Pièces de clavecin en concerts Jean-Philippe Rameau is considered to be the last representative of the French classical school. Although formally his music lacks the spontaneity of his contemporary Couperin, the harmonic perfection that he reaches throughout his career cannot to be compared to that of any other French composer of the time. It is also not to be ignored that Rameau was a music theoretician who consecrated his professional life to the structural perfection of his works. This is evident in his harpsichord pieces. In fact, the composers who rescued these works during the 19th century were astonished at their richness of sound. Hence the veneration of his compositions by the Impressionists: they started being performed again together with those of Couperin and served as inspiration for works as significant as Claude Debussy’s famous Hommage à Rameau from Images. Rameau published three great collections of harpsichord music. The first volume appeared when he was only 23-years old. It includes ten pieces and is perhaps the least attractive, although his main stylistic traits are already recognizable. In 1724 the second volume was published: here the stylistic traits are confirmed, with a clear influence of Couperin’s music. The pieces from this volume are deeper, more beautiful, with a strong lyrical sensitiveness even. Similarly, the melodic lines are refined and flexible. Nonetheless, the publication of the third volume in 1731 (Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin) reaches a qualitative climax. In this book, one of the most paradigmatic works in harpsichord literature, Rameau developed at much as possible what he had achieved in the second book, thus obtaining some brilliant sound effects, like the simulation of three hands playing the keyboard instead of two, or the imitation of a chicken’s clucking. Within his harpsichord works there is a separate series of pieces which is especially significant apart from the aforementioned three books. It is the Pièces de clavecin en concerts, a collection of five concertos published in 1741 which represents a true island amidst Rameau’s musical catalogue, it being his only known work of chamber music. Until 1734, when Jean-Joseph Mondonville published his Sonates pour le clavecin avec accompagnement de violon, baroque chamber music was normally scored as one or two instrumental lines developing a melody upon a figured bass played by a harpsichord and/or a low string instrument (such as a gamba, a violone, a cello or a contrabass). The bass line always featured obbligato sections, although its main role was to accompany. Mondonville broke the Italian concept of trio sonata and, together with composers such as Dauvergne, Blanchet or Pagin, popularised the pièces en concert, where the harpsichord eventually obtained a major role. In fact, Rameau himself confesses, in the prologue to the first edition of the Pièces de clavecin en concerts, that he was influenced by “recent publications” while composing those works. We do not exactly know the period when Jean-Philippe Rameau composed the five concertos featured in Pièces de clavecin en concerts but, judging by stylistic similarities, it is believed that they were written in the 1730s, when his most brilliant works came to light. As it is typical for the time, Rameau gave a title to each movement using names of places, feelings or characters. The first concerto is made of four movements: La Coulicam, La livre (pour seul clavecin), La Livri and La Vézinet. Written in an elegant and distinctive rococo style, La Coulicam serves as a great overture where the harpsichord already undertakes a solo role that will stay until the end of the work. Similarly, La Vézinet shows great contrapuntal creativity between the violin and harpsichord lines. The second concerto, with four movements called La Laborde, La Boucon, L’Agaçante and L’Agaçante (pour seul clavecin), is of a sweeter nature, with pastoral and festive themes. With L’Agaçante we hear a couple of light minués that lead to the last movement. The third concerto, similar to the previous two, stands out for its well-known third movement, called Tambourins, reflecting once again the aforementioned French rococo style with a quick, virtuosic tempo. The penultimate concerto is, unquestionably, one of the series’ most elegant. Here Rameau recovers the Italian style, with long phrases and a wide richness of sound. Its movements are La Pantomime, L’Indiscrète and La Rameau. The fifth and last concerto represents a new display of Rameu’s contrapuntal capabilities, especially in La Forqueray. The second movement, La Cupis, shows the composer’s lyricism, which can also be found, to a lesser extent, in La Timide from the third concerto. In the prologue to the first edition, the composer gave some indications to the performers. He wrote that the pieces could be played on the harpsichord alone, without any accompaniment. Nonetheless, the eventually poor result of such interpretation led him to transcribe again La Livri, L’Agaçante, La Timide and