Rameau and Rousseau: Harmony and History in the Age of Reason Nathan Martin Schulich School of Music McGill University Montreal A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph.D. in Musicology Submitted August, 2008 © 2008 Nathan Martin, all rights reserved Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Vote reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66663-0 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-66663-0 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par ('Internet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, it n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 14-1 Canada Acknowledgements One of the many pleasures of completing a study of this kind is the opportunity to acknowledge the many debts—personal, intellectual, and otherwise—that I have contracted in its preparation. First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife Naila, my parents, and my supervisor William Caplin for their support, encouragement, and advice. All of them have endured more talk about Rousseau and Rameau than anyone should have to. Claude Dauphin kindly granted me access to materials from his critical edition of Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique and was generous in sharing his knowledge of that text. I have also benefited from on-going conversations with David Cohen and Michael O'Dea, who forced me to clarify numerous points in my interpretation. Many of the ideas ventured here were first sounded out in conversation, generally at odd hours and often at the Cheval blanc, with friends and colleagues from McGill, especially Andy Deruchie, Erin Helyard, Julie Pedneault, Sarah Gutsche-Miller and Liz Blackwood. Professor Caplin offered valuable comments on various drafts of this study. It should be evident that the errors and infelicities that remain are due either to my incapacities or to my intransigence. This study might have been possible without access to manuscript sources, but it would have been very different. For that access I am indebted both to the librarians who granted it and to the funding agencies that facilitated it. In particular, I would like to thank Maryse Schmidt-Surdez, who allowed me to consult a wealth of Rousseau autographs at the Bibliotheque publique et universitaire de Neuchatel. Funding for research trips and other expenses came, at various stages and in various guises, from McGill University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Makhani Foundation and the American Musicological Society. 11 Abstract Rousseau's articles on music for Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedic, and to a lesser extent his Dictionnaire de musique, have rarely attracted the scholarly attention they deserve. As a result, the pivotal role that Rousseau played in the early French reception of Rameau's theory of harmony has never been fully appreciated. Far from being a quarrel over musical aesthetics, Rousseau's dispute with Rameau raised fundamental questions about the composer's theory of harmony. Rousseau interrogated the empirical adequacy of Rameau's theory, the soundness of its foundations, the logic of its derivation, and its pretension to universality. Over the course of his criticism, Rousseau came to regard tonal harmony as a historically-induced particularity of Western music to be explained through historical inquiry. In this respect, he anticipates a range of ideas that historians of music theory have associated far more readily with Francois- Joseph Fetis. Les articles de Rousseau pour VEncyclopedic de Diderot et d'Alembert et, a un moindre degre, son Dictionnaire de musique, ont rarement attire l'attention qu'ils meritent au sein du milieu academique. L'influence capitale de Rousseau sur la reception de la theorie ramiste de l'harmonie en France demeure done insuffisament reconnue. Le differend entre Rousseau et Rameau, loin d'avoir ete un polemique a propos de questions esthetiques, toucha plutot a des concepts fondamentaux de la theorie ramiste. Plus particulierement, Rousseau remit en question la justesse empirique de la theorie ramiste, la validite de ses fondations, la logique de son elaboration et sa pretention a 1'universalis. Dans sa critique, Rousseau en vint a concevoir l'harmonie tonale comme une idiosyncrasie propre a la musique europeenne qui demande, et ne pouvant etre expliquee qu'a la lumiere de ses origines historiques. Ce faisant, Rousseau fut le precurseur d'un large eventail d'idees que les historiens de la theorie de la musique ont plus generalement attributes a Francois-Joseph Fetis. 