Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) was an influential French Baroque composer and music theorist. The details of his early life are somewhat unknown. He was born in Dijon, France, where his father worked as a church organist. He was originally meant to pursue law, but his poor performance in school eliminated this as a possibility, causing him to become a musician instead. After his father’s retirement in 1709, he briefly took over his duties as a church organist in Dijon before exploring similar posts in other French cities. He often composed motets, cantatas, and works for harpsichord, and spent years contemplating harmony and theory.

In 1722, Rameau moved to Paris. He published his famous text on music theory, Traité de l'harmonie, the same year. This treatise used the natural overtone series to develop a new system of harmony that has since become the foundation of modern music theory. He followed this treatise with another important work, Nouveau système de musique théorique, in 1726. The two texts catapulted him to fame as a music theorist.

Unusually, he did not become prominent as a composer until 1733, when he premiered his first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie. The opera was in the tragédie en musique genre, which had been developed by Jean-Baptiste Lully. Though Hippolyte et Aricie was a great success with audiences, it caused a rift in the music community between conservative supporters of Lully and those who lauded Rameau’s bold innovation. With the help of his wealthy patron Alexandre Le Riche de La Poupelinière, Rameau’s career took off. He composed several more important tragedie en musique operas, as well as comic operas, opera-ballets, and works for harpsichord. Some of his most well-known works include Les Indes galantes (1735), Castor et Pollux (1737), Dardanus (1739), Platée (1745), and Pigmalion (1748). 

In the 1750s, however, the complexity of French opera had begun to wear on audiences and music critics alike, who began to favor the simplicity of Italian opera. Rameau’s works began to fall out of style, and despite efforts to adapt to the times, his later works went underappreciated. He continued to study music theory and compose until he died of illness at the age of eighty. He remains one of the most important figures in music history, responsible for creating our modern tonality and for making monumental developments in music for the stage. 

Portrait: Joseph Aved