Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 05/16/2016, uploaded on 01/17/2017

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

A contemporary of J.S. Bach, Jean-Philippe Rameau is considered one of the most important French keyboard composers, along with François Couperin. Debussy certainly attributes his musical heritage to Rameau in his Images, Bk I with a piece titled “Hommage à Rameau”. Rameau wrote three books of Pièces de clavecin between 1706 and1727. L’Enharmonique and L’Egyptienne are two movements from the second suite in the third book. Unlike the first suite, which is a collection of Baroque dance movements, the second suite is a collection of small character pieces. The final movement in this collection, L’Egyptienne, refers to a gypsy dancer; while not a true dance, it gives Rameau’s impression of a dancing gypsy maiden.       Esther Park

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.