The music of Rameau was re-discovered at the turn of the nineteenth century. Dukas was involved in the revised edition of his complete works. As a result, he wrote a set of variations on a short Rameau's harpsichord piece called Le lardon. The work is in the tradition of Franck although Dukas' musical language is more advanced. Rameau's piece appears verbatim at the opening, creating a stylistic clash with what follows, which caused Debussy to write that he preferred his Dukas without Rameau. The theme is followed by eleven brief and elaborate variations of contrasting character - placid, heroic, delicate, intense, vague -, into which the theme often disappears without a trace. Perhaps the most interesting variation is the last and most extended of the set, inscribed "Sombre, assez lent". An interlude follows, and the work concludes with a more extended variation that constitutes the Finale. n

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