History can often be read as story or drama, with the events of the narrative partitioned into scenes. As a play, the history of music theory in eighteenth-century France has Jean-Philippe Rameau as its main character. The scenes in which Rameau and his opponents debated his theory are filled with contentious dialogue. Even if the historian excludes Rameau and devotes scenes to his predecessors, contemporaries and interpreters, the plot still revolves around the story's protagonist who stands in the wings.