There is good reason to believe that Rameau did not assemble his two collections, respectively published in 1724 and 1728, over a long period. In 1723 he was still composing operas, but also found time for the harpsichord.

At first sight the ten movements of the E minor suite, the first in this earlier collection, are arranged as an eighteenth century French "Concert"—an Allemande, a Courante, two Gigues, two Rigaudons, a couple of "character" pieces, a Musette en rondeau, and a Tambourin. Girdlestone, Rameau's biographer, suggests that at least four movements—the two Rigadouns, Musette, and Tambourin—were derived from his opera-ballet L'Endriague (1723). (Rameau used the Musette and Tambourin yet again in 1739 in another opera-ballet, Les fêtes d'Hébé). All have an upbeat lilt, and even the courtly dances possess a hip-swaying, foot-tapping vivacity that takes them out of the salon and into the theater. "La Rappel des Oiseaux" and Rondeau "La Villageoise" are as fresh, intricate and colorful as petit-point needlework.

The second suite in the 1724 collection, the D major, could almost be called "themes from the classics" insofar as it replaces the traditional dance movements with illustratively titled movements. The mixture includes tunes derived from Rameau's theater works—"L'Entretien des Muses" from Les fêtes d'Hébé, "Les tendre plaints" and "Sarabande" from Zoroastre, "Les nais de Sologne" with doubles (variations) from Dardanus, and others, such as the popular Les Indes Galantes. The French rondeau is favored in five of the 12 movements. The effect is that of a finely proportioned, and by no means a random, group of divertissements. Rameau's raids on his own melodies are not particularly significant in the light of these sparkling keyboard transformations, though they were noticed by one contemporary critic who drew a caricature of the composer surrounded by harpsichord pieces marked "for use in new operas."

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There is good reason to believe that Rameau did not assemble his two collections, respectively published in 1724 and 1728, over a long period. In 1723 he was still composing operas, but also found time for the harpsichord.

At first sight the ten movements of the E minor suite, the first in this earlier collection, are arranged as an eighteenth century French "Concert"—an Allemande, a Courante, two Gigues, two Rigaudons, a couple of "character" pieces, a Musette en rondeau, and a Tambourin. Girdlestone, Rameau's biographer, suggests that at least four movements—the two Rigadouns, Musette, and Tambourin—were derived from his opera-ballet L'Endriague (1723). (Rameau used the Musette and Tambourin yet again in 1739 in another opera-ballet, Les fêtes d'Hébé). All have an upbeat lilt, and even the courtly dances possess a hip-swaying, foot-tapping vivacity that takes them out of the salon and into the theater. "La Rappel des Oiseaux" and Rondeau "La Villageoise" are as fresh, intricate and colorful as petit-point needlework.

The second suite in the 1724 collection, the D major, could almost be called "themes from the classics" insofar as it replaces the traditional dance movements with illustratively titled movements. The mixture includes tunes derived from Rameau's theater works—"L'Entretien des Muses" from Les fêtes d'Hébé, "Les tendre plaints" and "Sarabande" from Zoroastre, "Les nais de Sologne" with doubles (variations) from Dardanus, and others, such as the popular Les Indes Galantes. The French rondeau is favored in five of the 12 movements. The effect is that of a finely proportioned, and by no means a random, group of divertissements. Rameau's raids on his own melodies are not particularly significant in the light of these sparkling keyboard transformations, though they were noticed by one contemporary critic who drew a caricature of the composer surrounded by harpsichord pieces marked "for use in new operas."

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Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), far and away the greatest French opera composer of the first half of eighteenth century, was also an able keyboard composer who published four books of harpsichord works totaling 65 pieces during his lifetime. In the second book of Pièces de clavecin, Rameau included 20 pieces unevenly divided between stylized dances and character pieces. Of the latter, the Tambourin in E minor is one of the briefest, one of the most evocative, and certainly one of the most aggressive. With its repeatedly hammered tonic chords in the left hand and its driving melody with trills and accents in the right hand, the piece is unforgettable. And, indeed, Rameau did not forget to include it in his opera La Fete d'Herbe premiered 15 years later.

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