Jean-Philippe Rameau: Opera omnia

The Complete Critical Edition of the Musical Works


Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) is one of the towering figures of the baroque. An internationally renowned theorist and scientist, he left behind a large body of music, parts of which have until now never been published.

The first attempt to publish Rameau’s works was made in the 18th century by Jacques-Joseph-Marie Decroix, an ardent admirer who collected many of the composer’s manuscripts. It was followed in the early 20th century by a complete edition prepared under the auspices of Camille Saint-Saëns and published by Durand. This edition, however, remained incomplete.

Sylvie Bouissou has been systematically expanding the Rameau Opera omnia at CNRS since 1991. She founded an international scholarly committee and the Société Jean-Philippe Rameau, which received the support of the Fondation France télécom in 1992. Since 1993 the Rameau Opera omnia has been receiving financial support from Musica Gallica (Ministère français de la Culture, Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert). The initial volumes were issued by Billaudot (see the list of separate volumes). Since 2003 the edition has been published by the Société Jean-Philippe Rameau, with worldwide distribution entrusted to Bärenreiter.

Our edition, Opera omnia Rameau (OOR), is the first to publish all of Rameau’s musical works in a manner that does equal justice to scholarly guidelines and the demands of performers. It catalogues, explores and discusses every known musical, literary and iconographic source.



Contents of the volumes