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  3. Dramatic Expression in Rameau's Tragédie en Musique
  • Cited by 2
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
March 2013
Print publication year:
2013
Online ISBN:
9781139109406
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139109406
Subjects:
Music, Opera, Eighteenth-Century Music
Information

Book description

Cynthia Verba's book explores the story of music's role in the French Enlightenment, focusing on dramatic expression in the musical tragedies of the composer-theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau. She reveals how his music achieves its highly moving effects through an interplay between rational design, especially tonal design, and the portrayal of feeling and how this results in a more nuanced portrayal of the heroine. Offering a new approach to understanding Rameau's role in the Enlightenment, Verba illuminates important aspects of the theory-practice relationship and shows how his music embraced Enlightenment values. At the heart of the study are three scene types that occur in all of Rameau's tragedies: confession of forbidden love, intense conflict and conflict resolution. In tracing changes in Rameau's treatment of these, Verba finds that while he maintained an allegiance to the traditional French operatic model, he constantly adapted it to accommodate his more enlightened views on musical expression.

Reviews

'… builds on decades of study of Jean-Phillipe Rameau's musical practice, taking a two-directional approach-theory and musical practice … Recommended. Upper division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty.'

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Contents

Contents
References

Bibliography

CTW

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Complete Theoretical Writings, edited by Erwin R. Jacobi, 6 vols. Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1967–72. Facsimile edn

JAMS

Journal of the American Musicological Society

OC

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Œuvres complètes, gen. ed. Camille Saint-Saëns, 18 vols. Paris: Durand et Fils, 1896–1924

OOR

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Opera Omnia Rameau, editor-in-chief Sylvie Bouissou. Paris: G. Billaudot, c. 1996–

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Masson, Paul-Marie. L’Opéra de Rameau. Paris: Laurens, 1930; rpt. New York, 1972.
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McClary, Susan.Feminine Endings: Music, Gender and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, with a new introduction, 2002.
Moreno, Jairo. Musical Representations, Subjects, and Objects: The Construction of Musical Thought in Zarlino, Descartes, Rameau, and Weber. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 2004, pp. 85–127.
Rehding, Alexander. “Rousseau, Rameau, and Enharmonic Furies in the French Enlightenment,” Journal of Music Theory 49, no.1 (2005): 141–180.
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Rosow, Lois.“Structure and Expression in the scènes of Hippolyte et Aricie.” Cambridge Opera Journal 10, no. 3 (1998): 259–274.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Dictionnaire de musique. Paris: Duchesne, 1768; facsimile edn. Hildesheim: Olms, 1969; repr. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1969.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.Lettre sur la musique française. Paris: n.p. (1753). In La Querelle des Bouffons, edited by Denise Launay, 3 vols. Geneva: Minkoff (1973), vol. I, pp. 767–826.
Sadler, Graham. “Rameau.” The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie, 4 vols. London: Macmillan, vol. III (1992), pp. 1225–1234.
Sadler, Graham.“Rameau, Pellegrin and the Opéra: The Revisions of ‘Hippolyte et Aricie’ during its First Season.” The Musical Times 124 (September, 1983): 533–537.
Sadler, Graham.“Vincent d’Indy and the Rameau Œuvres complètes: A Case of Forgery?” Early Music (August 1993): 415–421.
Schneider, Herbert. “Rameau et la tradition lulliste.” Jean-Philippe Rameau. Colloque international organisé par la société Rameau. Dijon, 21–24 septembre 1983, edited by Jérôme de La Gorce. Geneva: Slatkine; Paris: Champion, 1987, pp. 287–306.
Solie, Ruth. “Whose Life? The Gendered Self in Schumann's Frauenliebe Songs.” In Music and Text: Critical Inquiries, edited by Steven Paul Scher. Cambridge University Press, 1992, pp. 219–240.
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Treitler, Leo. Music and the Historical Imagination. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Verba, Cynthia. “The Development of Rameau's Thoughts on Modulation and Chromatics.” JAMS 26, no. 1 (1973): 69–91.
Verba, Cynthia.Music and the French Enlightenment: Reconstruction of a Dialogue, 1750–1765. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Verba, Cynthia.“Rameau's Views on Modulation,” JAMS 31, no. 3 (1978): 467–479.
Verba, Cynthia.“What Recitatives Owe to the Airs.” Cambridge Opera Journal 11, no. 2 (1999): 103–134.
Webster, James. “Mozart's Operas and the Myth of Musical Unity.” Cambridge Opera Journal 2, no. 2 (1990): 197–218.

