Elemens de Musique Theorique et Pratique. Suviant Les Principes de M. Rameau. Èclaris, Développés et Simplifiés, Par M. D'Alembernt, de l'Academie Francoise.... Nouvelle Edition. Revue, corrigée & considérablement augmentée

A Lyon, Chez Jean-Marie Bruyset..., 1766. 8vo, 207 x 130 mms., pp. [iv], xxxvi, 236 [237 - 240 Approbation and Privilege], including half-title, ten folding engraved plates at end, title-page in red and black, fore-edges uncut, recent rebound in half calf, gilt spine, marbled boards. A very good copy. D'Alembert's first exposure to music theory was in 1749 when he was called upon to review a Mémoire submitted to the Académie by Jean-Philippe Rameau. This article, written in conjunction with Diderot, would later form the basis of Rameau's 1750 treatise Démonstration du principe de l'harmonie. D'Alembert wrote a glowing review praising the author's deductive character as an ideal scientific model. He saw in Rameau's music theories support for his own scientific ideas, a fully systematic method with a strongly deductive synthetic structure. Two years later, in 1752, d'Alembert attempted a fully comprehensive survey of Rameau's works in his Eléments de musique théorique et pratique suivant les principes de M. Rameau. Emphasizing Rameau's main claim that music was a mathematical science that had a single principle from which could be deduced all the elements and rules of musical practice as well as the explicit Cartesian methodology employed, d'Alembert helped to popularize the work of the composer and advertise his own theories. He claims to have "clarified, developed, and simplified" the principles of Rameau, arguing that the single idea of the corps sonore was not sufficient to derive the entirety of music. D'Alembert instead claimed that three principles would be necessary to generate the major musical mode, the minor mode, and the identity of octaves. Because he was not a musician, however, d'Alembert misconstrued the finer points of Rameau's thinking, changing and removing concepts that would not fit neatly into his understanding of music.