Monday, June 05, 2006
Rameau, Anyone?
I'm going to take the sidebar at its word and open the floor to opinions on Rameau (That's Jean Philippe, if you're nasty), as I'm currently hip-deep in his Festivities of Hebe. The writing is splendid, and very proto-rock-and-roll. As absurd as those kind of comparisons usually are (Someone's always calling someone 'the original punk' aren't they?), it's just true.
When his own 'Air de Sauvages', written after seeing captured Native Americans dance on command in Paris, made its way back to the West Indies and was performed at a French party, the natives in attendance spontaneously started dancing to it in the same manner that inspired the piece.
Some two centuries later, when Alfonso Arias directed its source opera-ballet, Les Indes Galantes, he staged a rock dance in the final number, reflecting a similar, subliminal compulsion towards the primitivistic in response to Rameau's music. In my view, his mojo's just that good.
posted by jodru
6:40 PM
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