his style and Lully’s than did his supporters and detractors.  One point that is worth mentioning is the “turn from the myths of antiquity to an oriental theme” in the opera Zoroastre (produced in 1749) which is, to my knowledge, the first significant work tackling a near-eastern setting.

            While this blog-series deals with the history and innovation of opera, I cannot ignore the immense contribution made by Rameau in the science of music theory (from his text; Triate de l’harmonie). In essence, before Rameau, music theory could only in the broadest sense be called scientific. Virtually everything in the first two years of undergraduate theory studied by music majors has in some part a debt to Rameau. Margaret Hanning notes this in the text; Concise History of Western Music which states Rameau’s five major contributions (somewhat paraphrased): 1) the chord is the primal element in music, 2) chords could be realized through the overtone series, 3) the realization of the basse fondamentale, 4) He coined the terms: tonic, sub-dominant and dominant to describe their functions, 5) explanation of the function of a pivot chord for modulatory purposes.  These techniques not doubt had something to do with the eloquence and coherence of Rameau’s compositional style.

            Johan Adolph Hasse was significant primarily for the fact that he was an incredibly successful composer of Italian Opera Seria outside of Italy, in German speaking Dresden. He had a very well known friendship with Metastasio which gave him something of an empathic attitude for staying faithful to the libretto, this was in contrast to the time where arias could be omitted for time constraints or for making room for material specific to one singer.  He was a very prolific composer of Operas, many of them with libretto from Metastisio including Il Re Pastore, L’Olimpiade and Nitteti. According to the text Hasse composed a new opera for Carnival almost every year up to the start of the Seven Year War.