Rousseau Variations part.I - Yoel Ahn

The theme of this work, highly popular among children, is a tune which Jean Jacques Rousseau, a French composer, wrote after recollecting a song he heard an angel sing in a dream. It is a very little known fact that Rousseau, of whom we remember principally as a philosopher, was indeed a professional musician. His contemporaries even knew him more as a musician. He taught composition for some years at a con- servatory in Geneva, Switzerland. He wrote 5 operas, and one of those, Le Devin du Village(The Village Soothsayer), from which the present Variations borrows a theme, was a big success in Paris.
As a music theoretician, his views and claims are studied even today. For example, the well known 'Picardy Cadence' is a terminology he invented. Even though he was a successful composer, he gave up this career after doubting seriously on the ephe- meral glory in the art world, and turned his attention to philosophy and pedagogy. But for a living, he continued to work as a music score copyist.

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[AristonMenHudor]

Only the careful study of Rousseau's masterpiece can unlock the wise secrets of the unity of taste, expression, and ideas in what was ancient rhapsody.

Shakespeare teaches us the same truths in Prospero's musical-dance of the spirits performed for Miranda & Ferdinand in the Tempest. It constitutes the civilizing & ennobling artistry of the heart. The great Schiller understood this as the "aethestic education of man."

[AristonMenHudor]

This is an extremely worthy & commendable use of your talents. The style of your variations comes, I feel, from Schumann & Chopin. This is not truly in harmony with the taste of Rousseau, which is much simpler, & is meant to bring us somehow back to antiquity. I do not mean that this detracts, in any way, from your accomplishment.

There are many beautiful & touching passages in your variations.

[subwaysleuth]

Tierce de Picardy (Picardy Third) is not an invention of Rousseau. That form of ending a piece has its roots in modal counterpoint - and that goes back to the 1400s. In strict counterpoint, you were not allowed to end on a Major Third harmony. That relaxed over time.

[AssyMcDoodle]

cool vid!