Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels
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Traité de l'harmonie réduite à ses principes naturels (Treatise on Harmony Reduced to Its Natural Principles) is a music treatise written by Jean-Philippe Rameau. It was first published in Paris in 1722 by Jean-Baptiste-Christophe Ballard. It is Rameau's first treatise on musical theory. A fundamental work in the development of Western music, it earned Rameau a reputation as the most learned musician of his time.
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The Treatise summarizes the efforts of its author to make music a science, when before him it was considered an art. Rameau takes up the work of his predecessors, notably Zarlino and Descartes (Compendium musicae), to bring order to the scattered notions identified before him and make harmony a deductive science like mathematics, on the postulate that “sound is to sound as string is to string” (referring to the mathematical relation between pitch and length). For Rameau, “nature” is the basis of his theory, which allows him to affirm that harmony is the quintessence of music, melody only proceeding from harmony.