Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764) was a French composer and music theorist, the most distinguished figure of French Baroque music after Lully. His role is twofold: he was both an outstanding practitioner and a profound scholar-theorist.
Rameau wrote his famous “Treatise on Harmony” (1722) before he became famous as a composer. In it he first gave a scientific grounding for the nature of chords and their functions, laying the foundations of the modern study of harmony that are still in use today. As a composer, Rameau became famous above all for his operas and opera-ballets (“Hippolyte et Aricie,” “Les Indes galantes”), as well as for refined harpsichord pieces. His music astonishes with its colour, rhythmic inventiveness, and boldness of harmony. Rameau is one of the cornerstones of the entire European musical tradition.
