Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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EAMEAU
to attaining truth of deelamation, which should
he the sole guide of musicians. But after sixty
one cannot change ; experience points plainly
enough the best course, but the mind refuses
to obey.' No critic could have stated the
truth more plainly. Not having heard Italian
music in his youth, Rameau never attained to
the skill in writing for the voice that he might
have done ; and he is in consequence only the
first French musician of his time, instead of taking
his rank among the great composers of European
fame. But for this, he might have ellected
that revolution in dramatic music which Gluok
accomplished some years later.
But even as it was, his life's work is one of
which any man might have been proud ; and in
old age he enjoyed privileges accorded only to
talent of the first rank. The directors of the
Op^ra decreed him a pension ; his appearance
in his box was the signal for a general burst of
applause, and at the last performance of 'Dardanus'
(Nov. 9, 1760) he received a perfect
ovation from the audience. At Dijon the
Academic elected him a member in 1761, and
the authorities exempted hituself and his family
for ever from the municipal taxes. The king
had named him composer of his chamber music
in 1745 ; his patent of nobility was registered,
and he was on the point of receiving the order
of St. Michel, when, already suffering from the
infirmities of age, he took typhoid fever, and
died Sept. 12, 1764. All France mourned for
him ; Paris gave him a magnificent funeral, and
in many other towns funeral services were held
in his honour. Such marks of esteem are accorded
only to the monarchs of art.
Having spoken of Rameau as a theorist and
composer, we will now say a word about him
as a man. If we are to believe Grimm and
Diderot, he was hard, churlish, and cruel,
avaricious to a degree, and the most ferocious
of egotists. The evidence of these writers is,
however, suspicious ; both disliked French music,
and Diderot, as the friend and coUaborateiir of
d'Alembert, would naturally be opposed to the
man who had had the audacity to declare war
against the Encyclopedists.' It is right to say
that, though he drew a vigorous and scathing
portrait of the composer, he did not publish it.^
As to the charge of avarice, Rameau may have
been fond of money, but he supported his sister
Catherine ' during an illness of many years, and
assisted more than one of his brother artists
1 Kameau was asked to correct the articles on music for the Sncyctopidie,
but the MSS. were not submitted to him. He publlehed
in consequence : JSrreurg aur la Tnuaique dans VSnoyclopfitlie (17551
Suite d€« Erreurt, etc. (17S6) ; Riponae de H. Rameau d MM. let
Sdtteurs de VEncyctop6die aur leivr AvertUsement |1757) ; Lettre de
M. d'Alembert d Si. Jtwneau, concernatit le corpa aonore, avee la
r6ponee de M. Rameau (undated, but apparently 1759)—aU printed
in Paris.
s We refer to Diderot's violent satire on the morals and philoflopbic
tendencies of the 18th century, entitled Le Neveu de Rameau.
It is a curious fact that this brilliantly written dialogue was only
Itnown in France through a re-translation of Goethe's German
version. The first French edition, by Saur, appeared in Paris only
in 1821.
3 A good player on the harpsichord ; she lived in Oijon, and died
-dihere, 1762.
KAMONDON
such as Dauvergne, and the organist Balb&tre.
He was a vehement controversialist, and those
whom he had offended would naturally say hard
things of him. Tall, and thin almost to
emaciation, his sharply mai-ked features indicated
great strength of character, while his eyes
burned with the fire of genius. There was a decided
resemblance between him and Voltaii'e, and
painters have often placed their likenesses side
by side. Amongst the best portraits of Rameau
may be specified those of Benoist (after Restout),
Caffieri, Masquelier, and Carmontelle (full
length). In the fine oil-painting by Chardin in
the Museum of Dijon, he is represented seated,
with his fingers on the strings of his violin,
the instrument he generally used in composing.
The bust which stood in the/oj/er of the Opera
was destroyed when the theatre was burnt down
in 1781 ; that in the library of the Conservatoire
is by Destreez (1865). A bronze statue
by Guillaume was erected at Dijon in 1880.
The fine medal of him given to the winners of
the grand pHx de Home was engraved by
Gatteaux.
There are many biographies of Rameau ; the
most valuable are, among the older, Chabanon's
Mloge (1764) ; Maret's Eloge hislorique (1766) ;
and the very curious details contained in De
Croix's L'Ami des Arts (1776) ; among the
more modern, the notices of Adolphe Adam,
Fetis, Poisot (1864), Nisard (1867), and Pougin
(1876).
Rameau had one son and two daughters,
none of them musicians. He left in MS. four
cantatas, three motets with chorus, and fragments
of an opera Roland,' '
all which are now
in the Bibliothfeque Nationale. None of his
organ pieces have survived ; and some cantatas,
mentioned by the earlier biographers, besides
two lyric tragedies Abaris ' ' and ' Linus,' and a
comic opera, Le ' Procureur dup^,' are lost ; but
they would have added nothing to his fame.
Some of his harpsichord pieces have been*
published in the Tresor des ' Pianistes ; '
in the
'
Alte Klaviermusik ' of Pauer (Ser. 2, pt. 5)
and of Roitzsch ; also in Pauer's ' Alte Meister,'
and in the ' Perlcs Musicales '
(51, 52). A new
edition, with a preface by Saint-Saens, appeared
in Paris in 1905. g. c.
RAMONDON, Lewis, presumably a Frenchman,
and at first a singer in the pre-Handelian
Italian operas. He appeared in 'Arsinoe,'
1705 ;
in 'Camilla,' 1706 ; and 'Pyrrhus and
Demetrius,' 1709. He sometimes took Leveridge's
parts in these operas, but about 1711
he ceased to be a public singer, and turned his
talents to composition. He brought out the
series called 'The Lady's Entertainment' in
1709, 1710, 1711, and 1738. He arranged
for the harpsichord the song-tunes in '
Camilla '
using, perhaps for the first time in music-notation
for this instrument, a five instead of a sixline
stave, and giving as the reason—' that the