Pieces de clavecin (Rameau)

Jean-Philippe Rameau, painting by Jacques-André-Joseph Camelot Aved , 1728

The French Baroque - composer Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote three books Pièces de Clavecin for harpsichord . The first, Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin , was published in 1706, the second, Pièces de Clavessin , 1724, and the third, Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin , 1726 or 1727. This was followed by the Pièces de Clavecin en Concerts in 1741 the harpsichord either plays alone or is accompanied by violin and viola da gamba . A single piece, La Dauphine , followed in 1747.

Premier Livre de Pièces de Clavecin (1706)

Suite in A minor

1. Prelude
2. Allemande I
3. Allemande II
4. Courante
5. Jig
6. Sarabande I - Sarabande II
7. Venitienne
8. gavotte
9. Menuet

approx. 22 min.

A special feature is the two-part prelude at the beginning of the suite, the first part of which is notated as Prélude non mesuré in free rhythm without bar lines.

Pièces de Clavessin (1724)

Suite in E minor

1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Gigue en Rondeau I
4. Gigue en Rondeau II
5. Le Rappel des Oiseaux
6. Rigaudon I - Rigaudon II et Double
7. Musette en Rondeau (Tendrement)
8. Tambourine
9. La Villageoise. rondeau

approx. 22 min.

Suite in D major

1. Les Tendres Plaintes. rondeau
2. Les Niais de Sologne - Premier Double des Niais - Deuxième Double des Niais
3. Les soupirs. Tendrement
4. La Joyeuse. rondeau
5. La Follette. rondeau
6. L'Entretien des Muses
7. Les tourbillons. rondeau
8. Les Cyclopes. rondeau
9. Le Lardon. Menuet
10. La Boiteuse

approx. 30 min.

Use of the pieces in stage music

The Rameau biographer Cuthbert Girdlestone suspects that the musette, tambourine and the Rigaudons of the suite in E minor were already used for the (not preserved) incidental music for L'Endriague (1723). Rameau later used the musette and tambourine for Les Fêtes d'Hébé (1739). Rameau also adopted pieces from the D major suite in later stage music: the first part of L'Entretien des Muses can also be found in Les Fêtes d'Hébé , Les Tendres Plaintes in Zoroastre (1749) and Les Niais de Sologne in Dardanus ( 1739).

Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin (1726–1727)

Publication history

The exact publication date of the Nouvelles Suites de Pièces de Clavecin , which Rameau published himself at his own expense, is controversial. In his 1958 edition, the editor Erwin Jacobi gives 1728 as the year of publication. He was followed by Kenneth Gilbert in his 1979 edition. Other authors later argued that the works did not appear before 1729 or 1730. In contrast, a recent investigation based on the address of Rameau ( rue des deux boules aux Trois Rois ) given in the frontispiece showed that the work must have been published earlier, as Rameau moved into another apartment in 1728. It follows that the first edition appeared between February 1726 and summer 1727. This date is also supported by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg , who gives 1726 as the date of publication.

Almost 40 copies of the original edition from 1726/27 have survived. Two further editions followed around 1760. The first - perhaps printed shortly before 1760 - was predominantly a reprint with the original copper plates, for which, however, some plates were newly made because they were apparently no longer legible or were lost. The second edition appeared in London under the title A Collection of Lessons for the harpsichord by the publisher John Walsh , which is based on the earlier Paris edition.

Suite in A minor

1. Allemande
2. Courante
3. Sarabande
4. Les Trois Mains
5. Fanfarinette
6. La Triomphante
7. Gavotte avec les Doubles de la Gavotte

approx. 33 min.

Suite in G major / G minor

1. Les Tricotets. Rondeau.
2. L'indifférente
3. Menuet I - Menuet II
4. La Poule
5. Les Triolets
6. Les Sauvages
7. L'Enharmonique. Gracieusement.
8. L'Égyptienne

approx. 23 min.

"Les Sauvages" was later used for the incidental music Les Indes galantes (1736).

Theoretical notes

Both the second and third volumes of his harpsichord pieces have been preceded by theoretical remarks by Rameau. The remarks on the second volume are entitled "About finger technique when playing the harpsichord". In the notes to the third volume, the composer first explains some decorations and describes the correct choice of tempo. This is followed by longer explanations of the Enharmonik , which is used in the pieces L'Enharmonique and La Triomphante . In L'Enharmonique there are several passages that are based on the notes BACH , which sound in the upper part and are particularly emphasized by the playing instruction gracieusement . It is unlikely, however, that Rameau was thinking of his colleague Johann Sebastian Bach, who was a stranger to France at the time; Above all, however, the French names of these notes are quite different according to the solmisation system: si bémol - la - ut (or do ) - si.

literature

• Cuthbert Girdlestone: Jean-Philippe Rameau: His Life and Work . Dover paperback edition, 1969
• Graham Sadler (Ed.): The New Grove French Baroque Masters . Grove / Macmillan, 1988
• Jean-Philippe Rameau: Complete Keyboard Works , Urtext Edition, ed. by Siegbert Rampe , 3 volumes. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2004

The details of the lengths of the pieces follow the recordings by Trevor Pinnock .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ David Fuller: Text accompanying the CD recording HMX 2901120.21, 2003
2. ↑ Bruce Gustafson, David Fuller: A Catalog of French Harpsichord Music 1699-1780 . Oxford University Press, 1990
3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg: News from various famous French organists and piano players in the 1950s . (PDF) In: ders .: Historical-critical contributions to the recording of the music . Volume 1, No. 5 (1755), pp. 448-465, here p. 456
4. ^ Jean-Philippe Rameau: Complete Clavierwerke , Urtext edition, ed. by Siegbert Rampe , 3 volumes. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2004