Dramatic Expression in Rameau's Tragédie en Musique
Between Tradition and Enlightenment

Verba's fresh approach to understanding Rameau's role in the French Enlightenment focuses on dramatic expression in his musical tragedies.

Cynthia Verba (Author)

9781107021563, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 21 February 2013

338 pages, 1 b/w illus. 66 music examples
25.3 x 17.8 x 2.3 cm, 0.78 kg

'… builds on decades of study of Jean-Phillipe Rameau's musical practice, taking a two-directional approach-theory and musical practice … Recommended. Upper division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty.' Choice

Cynthia Verba's book explores the story of music's role in the French Enlightenment, focusing on dramatic expression in the musical tragedies of the composer-theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau. She reveals how his music achieves its highly moving effects through an interplay between rational design, especially tonal design, and the portrayal of feeling and how this results in a more nuanced portrayal of the heroine. Offering a new approach to understanding Rameau's role in the Enlightenment, Verba illuminates important aspects of the theory-practice relationship and shows how his music embraced Enlightenment values. At the heart of the study are three scene types that occur in all of Rameau's tragedies: confession of forbidden love, intense conflict and conflict resolution. In tracing changes in Rameau's treatment of these, Verba finds that while he maintained an allegiance to the traditional French operatic model, he constantly adapted it to accommodate his more enlightened views on musical expression.

1. Introduction
2. Rameau's concept of musical expression: in theory and practice
3. Getting oriented: Rameau's First Tragédie, Hippolyte et Aricie (premiere, 1733)
4. Comparative overview of Rameau's tragedies, first versions: continuity and change
5. Scenes of forbidden love confessed
6. Scenes of intense conflict
7. Scenes of conflict resolution
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Opera [AVGC9], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Music [AV]