Musical sources for examples discussed

Scholarly editions

Rameau, Jean-Philippe. Œuvres complètes (OC), gen. ed. Camille Saint-Saëns, 18 vols. Paris: Durand et Fils, 1896–1924.
Rameau, Jean-Philippe.Opera Omnia Rameau (OOR), editor-in-chief Sylvie Bouissou. Paris: G. Billaudot, c. 1996–.

Individual tragedies

Castor et Pollux (premiered October 24, 1737)

Paris: Prault Fils, 1737.

Dardanus (premiered October 19, 1739)

Paris: L’Auteur, 1739.

Hippolyte et Aricie (premiered October 1, 1733)

Paris: De Gland, 1733; revised engraving, De Gland, 1742.
OC, vol. VI, edited by Vincent D’Indy, with an introduction and critical notes by Charles Malherbe. Paris: Durand et Fils, 1900.
OOR series IV, vol. I, edited by Sylvie Bouissou. Paris: G. Billaudot, 2002.

Les Boréades

Les Boréades. Tragédie lyrique de Jean-Philippe Rameau (1764). Facsimilé de la partition originale, edited and with preface by Antoine Geoffroy Dechaume. Paris: Stil, 1982.
Jean-Philippe Rameau: Abaris ou Les Boréades. A Critical Edition, edited by Mary Terey-Smith. Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, 1972.

Zoroastre (premiered December 2, 1749)

OOR series IV, vol. XIX, edited by Graham Sadler. Paris: G. Billaudot, 1999.

Rameau treatises cited

Jean-Philippe Rameau: Complete Theoretical Writings (CTW), edited by Erwin R. Jacobi, 6 vols. Rome: American Institute of Musicology, 1967–72. Facsimile edn.
Code de musique pratique. Paris: L’Imprimerie Royale, 1761. CTW, vol. IV (1969), pp. 1–264.
Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie. Paris: Durand, Pissot, 1750. CTW, vol. III, pp. 151–254.
Génération harmonique. Paris: Prault Fils, 1737. CTW, vol. III (1968), pp. 1–150.
Nouveau système de musique théorique. Paris: Ballard, 1726. CTW, vol. II (1967).
Observations sur notre instinct pour la musique. Paris: Prault Fils, Lambert, Duchesne, 1754. CTW, vol. III, pp. 255–330.
Traité de l'harmonie. Paris: Ballard, 1722. CTW, vol. I (1967).

Recordings of Rameau tragedies discussed

Castor et Pollux

NikolausHarnoncourt, director, with the Concentus musicus Wien and the Stockholmer Kammerchor (CD, Teldec Schallplatte GmbH, LC 3706, Haussweg 25, 2000 Hamburg, 1987).
WilliamChristie, conductor, Les Arts Florissants, Jean-Martial Golaz, director (CD, Harmonia Mundi, 901435.37, 1992).

Dardanus

Marc Minkowski, director, with Les Musiciens du Louvre (CD, Archiv Production, Deutsche Grammophon, 463 476–2, 2000).

Hippolyte et Aricie

Sir Anthony Lewis, conductor, with the English Chamber Orchestra and the St. Anthony Singers (L’Oiseau-Lyre SOL286/7/8, 1966).
Marc Minkowski, director, with Les Musiciens du Louvre (CD, Archiv Production, Deutsche Grammophon, 445 853–2, 1995).
William Christie, conductor, Les Arts Florissants, Jean-Marie Villégier, director (Erato, 0630–15517-2, 1997).

Les Boréades

John Eliot Gardiner, director, with English Baroque Soloists and Monteverdi Choir (CD, Erato, 2292–45572-2, 1982)
WilliamChristie, conductor, Les Arts Florissants, with Opéra National de Paris, featuring La La La Human Steps (DVD Video, Opus Arte, 2004).

[Zoroastre

No recording available of 1749 version; only of 1756 revised version.]

Rameau, other genres cited

Ballets héroïques: Zaïs (1748); Naïs (1749).
Opéra-ballets: Les Fêtes de Polymnie (1745); Les Fêtes de l’Hymen et de l’Amour (1747).

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