Musique et langage chez Rousseau (review)

Although the conjunctive covers a multitude of sins, 'musique et langage' here clearly refers to the interrelation of these two areas of endeavour in Rousseau's career and his thought, rather than, for example, two distinct themes, as the blurb makes clear: 'L'anneau magique qui relie musique et langage délimite un univers insondable dans lequel causes et effets s'enlacent indistinctement.' The question is fundamental, not only to Rousseau, but to eighteenth-century musicology in general, and one which remains the subject of debate. John Neubauer, Downing Thomas and others have shown how the question of language is fundamental to eighteenth-century musical aesthetics; and the question is raised in many specialized studies of Rousseau. However, no volume as yet has considered the interrelation in detail; to this extent, the present volume, the proceedings of the twelfth conference of the Société des Amis de Jean-Jacques Rousseau held in Montreal in 2001, is a valuable publication for that reason alone. The volume is noteworthy for its pluridisciplinarity, bringing together as it does political scientists, musicologists, literary historians, semiologists and philosophers from Europe, Asia and North America. Many of the contributions bring fresh approaches to the interrelation of music and language at diverse moments of Rousseau's career and in both well-known and neglected texts. Quite a few, disappointingly, consider only one of the poles, a few neglecting to even mention the other, but the sheer variety of approaches and texts studied nevertheless make this a valuable volume. It is impossible, within the space available, to review all twenty-three contributions, so I shall invidiously single out three for further comment.

Alexandra Cook ('Rousseau and the languages of music and botany') considers the commonality between the two languages, and claims that Rousseau's attempts to clarify nomenclature and notation are in line with contemporary developments in science. Such ideas of simplified musical and botanical language are deployed to 'moral and social ends'. Welcome attention is paid to Rousseau's earliest texts, original parallels are made between music and botany (two still arguably overlooked areas of his work), and Rousseau's place in the history of scientific thought is usefully illustrated. Guillaume Bordry ('Hector juge de Jean-Jacques: Berlioz lecteur et auditeur de Rousseau') studies Berlioz's references to Rousseau in his Mémoires, correspondence and critical works. Iconoclasm with respect to Rousseau the composer is tempered by admiration of the writer and theorist. The enduring if ambiguous reputation of Rousseau in the nineteenth century is illuminated by this case study. Finally, Jacqueline Waeber ('Paysage d'avant Querelle: Rousseau continuateur de Grimm') offers a meticulous study of two texts of 1752 and their critical context: Grimm's Lettre sur Omphale and Rousseau's response, the Lettre à Grimm. Written at the beginning of the Querelle des Bouffons, the two texts are concerned above all with recitative, and Rousseau's text is a fundamental indicator of the development of his musical thought, and, Waeber shows here, 'le point de non-retour du Genevois en matière de fascination ramiste' (p. 235). Waeber points out how much remains to be done on the earliest period of Rousseau's musical thought. In these three cases, as in other papers in this volume, the variety of aspects studied is testimony to his importance as musician and musical thinker; and in this, as in other areas, Rousseau is shown to be a central figure of his age.