It is paradoxical, however, that the quantity of his music for harpsichord is relatively small, although it was written over a period of forty years. Rameau, a ceaseless innovator, made use of all the expressive possibilities of the instrument, as well as using it as inspiration for his operas.

Rameau’s first compositions, a collection of ten pieces that also included a short table of ornaments, was written for the harpsichord and published in Paris in 1706.

The composer was twenty-three at the time, and had left Clermont-Ferrand, where he had been organist at the cathedral, for Paris, where he hoped to find employment as an organist and have the opportunity to hear Louis Marchand, a musician he greatly admired.

The Prélude which opens the collection is a direct homage to ..

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