Jean-Philippe Rameau Quotes

Verse, singing, and speech have a common origin.

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

Emphasis on the common emotive or affective origins of music and words in the first cries of humankind undermines words.

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.

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

When reason and instinct are reconciled, there will be no higher appeal.

I try to conceal art with art.

In f-major, c* is a sonority contained within the overtones of the tonic f*.

Rhythm and sounds are born with syllables.