In 1683, Jean-Philippe Rameau, the seventh of eleven
children, was born into a musical family in Dijon. His
father played the organ at two churches there. At
eighteen he decided to become a musician, although his
father preferred that he enter the legal profession. He
traveled to Italy and spent a few months in Milan,
playing violin with a group of itinerant musicians.
Subsequently, he held various organ posts in Dijon
(replacing his father), Lyons, Clermont, and Paris. Two
years after settling ...(+)
In 1683, Jean-Philippe Rameau, the seventh of eleven
children, was born into a musical family in Dijon. His
father played the organ at two churches there. At
eighteen he decided to become a musician, although his
father preferred that he enter the legal profession. He
traveled to Italy and spent a few months in Milan,
playing violin with a group of itinerant musicians.
Subsequently, he held various organ posts in Dijon
(replacing his father), Lyons, Clermont, and Paris. Two
years after settling in Paris at the age of forty-two,
he married a nineteen-year old girl, Marie-Louise
Mangot. They had four children. He composed cantatas
and motets, and he published books and articles on
music theory and several small collections of solo
harpsichord works. All the while he longed to compose
for the operatic stage. He sublimated this desire in
his harpsichord works, lavishing on them all the
imagination, passion, and drama that would later
enliven his great operas.
The minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of
French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The
word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French
menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning
slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or
from the early 17th-century popular group dances called
branle à mener or amener.
Although originally composed for period instruments
(possibly Lute), I created this arrangement for Concert
(Pedal) Harp.
