Jean Rousseau (1 October 1644 – 1 June 1699) was a French viol player, theorist, composer, and author remembered principally for his Traité de la viole (1687), a valuable source of information on the performance practices of his time, as well as on techniques used in the construction of viols (Green 2001).
Rousseau was a pupil of Sainte Colombe for just one month, as the culmination of three years' study of the viol, and later dedicated his Traité to him. In that work, Rousseau defended Sainte Colombe's innovations in left-hand technique, and systematically refuted the attacks made by Le Sieur de Machy in the preface to his Pièces de violle (1685) (Green 2001).
Famous quotes containing the words jean and/or rousseau:
“Men are like plants; the goodness and flavor of the fruit proceeds from the peculiar soil and exposition in which they grow. We are nothing but what we derive from the air we breathe, the climate we inhabit, the government we obey, the system of religion we profess, and the nature of our employment.”
—Michel Guillaume Jean De Crevecoeur (1735–1813)
“No man has any natural authority over his fellow men.”
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778)