Baroque · Intermediate
Les Tourbillons
- Catalog
- Pièces de clavecin
- Key
- A minor
- Year
- 1728
- Era
- Baroque
- Form
- Character Piece
- Instrumentation
- Solo Piano
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- License
- Public Domain
- Source
- IMSLP / Petrucci Music Library
Les Tourbillons by Jean-Philippe Rameau, catalogued as Pièces de clavecin, is a work for solo piano in A minor. Composed during the Baroque era, it forms part of the composer's enduring contribution to the keyboard repertoire and is freely available in the public domain through archives such as IMSLP.
Jean-Philippe Rameau's three published books of harpsichord pieces are the high point of the French Baroque keyboard repertoire alongside Couperin — bolder in harmony, more virtuosic in writing, and studded with character pieces of extraordinary specificity.
The work is suited to intermediate-level pianists. As with all repertoire from this period, study editions vary; the public-domain engravings linked here are based on the most widely-circulated nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century editions and are sufficient for serious study, recital preparation, and recording.
About Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau's three published books of harpsichord pieces are the high point of the French Baroque keyboard repertoire alongside Couperin — bolder in harmony, more virtuosic in writing, and studded with character pieces of extraordinary specificity.
Key character — A minor
Ancient and elegiac. The natural minor of the keyboard and a constant home for Baroque dance suites and Romantic character pieces.
The Baroque Era
The Baroque era brought the keyboard from the harpsichord and clavichord to its expressive zenith. Counterpoint, dance suites, fugues, and ornamentation define the music of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, and Couperin. Pieces from this period reward careful voice-leading and articulate fingerwork.
About the Character Piece form
A short, self-contained Romantic miniature with a distinct mood or programmatic suggestion — the genre that includes Schumann's Albumblätter, Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, and Grieg's Lyric Pieces.