The Collected Works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

"Rousseau's radical insights into music anticipated the Romantic movement and marked the end of the classical age." Isaiah Berlin

A new translation into English from the original manuscripts of Rousseau's classic and influential 1743 "Dissertation on modern music" (Dissertation sur la musique moderne), a pioneering work on music theory. Here Rousseau critiques the contemporary music of his time and advocates for a return to nature and simplicity in music. He argues that music should be based on natural sounds, rather than the artificial conventions of Western music. Rousseau's ideas on music would go on to influence later composers, such as Beethoven and Wagner.