By Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"J.J. used to be born for music," Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote of himself, "not to be fed on in its execution, yet to hurry its growth and make discoveries approximately it. His principles at the paintings and concerning the paintings are fertile, inexhaustible." Rousseau used to be a practising musician and theorist for years ahead of ebook of his first Discourse, yet formerly students have missed those rules.
John T. Scott (ed. & tr.)
This swish translation treatments either these failings by way of bringing jointly the Essay, which John T. Scott says "most basically monitors the juncture among Rousseau's musical conception and his significant philosophical works," with a accomplished choice of the musical writings. a number of the latter are responses to authors like Rameau, Grimm, and Raynal, and a special characteristic of this version is the inclusion of writings through those authors to assist identify the ancient and ideological contexts of Rousseau's writings and the highbrow exchanges of which they seem to be a part.
With an advent that offers old historical past, lines the improvement of Rousseau's musical idea, and exhibits that those writings aren't an remoted a part of his oeuvre yet in its place are lively through an identical "system," this quantity models a much-needed portal wherein literary students, musicologists, historians, and political theorists can input into an incredible yet hitherto ignored chamber of Rousseau's sizeable highbrow palace.
Review
"The quantity exhibits that his paintings on song isn't really a by-way yet belongs to the mainstream of his idea. For Rousseau, the amount exhibits, tune is inseperable from the specific expressions of other human cultures and offers voice to the ethical passions of the folks. a quick yet informative survey of the writings presents a great advent to the substance of the quantity . . . worthwhile to all critical scholars of Rousseau." —Choice
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Extra info for Essay on the Origin of Languages and Writings Related to Music (Collected Writings of Rousseau, Volume 7)
Sample text
126 The most important of these articles is the one on opera, where he provides an historical account of the development of opera that owes much to his discussion of the degeneration of music in the Essay. ” 127 Finally, Rousseau’s conception of the composer deserves mention. The great composer has what Rousseau terms “genius,” and in the inXuential article on that subject Rousseau writes: “Seek not, young Artist, what is Genius. If you have any, you feel it in yourself. If you do not, you will never know it.
V, 136–138 7 Clef for my system, I shall treat it in particular detail and I content myself here with developing from it what is absolutely necessary about it for comprehending my method. , until the last 1, which begins a Wfth octave, E, which might be pressed further if one likes. With regard to the portion below that begins on the Wrst 4 and ends on the Wrst 7, as it is incomplete, not beginning with do, we shall call it octave X and this letter X shall serve in all sorts of keys to designate the notes which remain on the bass end of the Keyboard below the Wrst tonic.
Although he never published the Essay during his lifetime, Rousseau considered publishing in two diVerent manners, both of which alternatives are reXected in the organization of the present volume. First, after being encouraged in June 1763 by Malesherbes to publish the work, he thought of issuing it along with the essay On Theatrical Imitation and his prose poem The Levite of Ephraïm. Rousseau wrote the Wrst work of his proposed volume, On Theatrical Imitation, in preparation for his Letter to d’Alembert on the Theatre (1758), he describes it as a sort of extract from Plato’s treatments of the subject that he has taken out of the dramatic form of the original and put into continuous discourse.
