Jean-Philippe Rameau

French composer and music theorist (1683–1764)

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Lived 1683–1764, aged 81France

France MusiciansSinger / Musician

Wikipedia
61 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1683–1764
Aged 81
Awards
1
recognised work

Summary

Updated 2026-06-08

He rewrote the rules of harmony in a treatise that made him famous across Europe, then waited until he was nearly 50 to write the operas that would dethrone Lully and ignite riots in the French musical establishment.

Biography

About

Jean-Philippe Rameau spent his early years in obscurity until the 1720s, when his Treatise on Harmony (1722) established him as a major music theorist and his harpsichord masterpieces circulated throughout Europe, placing him alongside François Couperin as France's leading keyboard composer. He was almost 50 when he finally turned to opera, the genre on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His 1733 debut, Hippolyte et Aricie, caused a stir and drew fierce attacks from Lully's supporters for its revolutionary harmonic language. Rameau's dominance in French opera was soon acknowledged, but…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau

said1727

Cacher l’Art par l’Art lui même. Conceal Art by Art itself.

— Lettre à Houdar de la Motte, 1727.

Jean-Philippe Rameau

saidundated

In f-major, c* [a C major chord] is a sonority contained within the overtones of the tonic f* [a F major chord].

— ibid, p. 14.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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Albums

Low confidence

Une symphonie imaginaire
2005
Ballet Suites
2005
Pièces de clavecin, volume 2
2004
Règne Amour: Love Songs from the Operas
2004
Le Berger Fidèle, Thétis & pièces en concerts
2004
Six Concerts en sextuor
2003
Pièces de clavecin / Nouvelles suites de Pièces de clavecin
2003
Pieces de clavecin en concerts (Trio Arcangelo Corelli)
2003
Orchestral Suites from / Suites pour orchestre de Dardanus - Le temple de la gloire
2003
Rameau and Couperin: Dances and Suites
2003