Nouvelles recherches sur la musique dans le Neveu de Rameau - article ; n°1 ; vol.20, pg 57-74

Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie - Année 1996 - Volume 20 - Numéro 1 - Pages 57-74
Jean-Christophe Rebejkow : New work on music in Rameau 's Nephew.
Questions of musical aesthetics are at the heart of Rameau 's Nephew. This article places certain aspects of the theories of Jean-Francois Rameau, who is here Diderot 's mouthpiece, in their musical context. After relating the nephew's theories concerning stress and declamation to the debate on French and Italian music, with the help of Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique, we show how they were mainly inspired by Praetta (Sofonisba in particular) whose type of declamation was adapted by Philidor or Gréty to the resources of the French language. But French airs that the nephew sings is not a complete invention ; it can also be seen in Voltaire and echoes a type of comic opera to be found in the théatre de la foire and in ballet-comedies, in particular in Jean-Philippe Rameau (L'Endriague).
18 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.