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Proceedings of the Worldwide Music Conference 2021Rameau and the Sciences: The Impact of Scientific Discoveries of the Lumières on Rameau’s Theory of Harmony

Proceedings of the Worldwide Music Conference 2021: Rameau and the Sciences: The Impact of... [The current Anglophone theorists criticize Jean-Philippe Rameau for the imperfection of mathematical apparatus, the problem of natural interpretation of a minor triad, and unartistic treatment of the bass line. However, if to look at this with an unbiased eye, one can notice that Rameau lived in the center of the emerging scientific culture of unprecedented magnitude and depth. Rameau’s contemporary mathematics, physics, geometry, language theory and general scientific categories should have influenced him. The method used in this presentation takes into consideration the possibility for Rameau of absorbing these ideas without directly referencing them. It is difficult to explain, otherwise, the discovery of tonal-harmonic functions by Rameau without the analogy with the introduction of the term function by Gottfried Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli. It is hard to imagine that Rameau himself put all chords and their modifications into classification in a form of magnificent double hierarchy without the innovations of Carolus Linnaeus. The order of chords in the fundamental bass progression could not have seen the light without the universal syntax of Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole. The concept of physical or quasi-physical motion in music, established by Rameau, depends on discoveries of differential calculus by Leibniz and Newton. The infinite approximation of the leading tone to tonic is the manifestation of the idea of infinitesimal (inverted infinity) of Leibniz. It is time to revisit Rameau, to place him in the real context of his time and, perhaps, reevaluate the significance of his contribution to the theory and art of music.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Proceedings of the Worldwide Music Conference 2021Rameau and the Sciences: The Impact of Scientific Discoveries of the Lumières on Rameau’s Theory of Harmony

Part of the Current Research in Systematic Musicology Book Series (volume 8)
Editors: Khannanov, Ildar D.; Ruditsa, Roman
Khannanov, Ildar
Proceedings of the Worldwide Music Conference 2021 — Apr 13, 2021
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11 pages

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References (2)

Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
ISBN
978-3-030-74038-2
Pages
11 –22
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-74039-9_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The current Anglophone theorists criticize Jean-Philippe Rameau for the imperfection of mathematical apparatus, the problem of natural interpretation of a minor triad, and unartistic treatment of the bass line. However, if to look at this with an unbiased eye, one can notice that Rameau lived in the center of the emerging scientific culture of unprecedented magnitude and depth. Rameau’s contemporary mathematics, physics, geometry, language theory and general scientific categories should have influenced him. The method used in this presentation takes into consideration the possibility for Rameau of absorbing these ideas without directly referencing them. It is difficult to explain, otherwise, the discovery of tonal-harmonic functions by Rameau without the analogy with the introduction of the term function by Gottfried Leibniz and Johann Bernoulli. It is hard to imagine that Rameau himself put all chords and their modifications into classification in a form of magnificent double hierarchy without the innovations of Carolus Linnaeus. The order of chords in the fundamental bass progression could not have seen the light without the universal syntax of Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole. The concept of physical or quasi-physical motion in music, established by Rameau, depends on discoveries of differential calculus by Leibniz and Newton. The infinite approximation of the leading tone to tonic is the manifestation of the idea of infinitesimal (inverted infinity) of Leibniz. It is time to revisit Rameau, to place him in the real context of his time and, perhaps, reevaluate the significance of his contribution to the theory and art of music.]

Published: Apr 13, 2021

Keywords: Jean Philippe Rameau; Sciences of Enlightenment; Function by Leibniz and Bernoulli; Classification of Carolus Linnaeus; Harmonic syntax; Grammar of Port Royal

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