Descriptive writing · Baroque music
A is a calm French court dance. Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote one, then wrote it again six more times, each time with more and faster notes. In this lesson you will listen to each version and turn what you hear into words.
Scott Ross plays the piece on a . Listen to the whole piece once without writing anything. Then listen again and stop after each part to write.
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Gavotte et six doubles (c. 1728) · Scott Ross, harpsichord
Tap any to see what it means. The Music terms button at the top of the page lists them all.
Music is invisible. A writer has to turn sound into something the reader can see, feel or imagine. Use these four steps for each part of the piece.
The notes fall like…,
It sounds as if…
The violin begins alone, high and thin. Its long notes drift slowly upward, like smoke rising from a candle that has just gone out. The music feels wistful, because each phrase stops before it seems finished.
Use at least four of these words in each description. As you type in the boxes below, the words you use turn red in this list.
the crisp sound of each plucked string
a bright, metallic tone
a delicate little phrase
brittle high notes
a resonant bass note
a shimmering cloud of notes
a stately opening
measured steps
flowing lines of notes
a restless bass
a relentless stream of notes
intricate patterns
Notes ripple under the melody.
The notes cascade down the keyboard.
The phrase tumbles to the bottom.
High notes sparkle above.
The music swirls around the theme.
The last chord chimes.
a dignified dance
a wistful melody
a melancholy minor key
poised and elegant
an urgent rush of notes
a triumphant ending
The piece has seven parts: the and six . Each double keeps the same and shape as the theme, but fills it with smaller, faster notes. For each part, choose what you hear, then write two to four sentences.
Jean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon, France, in 1683 and died in Paris in 1764. He worked for many years as a church organist. In 1722 he published a Treatise on Harmony, a book that explained how chords work, and it made him famous as a thinker about music.
He did not write his first opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, until 1733, when he was 50. After that he became the most important composer of opera in France, during the reign of King Louis XV.
A harpsichord looks like a piano, but it works differently. When you press a key, a small pick called a plucks the string, like a finger plucking a guitar. The player cannot make a note louder by pressing harder.
This means a harpsichord cannot really play or make a in the normal way. Composers made the music sound fuller and more exciting by adding more notes. Listen for how Rameau's doubles do exactly this.
The Gavotte with Six Doubles comes from Rameau's Nouvelles suites de pièces de clavecin ("New suites of harpsichord pieces"), published in Paris around 1728. Clavecin is the French word for harpsichord. It is in a , A minor.
A gavotte is a French dance in two beats. Each phrase begins in the middle of the bar, so the music seems to step forward politely before it settles.
Ross recorded all of Rameau's harpsichord music for the French label Stil. This lesson uses his recording.
Write one paragraph of 150 to 250 words that answers this question: How does the Gavotte change from the theme to the sixth double, and how does it make you feel?