Jean Rousseau

Biography

The famous philosopher and citizen of Geneva, Jean Jacques Rousseau, was a musician and musical scholar of some importance.

When he established himself in Paris in the 1740s, Rousseau first made his living as a copier of music, and later built a name from writing on musical subjects.

Here is a bit of the writing: “The languorous quality of our French language makes it inflexible to our voices and a funeral tone perpetually reigns in our Opera….Nothing is so inert, so lazy, or so languorous as these beautiful solos that everyone admires while yawning.”

When one builds a name in this way, life won’t always be a pleasant. At one point, musicians affiliated with the Paris Opera hanged Rousseau in effigy.

He was, though, perfectly willing to practice the art that his theories condemned. He composed a French language opera: Les Muses Galantes (The Gallant Muses) in 1745 and a French language operetta, Le Devin du Village (The Village Soothsayer) in 1752. The former was a commercial failure, the latter a success.