Jean-Philippe
Rameau (September 1683 – September 1764) was a French composer and
music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and
music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the
dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French
composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin.
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Little
is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won
fame as a major theorist of music with his Treatise on Harmony (1722) and also
in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which
circulated throughout Europe.
He
was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation
chiefly rests today.
His
debut, Hippolyte et Aricie (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely
attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use
of harmony. 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 favored Italian opera during
the controversy known as the Querelle des Bouffons in the 1750s.
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. Today, he enjoys
renewed appreciation with performances and recordings of his music ever more
frequent.