BaroqueJean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon more than three hundred and forty years ago.
Jean-Philippe Rameau’s life
The big moments of this life, and what was happening in the world at the same time.
A life at a glance
- 1683👶 Birth
Born in Dijon; baptised on 25 September
- 1687🌍 Meanwhile
Newton publishes the laws of gravitation
- 1700🌍 Meanwhile
Bartolomeo Cristofori invents the piano in Florence (c. 1700)
- 1701🧳 Journeyage 18
Brief stay in Italy, in Milan
- 1702🎩 Careerage 19
Organist in Clermont-Ferrand, then Paris, Dijon and Lyon
- 1706🎼 Workage 23
First book of harpsichord pieces
- 1719🌍 Meanwhile
Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
- 1722🎼 Workage 39
Treatise on Harmony, which revolutionises music theory
- 1724🎼 Workage 41
Harpsichord pieces including Les Tourbillons and the Tambourin
- 1726❤️ Private lifeage 43
Marries Marie-Louise Mangot, a 19-year-old singer
- 1745🎩 Careerage 62
Composer of the King’s Chamber Music; Platée
- 1752🏛️ Landmarkage 69
The ‘Querelle des Bouffons’ between French and Italian music
- 1752🌍 Meanwhile
Franklin studies lightning with a kite
- 1764🕯️ Deathage 81
Dies in Paris on 12 September
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Excerpts of up to 90 seconds, freely licensed recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
Once upon a time…
Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon more than three hundred and forty years ago. At school he was a dreamy pupil: instead of listening, he sang and drew notes in his exercise books!
For a long time he was an organist in several towns. He also wrote a big book explaining how chords work: musicians still use it today.
On the harpsichord he imitated a clucking hen and dancers from America. Then, at fifty, he finally started writing operas… and it was a triumph! In Les Indes galantes every act takes place in a faraway land.
He lived to eighty and became the greatest French musician of his century.
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