The eighteenth-century fascination with exotic lands and peoples was largely sentimental and uninformed. The picturesque peasants, mythological characters and fabulous monsters that so long inspired French composers are replaced by scenes and character dances from distant countries, all suitably domesticated and prettified for home consumption.

Such entertainments found perfect expression in the French opera-ballet, an elaborate art-form combining vocal and instrumental music and dancing much admired at the Versailles court of King Louis XIV. However, in this, his second stage work, Rameau does not appear to have had a popular success, though he made a quick recovery: in a preface to a revised edition in 1735 he wrote: "The public's having seemed less satisfied with scenes of the Indes Galantes than with the rest of the work ... I am here presenting only the Symphonies intermingled with [orchestral versions of] some of the sung airs ... out of which I have shaped four large Concerts in different keys". It is in this form that it is now heard.

Not surprisingly little of dramatic coherence remains, and the suites can safely be regarded as lively examples of the light, informal series of short, contrasting movements that made up the Baroque suite, or Concert, in France, except that in this case it includes songs and dances by African slaves, "Savages", a Persian march, a Polish song and a "slow air for the Incas of Peru" interspersed with more conventional movements.

With its traditional five-part homophony and distinctive use of color and clarity it bears the distinctive marks of Rameau at his most inventive. Written mainly as a popular entertainment rather than a royal occasion, the formal graces of French "court" music of the time are less prominent than cheerful, uncomplicated tunes.

© All Music Guide

Portions of Content Provided by All Music Guide.
© 2008 All Media Guide, LLC. All Music Guide is a registered trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.