Premier livre de pièces de clavecin
Rameau’s first compositions, a collection of ten pieces that also included a short table of ornaments, was written for the harpsichord and published in Paris in 1706. The composer was twenty-three at the time, and had left Clermont-Ferrand, where he had been organist at the cathedral, for Paris, where he hoped to find employment as an organist and have the opportunity to hear Louis Marchand, a musician he greatly admired. The Prélude which opens the collection is a direct homage to Marchand. Opening with an unmeasured improvisatory section filled with seventh, ninth, and eleventh chords, it moves on to a dissonant Italianate Gigue. Next come two Allemands. The first is a noble and serious piece that includes long sixteenth-note passages in the style of d’Anglebert; the second recasts the same melodic line in a lighter vein. The Courante is reminiscent of the second Courante in Marchand’s Suite in D Minor because of the fifth at the beginning of the piece and also because of its speed and the register of the instrument employed. The construction of the two Sarabandes departs from the norm, the first being a tender song which avoids accentuating the second beat; the second follows directly on the first and imitates it in the major key. “La Vénitienne”, in which Rameau uses rondeau form for the first time, was certainly inspired by Michel de la Barre’s ballet of the same name (1705). The energetic three-voice Gavotte utilises the entire compass of the harpsichord, while at the same time demonstrating Rameau’s perfect mastery of variation form, particularly in the last refrain. The simple and elegant Menuet that closes the volume contains variations written in the spirit of the preceding Gavotte. Rameau’s first book of harpsichord music was thus based on the dance suite model, and its style resembled that of Marchand and d’Anglebert. However, a large number of innovative elements revealed the composer’s personal style, which appeared decisively in his next works.
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