Rameau, Jean Philippe

1) Nouveau systême de musique theorique...pour servir d'introduction au Traité de l'harmonie, Paris: J.B.C. Ballard, 1726;  two engraved folding tables, diagrams on overslips to pp.28, 32, & 34, overslip on p.72, type-set music, including 'Monologue d'Armide' (pp.80-89), book plate of Alfred Cortot, [Hirsch, i 485; Gregory & Bartlett, i, 224; RISM Écrits, pp.683-684]

2) Code de musique pratique...avec de Nouvelles Réflexions sur le principe sonore, Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1760; engraved frontispiece (after Poussin), title-vignette, the 'Lettre à M. d'Alembert' bound before the engraved 'Exemples du Code de musique pratique' (33 pages of music), half-title for "Nouvelles réflexions" (Aa2), engraved booklabel (Arms of Sedan), green silk marker, joints worn, some foxing, [RISM Écrits, p.682 & 683; Hirsch, i 490 & i 491]



FIRST EDITIONS, 2 volumes, 4to (c.25.5 x 19cm), contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments, some wear: spine to "Nouveau système" defective at head

Condition is described in the main body of the cataloguing, where appropriate
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Rameau's Nouveau systême is rarely encountered at auction: we have traced only two copies in recent times.  Rameau here began his attempts to show how a single sound was composed of many harmonic overtones, analogous to Newton's demonstration that white light could be split into a myriad of different colours by means of a prism.   In this, he hoped to lay the scientific basis for his descriptions of chords in his recent Traité de l'harmonie (1722).  Rameau describes himself as "cy-devant organiste de la cathedrale de Clermont en Auvergne"; it was only in 1733 that he staged his first opera.  Rameau's Lettre à M. d'Alembert is here bound between the Code de musique pratique and its engraved musical examples, although it is recorded as a separate publication.