Rameau's Last Years: Some Implications of Re-discovered Material at Bordeaux
Lionel Sawkins · Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association · 1984
More frequent performance of Rameau's major works is beginning to stimulate long-overdue analysis of those aspects of his technique that make the sound of his scores so immediately recognizable. Such analysis enables us to distinguish these characteristics from the body of traditional French baroque procedures which Rameau inherited in common with his contemporaries. Some of these procedures had remained virtually unchanged since their development by Lully, but many others were evolved by the generation between these two great masters of the French stage. It was the achievement of Lalande, Couperin, Campra and their contemporaries to absorb successfully stimuli from Italy while retaining a distinctive Gallic flavour, a process openly acknowledged in works such as Couperin's Les goûts réunis. It is particularly important to recognize these developments in different periods of the French baroque when we consider the evolution of the orchestra, and the new technical demands that were made of players, since without a knowledge not only of the Lullian tradition but also of that which followed it, we cannot properly evaluate Rameau's contribution to style and technique.