The book is not simply an exhaustive biography about the French composer Rameau. It is a tome placing Rameau succeeding to the traditions of the court opera as conceived and developed by Lully and very much Rameau retaining the tradition of the tragedies lyriques. Masson examines, inter alia, the styles and the forms of the recitatives and the arias, the symphonies dramatiques et de danse. This book is an unabridged reprinting by the Da Capo Music Reprint Series of the original 1930 printing of the text of Henri Laurens. There are relatively few titles about Rameau and this book stands as an important work of reference. Worldcat references only nine copies and attests to this being a complete and unabridged copy of the original. In French/ en francais.