For it was Rameau's type of music that he had been trying to write, and that he couldn't write.

* Music: Modern music theory finds definition in Jean-Philippe Rameau's Treatise on Harmony.

Little is known about Rameau's early years, and it was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony ( 1722 ).

Rameau's music had gone out of fashion by the end of the 18th century, and it was not until the 20th that serious efforts were made to revive it.

La Pouplinière's mistress ( and later, wife ), Thérèse des Hayes, was Rameau's pupil and a great admirer of his music.

Rameau's music, so graceful and attractive, completely contradicts the man's public image and what we know of his character as described ( or perhaps unfairly caricatured ) by Diderot in his satirical novel Le Neveu de Rameau.

Cantatas were Rameau's first contact with dramatic music.

" Rameau's music includes pieces in the pure tradition of the French suite: imitative (" Le rappel des oiseaux ," " La poule ") and character (" Les tendres plaintes ", " L ' entretien des Muses ") pieces and works of pure virtuosity that resemble Scarlatti (" Les tourbillons ," " Les trois mains ") as well as pieces that reveal the experiments of a theorist and musical innovator (" L ' Enharmonique ", " Les Cyclopes "), which had a marked influence on Daquin, Royer, and Jacques Duphly.

Not one of his librettists managed to produce a libretto on the same artistic level as Rameau's music: the plots were often overly complex or unconvincing.

By the end of his life, Rameau's music had come under attack in France from theorists who favoured Italian models.

For most of the 19th century, Rameau's music remained unplayed, known only by reputation.

" Camille Saint-Saëns ( by editing and publishing the Pièces in 1895 ) and Paul Dukas were two other important French musicians who gave practical championship to Rameau's music in their day, but interest in Rameau petered out again, and it was not until the late 20th century that a serious effort was made to revive his works.

Rameau's 1722 Treatise on Harmony initiated a revolution in music theory.

Rameau's methodology incorporated mathematics, commentary, analysis and a didacticism that was specifically intended to illuminate, scientifically, the structure and principles of music.

Sechter's ideas are derived from Jean-Philippe Rameau's theories of the fundamental bass, always diatonic even when the surface is highly chromatic ; music theory historians strongly associate Sechter with the Viennese conception of fundamental bass theory.

Dagincourt may have been Duphly's teacher, but Rameau's harpsichord music served as Duphly's chief model.

Rameau's shadow falls on themes ( the courante La Boucon in book 1 begins like Rameau's E minor courante, transformed in metre ) and on whole pieces ( Les colombes in book 2 -- which D ' Aquin must have meant when he said of Duphly's music: ' On connait les tourterelles, qui affectent le coeur ' -- is almost a condensed paraphrase of La timide from Rameau's Pieces de clavecin en concerts, 1741 ).

Diderot is also known as the author of the dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau ( Rameau's Nephew ), upon which many articles and sermons about consumer desire have been based.

His dialogue Le Neveu de Rameau ( Rameau's Nephew ) is a " farce-tragedy " reminiscent of the Satires of Horace.

It was not until the publication of Rameau's ' Traité de l ' harmonie ' ( Treatise on Harmony ) in 1722 that any text discussing musical practice made use of the term in the title, though that work is not the earliest record of theoretical discussion of the topic.

Sometimes he would meet the young writer Chabanon, who noted some of Rameau's disillusioned confidential remarks: " Day by day, I'm acquiring more good taste, but I no longer have any genius " and " The imagination is worn out in my old head ; it's not wise at this age wanting to practise arts that are nothing but imagination.

He is also credited with writing the libretto of Rameau's final work, Les Boréades ( c. 1763 ).

Rameau's comic opera Les Paladins ( 1760 ) is based on a story in canto 18 of Orlando ( though Rameau's librettist derived the plot indirectly via La Fontaine's Contes ).

The Stufe is an abstraction of the idea of a chord and a revision of Jean-Philippe Rameau's idea of basse fondementale ( fundamental bass ).

Amongst other recordings are Rameau's Dardanus, Monteverdi's L ' Orfeo ( he is generally regarded as the world authority on this character's role ), Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings, the role of Frederic in the Sir Charles Mackerras recording of The Pirates of Penzance and lieder by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.

Jean-Philippe Rameau's Les Indes galantes ( 1735 ) is considered to be the work that signaled the divergence of social ( ballroom ) dance and ballet.

The title role of the vain but ugly marsh nymph in Rameau's Platée is also for a ' haute-contre '.

* The story of Pygmalion is the subject of Jean-Philippe Rameau's 1748 opera, Pigmalion.

Rameau's Six Concerts En Sextuor, recorded by L'orchestre De Chambre Pierre Menet ( BAM LD 046 ), turn out to be harpsichord pieces arranged for strings apparently by the composer himself.

Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledged, and he was later attacked as an " establishment " composer by those who favoured Italian opera during the controversy known as the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s.

He had written an opera, Les muses galantes ( inspired by Rameau's Indes galantes ), but Rameau was unimpressed by this musical tribute.

Rameau's musical works may be divided into four distinct groups, which differ greatly in importance: a few cantatas ; a few motets for large chorus ; some pieces for solo harpsichord or harpsichord accompanied by other instruments ; and, finally, his works for the stage, to which he dedicated the last thirty years of his career almost exclusively.

He was highly demanding and bad-tempered, unable to maintain longstanding partnerships with his librettists, with the exception of Louis de Cahusac, who collaborated with him on several operas, including Les fêtes de l ' Hymen et de l ' Amour ( 1747 ), Zaïs ( 1748 ), Naïs ( 1749 ), Zoroastre ( 1749 ; revised 1756 ), La naissance d ' Osiris ( 1754 ), and Anacréon ( the first of Rameau's operas by that name, 1754 ).

Among the audience was Claude Debussy, who especially cherished Castor et Pollux, revived in 1903: " Gluck's genius was deeply rooted in Rameau's works ... a detailed comparison allows us to affirm that Gluck could replace Rameau on the French stage only by assimilating the latter's beautiful works and making them his own.

Over half of Rameau's operas have now been recorded, in particular by conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, William Christie, and Marc Minkowski.

Until a refurbishment in the 1990s, the clock chimed the quarter hour by playing an excerpt from the fourth movement, ' Gigue en Rondeau II ', of Rameau's ( 1683 – 1764 ), ' Pieces de Clavecin ' Suite in E-minor.

In Rameau's 1733 Hippolyte et Aricie, the hero ( Hippolyte ) was sung by a haute-contre, while the roles of the three Fates and Tisiphone were scored for basses and tenors.

Image: Jélyotte by Coypel. jpg |< div align =" center "> Pierre Jélyotte as the nymph Plataea in Rameau's opera Platée

Gluck's three Italian reform operas of the 1760s — Orfeo ed Euridice, Alceste, and Paride ed Elena — reveal a knowledge of Rameau's works.

The article on fingering in Rousseau's Dictionnaire ( 1768 ) contains rules which the author presents ' with confidence, because I have them from M Duphli, excellent harpsichord teacher who possesses above all perfection in fingering ' ( though either Duphly or Rousseau overlooked the fact that these ' rules ' were lifted word for word from Rameau's, in his Pieces de clavecin of 1724 ).

Five essential components may be discerned in Rameau's operatic scores: