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sai-national.org • Winter 2022 17 e masque lasts about an hour. It is scored for ten singers, oboes, horns, strings, and continuo. In 1988, Stainer and Bell in London published a facsimile copy of the original publication by John Walsh in 1745. e facsimile edition has all the arias of the "rude mechanicals" but not the recitatives, which the editor Roger Fiske included in the performance edition available for rental. e characters of the Master, Prompter, Semibrief, Gentleman 1, and Gentleman 2 speak rather than sing their lines. At the end of the play, in Shakespeare's version, both Pyramus and isbe die. At the end of the masque, Pyramus and isbe awaken from the dead to sing a love duet. e music is entirely charming, witty, and delightful, bringing out vividly, through recitatives, arias and instrumental pieces, the silly humor of the "rude mechanicals." A Hyperion's Opera Restor'd CD (CDA66759) of Lampe's Pyramus and isbe (1745) with Peter Holman, music director, is highly recommended as an introduction to this delightfully clever and humorous opera. Jean-Jacques Rouss Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Le Devin du eau's Le Devin du village (1752) village (1752) Jean-Jacques Rousseau is considered one of the world's great philosophers. He had a profound affect on omas Jefferson, particularly in the writing of the Declaration of Independence, which expresses the "natural rights" of man towards freedom of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Rousseau is known primarily for his Discourse on Origin of Inequality (1755), Emile and e Social Contract (1762), and his expansive Confessions (1782, 1789). It is not well known that before he became a great philosopher he was a teacher of music, a music copier, devised a new system of music notation, published a ground- breaking A Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences (1750), a controversial Letter on French Music (1753), a two-volume Dictionary of Music (1768), and composed an incredibly popular opera Le Devin du village (1752). In fact, his opera was so popular that it received hundreds of performances around the world and the Paris Opera kept it in repertoire for 60 years. e young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart either heard this opera or heard of it when in Paris on his world tour and imitated it as a twelve-year old when he wrote his first Singspiel, Bastien and Bastienne. Ludwig van Beethoven found Rousseau's aria from the opera Non, non, Colette so well known that he set an arrangement of it for tenor and piano trio. Rousseau, in his Discourse on the Moral Effects of the Arts and Sciences, asserted that art had become so corrupted by becoming conformingly refined and nourished by luxury, that it had lost its original connection with genuine artistic expression. He felt that art making had become meaningless and empty. In his Discourse on Origin of Inequality, he proclaimed that civilization had removed man from his original natural self, his authentic self, and that, until man returned to his original natural self, he could not live authentically. In his opera, Le Devin du village, there is a gentle conflict between the genuine love of the rustic lover, Colin, who seeks to win the heart of his beloved, Colette, and the temptations and artificial expressions of love of the intruding city man, who competes for Colette's love by giving her gis. e village soothsayer, through his benign "magic," brings the two rustic lovers, Colin and Colette, together in genuine love. For Rousseau, this rustic, natural, innocent love is a return to true humanity. Rousseau, in his Dictionary and music writings disagreed sharply with Jean-Philippe Rameau's stance on the relationship between melody and harmony. Rameau, in his Treatise on Harmony, stated that melody is derived from harmony, and that harmony is the basis for all music. Rousseau, believed, on the other hand, that the origin of human expression is in the melody over harmony. To Rousseau, as seen in his opera, recitative and song are the purest form of human expression. While Leveridge/Lampe's promoted English-language operas instead of Italian models, Rousseau, in his controversial Letter, lauds the Italian style. He said that "there is neither a clear beat or a melody in French music because the French language is not susceptible to either…and from all this I conclude that the French do not have music, and that if they ever do, it will be the worse for them." In his Dictionary under the heading "unity of melody," he refutes Rameau's priority of harmony, concluding that "it is in the principle of unity of melody, that the Italians have felt and followed, without knowing it, but which the French have neither known or followed… When I had discovered this principle, I wished before I proposed it, to try at the application of it by myself: this essay produced Le Devin de village…" For Rousseau, melody was the simplest form of expression and he wanted all art to return to the simplest form and to the fundamentals of nature, the speaking and singing of the human voice. Le Devin du village has three characters, Colin, the lover, Colette, the beloved, and the village soothsayer, who magically brings the lovers back together. e recitatives and arias are relatively simple, though there are some duets. e work is scored for three soloists, mixed chorus, two flutes, two oboes, bassoon, strings, and continuo. e work lasts about two hours and is divided into two main sections. e story is first told by the three main characters through recitatives, arias and duets, and then reiterated by the mixed chorus (townspeople) through an entertaining pantomime and many dances. Both a facsimile of the original score from Arnaldo Forni Editore and an A-R Edition edited by Charlotte Kaufman are available, as well a stunning 2018 DVD performance of the opera from Chateau de Versailles Spectacles. Cposers CONTINUED ON PAGE 22 Music Example 1: Leveridge Songs 1727 (author's Music Example 1: Leveridge Songs 1727 (author's rare book collection) rare book collection)

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