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Program Notes
Jean-Philippe Rameau L’Enharmonique:
An Experiment in Harmony
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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-thecomposer 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 groundbreaking 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,
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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.
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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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)
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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 Sadler and Thomas 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://wwwpersonal.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, Wendy and Stanley 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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