Cynthia Verba: 2 books
Music and the French Enlightenment
Rameau and the Philosophes in Dialogue
Language: English
Release Date: October 3, 2016
Around the middle of the eighteenth century, the leading figures of the French Enlightenment engaged in a philosophical debate about the nature of music. The principal participants-Rousseau, Diderot, and d'Alembert-were responding to the views of the composer-theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau, who was...
Dramatic Expression in Rameau's Tragédie en Musique
Between Tradition and Enlightenment
Language: English
Release Date: February 21, 2013
Cynthia Verba's book explores the story of music's role in the French Enlightenment, focusing on dramatic expression in the musical tragedies of the composer-theorist Jean-Philippe Rameau. She reveals how his music achieves its highly moving effects through an interplay between rational design, especially...