Channels, Spring 2017

29 Channels • 2017 • Volume 1 • Number 2 Page EXAMPLE 3 Rameau’s conception of the règle de l’octave ( Ludwig Holtmeier, “Heinichen, Rameau, and the Italian Thoroughbass Tradition: Concepts of Tonality and Chord in the Rule of the Octave,” Journal of Music Theory 51, no. 1 (Spring 2007), 20 , http://www.jstor.org/stable/40283107.) In 1729, Rameau and Michel-Pignolet de Montéclair contested whether the fundamental bass was a better alternative to teaching thoroughbass than the règle de l’octave . They each claimed the other’s approach was too cumbersome and required too many exceptions to the rule. Montéclair’s criticisms of Rameau’s pedagogical system prompted Rameau to develop it more thoroughly, resulting in Dissertation sur les différentes métodes d’accompagnement pour le clavecin , a “treatise of accompaniment” published in 1732. 28 In his Dissertation , Rameau outlined a completely new way of teaching thoroughbass 28. Christensen, Rameau and Musical Thought , 57-58.