Daniel Liles

3/18/10

Program Notes

Jean-Philippe Rameau L’Enharmonique:

An Experiment in Harmony

Composer: Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Composition: Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin: “L’Enharmonique”

Published: approx. 1727-1730

Prominent composer and music theorist, Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) was the leading musical figure in France during the mid-18th century. He is known today as both an accomplished composer, primarily for his large repertoire of stage works, and as a theorist, seen as the founder of tonal harmonic theory. Rameau-the-theorist first received critical and popular acclaim with his Traité de l’harmonie (Treatise on Harmony) in 1722. Rameau-the-composer would have to wait until he was nearly fifty, in 1732, to receive wide recognition from his opera Hippolyte et Aricie. However, by the time he was fifty Rameau had already composed a generous amount of cantatas, motets, and three volumes of harpsichord music. In fact, in an effort to reconcile both the theorist and composer, Rameau would often use his compositions as platforms for expressing his harmonic theory musically.

Rameau’s Single Natural Principle: basse fondamentale

Rameau, who epitomized the ideology of the French Enlightenment, based his entire system of music theory on a single natural principle, which he first described in his ground-breaking Traité de l’harmonie. Understanding this principle can profoundly alter the way one listens to all of Rameau’s music, in particular, the way one listens to L’Enharmonique. The principle introduced in the Traité was the basse fondamentale (bass fundamental). Essentially, Rameau’s argument was that the origins of music can be found in nature in mathematical harmonic structures (chords). From these chords Rameau was able to determine that each chord is generated from a single fundamental tone (commonly known as a tonic).[1] The relationships found between two or more fundamentals constitute Rameau’s fundamental bass theory (roughly known as a chord progression today). The fundamental bass theory was revolutionary in that it allowed Rameau to explain, through one unified principle found in nature, the origins of all of musical parameters such as, but not limited to, melody, counterpoint, mode, and modulation

Consequently, using the fundamental bass theory, Rameau was the first to articulate both mathematically and empirically terms such as tonic (the main note and chord in a key), dominant (the note and chord a perfect fifth about the tonic), and subdominant (the note and chord a perfect fourth below the tonic). This enabled him to systematically discover the three chords that have the strongest bond with one another in any given major or minor musical key. In turn, he used them to reveal a hierarchal set of harmonic chords and relationships; the strongest being a dominant seventh chord falling a fifth to a triad on the tonic chord. In other words, Rameau is using the strongest dissonance to resolve to the strongest consonance in any given key. This is known today as a perfect cadence. In this way harmonic progressions were moved forward by dissonance found in the dominant seventh chord and then resolved to consonance with tonic chord.

However Rameau would reserve the most dissonant of chords, the diminished seventh, for the most dissonant of musical parameters: enharmonic modulation— the reinterpretation of a chord or note as being in a new key. This device, enharmonic modulation, can be found in one of Rameau’s most famous character pieces, L’Enharmonique, from his third volume of harpsichord music Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin (New Suites of Pieces for Harpsichord) published between 1727 and 1730.

Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin: L’Enharmonique

Character pieces are instrumental works that depict a certain mood, scene, or object. The Nouvelles Suites has ten such character pieces. La Poule (The Chicken), Les sauvages (The savages), L’égyptienne (The Egyptian) are three examples of character pieces with titles that often refer to extra-musical objects. Another such piece, which Rameau makes large reference to in the preface to Nouvelles Suites, is L’Enharmonique (The Enharmonic). Not coincidentally, as mentioned above, it is named for its use of enharmonic modulation. Rameau reminds the listener of the origin of this effect in the preface claiming, “The harmony which creates this effect has by no means been thrown in haphazardly; it is based on logic and has been sanctioned by Nature herself.” (Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin, Preface. See Lehman, Bradley) The reference to “Nature” can hardly be overlooked. This piece was composed during the French enlightenment, an age when nature was thought of as being rationally ordered and reducible to basic mechanical processes. In that sense, Rameau’s harmonic theory was able to successfully satisfy the intellectual curiosity of the French Enlightenment.

Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin, the book itself, does not contain a publication date but only Rameau’s home address, “Aux Trois Rois, rue des Boules” on the title page. Knowing that Rameau lived here from 1727 to 1730, historians have presumed that at some point during his three year residence there, all 15 pieces of the book were probably composed, edited, and published. The pieces are broken up into two groups according to their key areas, A major/minor and G major/minor. In all fifteen pieces, devices such as stile brisé (broken chord) taken from 17th century French lutenists, melodic lines stylized with specific codes of ornamentation, and notes inégales (unequal notes) rhythm—that sounds like a jazz swing—can be found so as to stay firmly within the common practices of the French Baroque.

L’Enharmonique: The listening experience

Rameau’s ability to show how music can transition from one musical key to another through the use of different harmonic techniques or what is called modulation is masterful. In fact, Rameau devotes almost the entire preface to Nouvelles Suites to his favorite enharmonic passage from L’Enharmonique claiming,

“ The effect experienced in the twelfth bar of the Reprise of the Enharmonic may not be to everyone’s taste right away; one can nonetheless grow accustomed to it after a little application and even grow to awareness of all its beauty… however its performance must bring out the composer’s intention through a softening of the touch and by suspending the appoggiaturas (ornaments) more and more as one approaches the thrilling passage where a momentary stop is indicated by the sign .” (Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin, Preface. See Lehman’s discussion on Rameau’s evolving view of temperament)

The Reprise to L’Enharmonique, where this passage is found, can clearly be identified because it starts in the tonality of B flat major. (The relative major to the tonic key of G minor) This “thrilling” passage, measures 53-54 (example 1.2), involves the dissonant diminished seventh chord, mentioned above, place on the leading tone of the key. Rameau explains that this chord contains notes from both the dominant and subdominant chords of the key and when any of the four notes of this chord are respelled (enharmonically) it will then act as a pivot chord leading to a new key. This is the device Rameau implements in twelve measures after the Reprise in L’Enharmonique—the climax of the piece.

