Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Music

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Michael O'Dea

Ed. by Síofra Pierse, University College Dublin
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.04: French Writing and Culture: Eighteenth-Century and the Enlightenment, 1700-1800.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Jenny Mander (University of Cambridge), Síofra Pierse (University College Dublin), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Domains

Music (any)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1712-1778

Places

France (Location)

Resources

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) had a career as a musician that was important to him and of interest to his contemporaries. He was well known in his lifetime as a composer, a music theorist and polemicist and for part of his life earned a living as a music copyist.

Rousseau as Composer

Rousseau as Composer

Rousseau’s opera Le Devin du village (1752-53) [The Village Soothsayer] contributed almost as much to his contemporary reputation as his prose writings. The plot, simple and lightly sentimental, concerns a young woman, Colette, who seeks advice from le devin du village [the village soothsayer] because she fears her beloved has been distracted from her by a lady of high rank. The soothsayer’s advice allows her to win back her Colin and all ends happily. Lasting less than an hour, the

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2510 words

Citation: O'Dea, Michael. "Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Music". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 October 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19688, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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