11 Contents Introduction 1 Chapter 1: Rameau and the philosophes in 1749 19 1.1. Rameau's Theory of Harmony, 1722-1749 20 1.2. Rameau and Condillac 47 1.3. Rameau and Diderot 58 1.4. Rameau and d'Alembert 68 Conclusion 73 Chapter 2: Rameau and Rousseau to 1749 75 Chapter 3: The Encyclopedic Articles of 1749 90 3.1. Reading the Encyclopedic 93 3.2. HARMON1E, selon les modernes 101 3.3. Revisions and Extensions to Rameau 115 3.4. Empirical Inadequacies in ramiste Theory 135 3.5. Rameau's Logical Failings 140 3.6. Implications 145 3.7. HARMONIE, selon le sens que lui ont donne les anciens 156 Conclusion 173 Chapter 4: "Du Principe de la melodie" and the Dictionnaire de musique . 175 4.1. Reading the Dictionnaire de musique 179 4.2. Acoustical Revisions 185 4.3. The Subdominant 196 4.4. The Minor Mode 202 4.5. "Dissonance" 205 4.6. "Harmonie" 208 Conclusion 212 Chapter 5: Consequences and Conclusions 214 5.1. Rameau's systeme abstrait de I 'harmonic 220 5.2. Tartini's Trattato di musica and Rameau's systeme 226 hypothetique de I 'harmonie 5.3. Rousseau's esquisse de I'histoire de I'harmonie 244 Conclusion 272 Epilogue: Rousseau and Fetis 274 Bibliographical Essay 280 Appendix I: Tartini's Proof that the Circle is Harmonic 299 Appendix II: Tartini's Derivations of the Harmonic and Arithmetic Series 302 and the Series of Dissonances Bibliography 305 Abbreviations Jean-Philippe Rameau. "Art de la basse fondamentale." Geneva, Bibliotheque publique et universitaire, ms. fr. 230. Rene Descartes. Oeuvres. Ed. Charles Adam and Paul Tannery. 11 vols. Paris: Vrin, 1996. Andrew Barker, ed. The Greek Musical Writings II: Harmonic and Acoustic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Correspondence complete. Ed. R. A. Leigh. 52 vols. Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 1965-98. Friedrich Melchior Grimm. Correspondance litteraire. Ed. Maurice Tourneux. 15 vols. Paris: Gamier freres, 1877-82. Jean-Philippe Rameau. Complete Theoretical Writings. Ed. Erwin R. Jacobi. 6 vols. N.p.: American Institute of Musicology, 1967- 72. Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Elemens de musique, theorique et pratique, suivant les principes de M. Rameau. Paris: David, Le Breton, and Durand, 1752. "Memoire ou Ton expose les fondemens du systeme de musique theorique et pratique de M. Rameau." Paris, Bibliotheque- Musee de l'Opera, collection Boisgelou, B. 24, f. 119r-128v. Transcribed in Thomas Christensen. "Rameau, Diderot and Vibrating Strings." Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century 323 (1994): 153-66. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Oeuvres completes. Ed. Bernard Gagnebin and Marcel Raymond. 5 vols. Paris: Gallimard, 1959-95. Denis Diderot. Oeuvres completes. Ed. Herbert Dieckmann, Jean Fabre and Jacques Proust. 25 vols, to date. Paris: Hermann, 1975-. Etienne Bonnot de Condillac. Oeuvres philosophiques. Ed. George Le Roy. 3 vols. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1947- 51. "Du Principe" Jean-Jacques Rousseau. "Du Principe de la melodie." Neuchatel, Bibliotheque publique et universitaire, ms. R. 60. Transcribed in Robert Wokler. Rousseau on Society, Politics, Music and Language. New York: Garland, 1987. Pp. 437-501. Trattato Giuseppe Tartini. Trattato di musica. Padua: Giovanni Manfre, 1754. Articles from the Encyclopedie are cited by headword in small caps and encyclopedic designant. Articles from the Dictionnaire are cited by headword enclosed in double quotation marks. Thus, DISSONANCE, en Musique is Rousseau's article in Diderot and d'Alembert's Encyclopedie. "Dissonance" is the corresponding entry in Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique. Introduction On February 21, 1753, Denis Diderot made a second foray into the sometimes riotous guerre des plumes that has come to be known as the Querelle des Bouffons. The pamphlet that he published on that occasion—"Au petit prophete de Boemischbroda [et] au grand prophete Monet"—is a facetious call to order.