Denis Diderot 'Rameau's Nephew' - 'Le Neveu de Rameau': A Multi-Media Bilingual Edition

doi:10.11647/obp.0098

A Multi-Media Bilingual Edition

2nd Edition

Denis Diderot (author)

Marian Hobson (editor)

Kate E. Tunstall (translator)

Caroline Warman (translator)

Pascal Duc (music editor)

In a famous Parisian chess café, a down-and-out, HIM, accosts a former acquaintance, ME, who has made good, more or less. They talk about chess, about genius, about good and evil, about music, they gossip about the society in which they move, one of extreme inequality, of corruption, of envy, and about the circle of hangers-on in which the down-and-out abides. The down-and-out from time to time is possessed with movements almost like spasms, in which he imitates, he gestures, he rants. And towards half past five, when the warning bell of the Opera sounds, they part, going their separate ways.

Probably completed in 1772-73, Denis Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew fascinated Goethe, Hegel, Engels and Freud in turn, achieving a literary-philosophical status that no other work by Diderot shares. This interactive, multi-media and bilingual edition offers a brand new translation of Diderot’s famous dialogue, and it also gives the reader much more. Portraits and biographies of the numerous individuals mentioned in the text, from minor actresses to senior government officials, enable the reader to see the people Diderot describes, and provide a window onto the complex social and political context that forms the backdrop to the dialogue. Links to musical pieces specially selected by Pascal Duc and performed by students of the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, illuminate the wider musical context of the work, enlarging it far beyond its now widely understood relation to opéra comique.

This new edition includes: - Introduction - Original text - English translation - Embedded audio-files - Explanatory Notes - Interactive Material

Additional Resources

[blog]Interdisciplinary Diderot

[document]Goethe’s translation of Denis Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew/Satire Seconde: le Neveu de Rameau, or Denis Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew and the bizarre story of its survival By Marian Hobson

[document]Denis Diderot’s Rameaus Neffe With notes by Joanna Raisbeck

[document]Anmerkungen Über Personen und Gegenstände, deren in dem Dialog „Rameaus Neffe” erwähnt wird Vorerinnerung

[document]Nachträgliches Zu „Rameaus Neffe”

[document]Goethe’s and Schiller’s correspondence on Rameaus Neffe, including Goethe’s diary entries

[audio]Musical Resources

The pieces specially performed and recorded for this multi-media edition were chosen to provide samples of music or composers that are less well known today, or to give examples of transcription, one of the principle ways that pieces came to be known and played in a private setting at the time.

Please find below the list of the musical pieces included in this publication. You can download each of them, either in MP3 or in WAV format, by clicking on the correspondent link (please note that this works best with Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer).

All musical recordings have been released under a CC BY license and their copyright belongs to the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris.

François-André Danican Philidor, L’Art de la modulation [The Art of Modulation], extract: First quartet: Sinfonia (Con spirito – Moderato)

Clémentine Frémont, traverso Josef Žák, violin Tatsuya Hatano, violin Rémy Petit, cello Felipe Guerra, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.04 MP3 WAV

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Fêtes de Polymnie [The Festivals of Polyhymnia], extract: Air: ‘A la beauté tout cède sur la terre’ [Everything on earth gives way to beauty]

Dania El Zein, soprano Rémy Petit, cello Camille Ravot, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.05 MP3 WAV

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Fêtes de Polymnie [The Festivals of Polyhymnia], extract: Air: ‘Au vain plaisir de charmer…’ [To the empty pleasure of charming…]

Dania El Zein, soprano Rémy Petit, cello Camille Ravot, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.06 MP3 WAV

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Fêtes de Polymnie [The Festivals of Polyhymnia], extract: Air en rondeau: ‘Hélas, est-ce assez pour charmer…’ [Alas, in order to charm, is it enough…]

Dania El Zein, soprano Rémy Petit, cello Camille Ravot, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.07 MP3 WAV

Pietro Locatelli, Sonata op. VI no. 5, extract: Aria (Vivace)

Tania-Lio Faucon-Cohen, violin Sarah Gron-Catil, cello Camille Ravot, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.08 MP3 WAV

Domenico Alberti, Sonata for the fortepiano op. I no. 5, extract: Andante – Allegro

Luca Montebugnoli, piano (Clarke/Lengerer)

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.09 MP3 WAV

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Stabat Mater, extract, transcribed for solo violin by Johan Helmich Roman

Tania-Lio Faucon-Cohen, violin

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.10 MP3 WAV

Jean-Féry Rebel, Pieces for the violin, divided into suites by keys, extract: First suite in G-sol-ré: Allemande

Josef Žák, violin Antoine Touche, cello Loris Barrucand, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.11 MP3 WAV

Jean-Féry Rebel, Pieces for the violin, divided into suites by keys, extract: First suite in G-sol-ré: Prelude

Josef Žák, violin Antoine Touche, cello Loris Barrucand, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.12 MP3 WAV

Jean-Joseph Mouret, Les Amours de Ragonde, ou la soirée de village [The Loves of Ragonde, subtitled An Evening in the Village], extract: Bourrées I-II

Clémentine Frémont, traverso Nicolay Sheko, oboe Josef Žák, violin Tatsuya Hatano, violin Felipe Guerra, harpsichord Rémy Petit, cello

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.13 MP3 WAV

Jean-Joseph Mouret, Les Amours de Ragonde, ou la soirée de village [The Loves of Ragonde, subtitled An Evening in the Village], extract: Air: ‘Accourez, jeunes garçons’ [Come running, young men]

Marie Soubestre, soprano Sarah Gron-Catil, cello Camille Ravot, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.14 MP3 WAV

Egidio Duni, Le Peintre amoureux de son modèle [The Painter in Love with his Model], extract: Arietta: ‘Dans le badinage, l’Amour se plait’ [Love is pleased with playfulness]

Marie Soubestre, soprano Clémentine Frémont, traverso Josef Žák, violin

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.15 MP3 WAV

Johann Adolf Hasse, Cléofide, extract: Air: ‘Vuoi saper se tu mi piaci?’ [Do you want to know if I like you?]

Fiona McGown, mezzo Josef Žák, violin Rémy Petit, cello Louis-Nöel Bestion de Camboulas, harpsichord

http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0044.16 MP3 WAV

Contributors

Denis Diderot

(author)

Marian Hobson

(editor)

Professorial Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London

Kate E. Tunstall

(translator)

Lecturer in French at University of Oxford

Caroline Warman

(translator)

Lecturer in French at University of Oxford

Pascal Duc

(music editor)

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Denis Diderot 'Rameau's Nephew' - 'Le Neveu de Rameau'