Jean-Philippe Rameau

Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most significant French composers and music theorists of the 18th century. He dominated French opera following Jean-Baptiste Lully and became the defining figure of the French Baroque musical tradition.

In 1722, Rameau published his monumental Traité de l'harmonie (Treatise on Harmony), establishing fundamental concepts of tonal harmony—including chord inversions, fundamental bass, and root motion—that remain the bedrock of Western music theory. In his fifties, he took the Parisian opera world by storm with daring, rhythmically brilliant masterpieces like Hippolyte et Aricie (1733) and Les Indes galantes (1735).