ABSTRACT
Better known for his critiques of the project of the Enlightenment and for the rhetorical barbs he aimed at the philosophes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) is not normally considered to be a defender of civilization or a champion of the arts and sciences. In his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750), written in response to the Academy of Dijon’s question, “If the reestablishment of the sciences and the arts has contributed to the purification of manners and morals,” Rousseau answers with a resounding “no,” citing the corrupting effects of the arts and sciences on human nature. According to Rousseau, it is the arts and sciences that have led throughout history to the division of labor, increasing social dependence, the downfall of the ancient democratic republics, and the lack of satisfaction generally in public life. Nonetheless, Rousseau wrote articles and essays on music, copied musical manuscripts, composed an opera, gave music lessons, and worked as a performer and as a tuner. For nearly the entirety of his life, from roughly 1719 until close to his death in 1778, he engaged with music in a variety of forms. How can we to reconcile the contradiction between Rousseau’s philosophical positions and his musical corpus? One thing remains consistent throughout Rousseau’s thought: an insistence on originality, authenticity, and self-expression uncorrupted by social pressures and constraints, alongside of a championing of greater social and political equality and justice. This insistence on originality, authenticity, and self-expression is evident in works as diverse as his treatise on education, Emile, or Education (1762), his novel, Julie, or the New Heloise (1761), and his Confessions (1781), but also informs his writing on music.
