Essay on the Origin of Languages and Writings Related to Music

Note on the Text

Note on the Text This translation is an eVort to produce an English version that corresponds word for word (as far as possible) with Rousseau’s French text. Wherever possible, words have been translated consistently both within and between Rousseau’s writings.Although this goal may cause some awkwardness , it has the advantage of permitting readers to come to their own conclusions with the smallest danger that the translation will have imposed a particular interpretation. In his musical writings, Rousseau uses technical terms current in his time. In keeping with the general policy of the series, Rousseau’s technical terms have generally been translated into the equivalent eighteenthcentury English terms instead of into contemporary terminology. Terms that are particularly antiquated or diYcult to translate into contemporary terms have been explained in the notes. Rousseau’s usage of the French terms for notes (do, re, mi, etc.) has been retained instead of using the English equivalents (C, D, E, etc.), in part because of the diYculties in translating his writings on musical notation, in which he retains the French terms but proposes rejecting the French system of Wxed notation for a mobile one. Furthermore, despite a certain awkwardness, accidentals for notes have been rendered by combining the French terms for notes with English terms for accidentals (e.g., mi-Xat instead of mi-bémol) because of the potential terminological inconsistency between the terms for notes and the accompanying discussion. Another diYculty in translation has been capitalization . Following the style of this series, original capitalization has been reproduced in translation. Rousseau tends to capitalize technical terms, especially in his Dictionary of Music, and with compound terms he generally capitalizes only the Wrst word of the term, but since most terms require inversion in translation, both words are capitalized in the translation (e.g., “Bass fondamentale” becomes “Fundamental Bass”). For easy cross-reference, the source text and location within that text for each pair of facing pages is indicated in the right-hand running head. The Pléiade edition of Rousseau’s Oeuvres complètes has been used where possible as the basic text for the translation of his writings. The original editions of Rousseau’s writings were also consulted where available. The basic text used for Rousseau’s “Letter to the Mercure on a New System of xliii Musical Notation” was R. A. Leigh’s edition of the Correspondence complète de J.-J. Rousseau (Geneva: Musée et Institut Voltaire, 1965– ). The basic texts used for Grimm’s Letter on “Omphale” and Raynal’s Remarks on the Subject of the Letter by M. Grimm on “Omphale” were the facsimiles of the original editions of the works as reproduced in La querrelle des bouVons, ed. Denise Launay (3 vols.; Genève: MinkoV Reprint, 1973). The basic text used for Rousseau’s articles from the Encyclopedia was a facsimile edition of the Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts, et des mètiers (Stuttgart; Bad-Cannstatt: Friedrich Frommann Verlag, 1966). The basic texts used for Rameau’s works were the facsimiles of the original editions of the works as reproduced in The Complete Theoretical Writings of JeanPhilippe Rameau, ed. Erwin R. Jacobi (6 vols.; New York: American Institute of Musicology, 1967–1972). For the Essay on the Origin of Languages, Rousseau’s own manuscript of the work, which was provided thanks to M. René Marti of the Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de la ville de Neuchâtel, was also consulted. Previous translations and editions of Rousseau’s writings on music and language have suggested solutions to numerous problems of translation and sources for Rousseau’s references. Chief among these wasVictor Gourevitch ’s excellent translation and edition of the Essay on the Origin of Languages (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), which is based on an earlier edition of the work by Charles Porset (Bordeaux: Ducros, 1970), which has also been quite helpful. Also of particular help were two partial translations of Rameau’s Observations on Our Instinct for Music and on Its Principle , the Wrst by Cynthia Verba in her Music and the French Enlightenment: Reconstruction of a Dialogue, 1750–1764 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), and the other by Edward A. Lippman in his collection Musical Aesthetics: A Historical Reader (New York: Pendragon, 1986). xliv Note on the Text ESSAY ON THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES and WRITINGS RELATED TO MUSIC ...