Quotes from Jean-Philippe Rameau

We must have recourse to the rules of music when our genius and our ear seem to deny what we are seeking.

Nature endows us with the feeling that moves us in all our musical experiences; we might call her gift instinct.

Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics.

Even nature is concerned, for it leads us to choose the third as the sole consonance which may makeup for the harshness of the dissonance. The third despite its imperfection becomes the sole object of our desire after a dissonance and gives new charm to the perfect chord. It is for this reason that the rule for resolving

The smaller ones should always be preferred to the larger; i.e., rather than having the bass ascend or descend a sixth, we should have it descend or ascend a third, since ascending a third is the same as descending a sixth, just as ascending a sixth and descending a third, ascending a fifth and descending a fourth, or ascending a fourth and descending a

This is what Zarlino means when he says that the bass should proceed by separated intervals, for intervals cannot be consonant unless they are separated. Although Zarlino also says that the bass

Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known to us without the aid of mathematics.

I try to conceal art with art.