The piece 'Les Sauvages' was inspired by Rameau seeing two Native Americans from Louisiana dancing at a Parisian Fair theatre.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Rameau was seen by his contemporaries as a learned scholar, publishing influential theoretical works like 'Traité de l'Harmonie', reflecting the 18th-century French Enlightenment.
Composition History
Rameau was fifty when his first opera was performed; had he died earlier, his significant operatic works like 'Indes Galantes' and 'Castor et Pollux' would not exist.
Composition History
Rameau published his first book of keyboard pieces in 1706, several years before François Couperin's first book appeared, a fact often overlooked.
Composer Biography
Jean-Philippe Rameau, the composer, was described as exceptionally tall and thin, with one poet calling him 'a long organ pipe' and another noting his 'flutes for legs'.
Compositional Technique
Rameau's 'Premier Livre de clavecin' from 1706, while traditional in structure, introduces innovative elements and skillful harmony that reveal his personal style.
Composer Biography
Rameau had an unusually long lifespan for his era, born when Lully was alive and possibly meeting a young Mozart in Paris or Versailles in 1763.
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