L’Indiscrète for solo harpsichord. Rameau’s works have been of great significance throughout history. We can safely assume that the Pièces de clavecin are the precursors of Mozart’s or Beethoven’s sonatas for violin and piano, which are not so distant in time anyway. As to the rest of his musical production, we know that many of his operas have been performed until the end of the Ancien Régime, although they would eventually fall into oblivion for more than a century until they were rescued by the Impressionists. Specifically Saint-Saëns would revise the publication of Rameau’s complete works, which started in 1895 and terminated in 1918, when the task remained unfinished after having published 18 volumes. Since then, although we know little about his personal life, Rameau’s figure as a musician has been completely rescued and is considered as one of the main representatives of harmonic and musical reformation of all times. Creation of musical genres in absolutist France Baroque would reach France somewhat later than it reached the rest of Europe. During the 16th century the country had been involved in several armed conflicts. The Thirty Years’ War between Europe’s main powers stands out, bringing France to a dark age from which it would only come out, triumphantly, thanks to the Treaty of Westphalia (1648). After Louis XIII, Richelieu and Regent Cardinal Mazarin died, Louis XIV, the “Sun King”, would finally be able to implement absolutism and show the power of France to the rest of the world. In this very moment, the aesthetic rules governing the French musical scene caused it to become a symbol of frivolous, superficial nobility. The situation changed with the arrival of Jean Baptiste Lully, a Florentine, in 1652. This composer, hired as musical director of the royal family in 1662, caused a musical revolution and brought the rigid French music nearer to its Italian counterpart. Lully introduced ballet in opera and created the French overture, characterized by placing a slow movement between two slow movements. As a result of his input, a more aristocratic and refined musical style was born, adjusted to the extremely luxurious nature adopted by the court of the Sun King. As to the quality of the libretti, these improved substantially, leaving at a side their typical superficiality thanks to Lully’s collaborations with dramatists such as Molière and Corneille. But not only Lully made great contributions to this first steps of French baroque music. Also Charpentier helped developing sacred music, or André Campra, who created the opera-ballet mixing both French and Italian music. With the death of Louis XIV, France was governed shortly by Philip of Orléans, followed by Louis XV. At this point, music was surcharged with ornaments and harmony became simpler. The “galant” style became fashionable, its name alluding to Campra’s opera-ballet L’Europe Galante. Despite the lesser quality of musical production in general, two great composers of the time went down in history for their grandiose contribution to music. On one hand, François Couperin, whose works for harpsichord were revolutionary; on the other hand, perhaps even greater than Couperin, Jean-Philippe Rameau. About the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau was born on 25th September 1683 in Dijon. He was the son of an organist and some people affirmed that, already as a child, he was able to sight-read any harpsichord piece. Although he had travelled to Italy and learnt the Italian musical forms, he always preferred French music – for which reason he would clash with some critics among the followers of Lully’s style. Before having success, he worked as an organist in Clermont-Ferrand, where he wrote his famous Treaty of Harmony, one of the most important works on music theory at least until the end of the 19th century. Although over time certain weaknesses have been found in his Treaty, as Rameau himself must have known, considering the several changes he made to it, he considered it to be his greatest work, even greater than his compositions. On the other hand, it is interesting to note how he, in his efforts of normalization, also published the Méthode pour la mécanique des doigts, a handbook on the position of fingers for playing the harpsichord. Fame surprised Rameau a bit later in his life, if we consider life expectancy at the time, as well as the age of other musicians as they started to receive recognition. In 1723, being forty years old, he moved to Paris, where his wide knowledge of music theory, as well as his great abilities at the harpsichord, turned him into Paris’ most appreciated teacher. But his great path to success would arrive thanks to Jean Jacques de la Pouplinière, a patron who hired him as conductor of his private orchestra. In fact, one of the Pièces de clavecin en concerts is named after him. At this stage, possibly around 1735, Rameau had already composed his opera Les Indes Galantes. Castor et Pollux, Dardanus or Les Fêtes d’Hébé would follow, as well as his incomparable Pièces de clavecin en concerts.