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13 2 The Boches Are Coming! at the age of 23, her life was all mapped out. Like her mother and grandmother before her, Renée Rameaux would marry a young man from a good family, if possible a prominent citizen of Lons-le-Saulnier or Besançon, two important centres in her native Franche-Comté. She had just completed her normal school and was to teach in the Department of Jura or Bourgogne while awaiting the proper suitor with whom she would live out her life and have children. But on the morning of August 3, 1912, she made her decision: her life would unfold differently. Renée Rameaux had an illustrious name. Her family prided itself on its shared origins with Jean-Philippe Rameau, official musician and composer appointed to the court by Louis xiv. This branch of the Rameau family had decided, when it settled in Dijon, to modernize its name by subtracting the x. In addition to his celebrated cantatas and lyrical compositions, Rameau was the author, in 1722, of the Treatise on Harmony, for which he would go down in history as the supreme theoretician and ‘grammarian’ of music. A great friend of Voltaire, he entrusted him with the libretto for three of his works: the opera Samson, banned by the censor (1736), the comedyballet The Princess of Navarre (February 1745) and the opera-ballet The Temple of Glory (November 1745). In addition to being an accomplished composer, Rameau had devoted much of his life to making music a deductive science modeled on mathematics. His innovation was to draw on principles of physics for a theory of harmony he applied to works judged too ‘modern’ by some ‘old school’ traditionalists such as Lully. His work is still a landmark in the history of music theory. A fiercely independent spirit, this genius of French music was a slender man with a wide brow, a forceful, slightly dimpled chin, and a big smile. It was said that he had a “strong voice.” Conscious of her origins, Renée Rameaux nevertheless sought, in her own way, to set herself apart from her family. She showed an independence of mind and a wilfulness of which her family disapproved, to her utter indifference. Like many young girls from affluent families, she was well educated. But beyond a skill in embroidery, she had developed a love of reading, writing and all forms of art. History, in particular, fascinated her, but not to the point of wanting to teach it to elementary school children, at least not then. François Rameaux, Renée’s father, had decided to live from his annuities, having little aptitude for nor interest in business. He had ceded the management of his Taking Aviation to New Heights 14 affairs to his brothers, and had set up residence in Paris in a beautiful apartment on one of the wide boulevards. He had two daughters: Marie-Antoinette, the eldest, and Renée. On August 3, 1912, she decided to enrol in art school without consulting her parents. She was twenty-three years old, and she would be a painter. It goes without saying that her family was not overjoyed at the thought of her leading the life of an artist. It was not that they found a career in art reprehensible—noblesse oblige—but they did disapprove of some of the scandalous practices involved. At the Academy, Renée Rameaux would be learning to draw male and female models posing nude in artists’ studios where an easygoing bohemianism was the order of the day. But as she was also taking courses in pharmacy and music, they let her proceed without withdrawing their support. The Rameaux family possessed what in France was called ‘old money.’ Martin Rameaux, nephew of the celebrated musician , had acquired from Louis xv (1710–1774) lakes and vineyards in Jura and in Burgundy, and had made a fortune in the production and marketing of wine.n He also dealt in fish, carp and pike, which in season he sold as far off as Paris , in the swarming and odorous market of Les Halles, where he presided over a sizable fish stall. It was his cousin, Jean Rameau, organist at Dijon, who taught music to his seventh child and second son, Jean-Philippe, whom he found to be particularly gifted. The sons of Martin Rameaux and their descendants followed in the commercial footsteps of their father, and as good cultivators assiduously managed their inheritance, so that in...

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