His son, Domenico, was also a prolific composer and was a famous player on the harpsichord (Gravicembalo). To him is due the original idea of the form of the Sonata which Haydn afterwards perfected. Domenico Scarlatti is remembered, too, for his “Cat’s Fugue,” written on the notes that his favorite cat touched one day when she walked down the keys of the harpsichord.
Next in line comes Rameau, who was born in Dijon, in 1683, just two years before Bach. He was at the height of his fame when Mozart was born. Rameau came of a musical family, showed his talent early, played the clavecin at seven and studied the violin and organ. Eventually he settled in Paris. First he wrote little musical comedies, and, finally, operas—Hippolyte et Arcie, Les Indes Galantes, Castor et Pollux are some of them—and ballets, which as M. Choquet truly says, “contain beauties which defy the caprices of fashion and will command the respect of true artists for all time.” Rameau died in 1774. Rameau looked very much like Voltaire. He always used the violin when composing. Rameau’s new ideas of orchestration created animosity among the followers of Lully.
What did Rameau do for the Orchestra?
He gave to the different members of the Orchestra an individual rôle; he extended the technique of the violins; he made an increasing use of arpeggios; and he was the first to use pizzicato chords with all the strings at once. He also made a delicate and light use of the woodwind.
Every day Rameau is taking a larger place in Music. French critics consider him the most French of all their composers.
RAMEAU
By Restout
While the Italian Renaissance had developed the opera, the dance and music that delighted the drawing-room, under the bright skies of Italy, in the colder North, under the influence of stern Martin Luther, the Chorale, or hymn-tune, had arisen to supply the needs of the new Lutheran religion. The Chorale is austere and solemn, although melodious. It was largely owing to these chorales that the new Reformed religion made its way so rapidly among the people of Northern Germany. The sources of these Chorales were various: some came from old church-hymns; others, from folk-songs. A good example is the “Old Hundredth Tune” beginning “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
The custom of playing these Chorales on the organ with elaborate accompaniments and treating them also as themes for fugues and counterpoint was a special fancy of the German organists.