This effect produced in these two measures results from two diminished seventh chords that are composed next to one another measures 53 and 54—one immediately preceding the fermata and one as the fermata is held over. (Note in Example 1.2 how the C# in m. 53 is respelled as Db in m. 54) However, only one of the diminished chords is experienced as the highly dissonant chord that it is. The other diminished seventh chord is perceived in acting in a new key and was actually used a pivot chord for Rameau’s enharmonic modulation. This is beautiful and seamless modulation is due to the nearly equal temperament tuning system that Rameau began to prefer at this time. Otherwise, using the typical “mean tone” tuning system or any other variety of “non-equal” temperament systems in practice during that period would have a caused a horrendous effect when modulating to a new key.

More commonly throughout L’Enharmonique however, Rameau places smaller enharmonic passages that are expressed in highly dissonant two-measure melodic lines, first found in measure 15-16. (Example 1.1) The movement of this dissonance and resolving consonance composed here can be identified as categorically Rameau and can be rightly appreciated by any listener. This melodic line can be heard throughout the piece in helping to modulate from one key to another.

Also, the listener will be able to clearly hear the typical style of French Baroque harpsichord repertoire in L’Enharmonique with its use of elaborately ornamented melodies and unequal or swing rhythms. L’Enharmonique comes to a close on G minor, the tonic key, with what Rameau describes as, a perfect cadence—a dominant seventh chord falling a perfect fifth to the tonic chord. This leaves listener feeling that although they travelled to distant related tonalities, through the use of enharmonic modulation, they have arrived firmly back at home in the tonic key of G minor.

About the Composer

Born in Dijon, Jean-Philippe Rameau, was the son of a parish organist, whom he received his early music training from his father. After an itinerant younger life of position held all around Europe, including Italy and many provinces in France, Rameau finally arrived in Paris in 1722. He is known today as both an accomplished composer, primarily for his large repertoire of stage works, and as a theorist, seen as the founder of tonal harmonic theory. Rameau-the-theorist first received critical and popular acclaim with his Traité de l’harmonie (Treatise on Harmony) in 1722. Rameau-the-composer would have to wait until he was nearly fifty, in 1732, to receive wide recognition from his opera Hippolyte et Aricie. However, by the time he was fifty Rameau had already composed a generous amount of cantatas, motets, and three volumes of harpsichord music. In fact, in efforts to reconcile both the theorist and composer, Rameau would often use his compositions as platforms for expressing his harmonic theory musically. His harmonic theory was based on the premise of one single principle, originating in nature, which accounted for all musical parameters in music. That is, Nature is the source of harmony, melody, counterpoint, modulation, and even rhythm. Rameau would end up obsessing over this concept and would become a definite idée fixe in all of his theoretical and polemical writings.

For further listening:

1) Hippolyte et Aricie (1733; revised 1742)

2) Premier livre de Clavecin(1706)

3) Zoroastre(1749)



Bibliography

1.  Christensen, Thomas. Rameau's "L'Art de la Basse Fondamentale" Music Theory Spectrum, Vol. 9, (Spring, 1987), pp. 18-41 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society for Music Theory Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/746117

2.  Christensen, Thomas.Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993. Print.

3.  Ferris, Joan. The Evolution of Rameau's "Harmonic Theories" Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Nov., 1959), pp. 231-256 Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of the Yale University Department of Music Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/842852

4.  Girdlestone, Cuthbert.Jean-Philippe Rameau His Life and Work. London: Cassell and Company LTD, 1957. Print.

5.  Graham SadlerandThomas Christensen. "Rameau, Jean-Philippe."Grove Music Online.Oxford Music Online.18 Mar .2010

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/22832>.

6.  Lehman, Bradly. "Practical Temprement Instruction by Ear." www.LaripS.com. N.p., 2005. Web. 07 Mar 2010. <http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bpl/larips/practical.html#rameau_ordinaire>.

7.  Paul, Charles B. Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), the Musician as Philosophe Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 114, No. 2 (Apr. 13, 1970), pp. 140-154 Published by: American Philosophical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/986031

8.  Rameau, Jean-Philippe.Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin ” L ’Enharmonique”. (oringal publish between 1727-1730) Les Éditions Outremontaises, 2006.

9.  Rameau, Jean-Philippe.Traité de l’harmonie. Paris: Ballard, 1722. Print.

10.  Thompson, WendyandStanley Sadie. "Rameau, Jean-Philippe."The Oxford Companion to Music. Ed.Alison Latham.Oxford Music Online.18 Mar. 2010http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t114/e5485

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[1] Although in Rameau’s later writings he would discover that the acoustical phenomenon of the harmonic overtone series could be more accurately observed in what he would call the Corps Sonore (sonorous body) instead of through monochord string divisions where he originally discovered the basse fondamentale. See Christensen’s chapter on the Corps Sonore in his comprehensive text Rameau and Musical Thought in the Enlightenment.