Jean-Philippe Rameau

French organist, music theorist, and composer Jean-Phillippe Rameau is credited with being the founder of the formal study of musical harmony. Much of his analysis is the basis for the current understanding of harmony, and his work was still the basis for many text books produced in the 20th century. It was his book Traite de l'harmonie that actually earned Rameau the respect he deserved as a musician. He composed several collections of harpsichord pieces, and became a noted teacher of the instrument.

Rameau's first dramatic composition Les Sauvages was written in 1725, as a commission for a Fair theatre, and was inspired by a display of Louisiana Indians.

After marrying a young soprano, and finding a excellent musical patron who could introduce him to some of the best artists of the era, Rameau had all the ingredients to start writing his operas. Of all of them, his 1733 opera Hippolyte et Aricie is considered to be an almost perfect example of baroque opera.