Professor Graham Sadler

Research Professor in Music

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

Email:: graham.sadler@bcu.ac.uk

Professor Sadler is known internationally as an authority on French music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After studying at the Universities of Nottingham and London and the Royal College of Music, he joined the Music Department at the University of Hull, where he remained as lecturer, reader and eventually professor until 2007. He was appointed as a research professor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in 2012, having been a visiting tutor since 2007.

Qualifications

Memberships

Teaching

Research

Postgraduate Supervision

Publications

Selected Publications

Books and critical editions

(with Deborah Mawer, Barbara Kelly and Rachel Moore), Accenting the Classics: Europe’s Musical Past Through the Prism of Durand’s Édition classique, 1915–1925 (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press), in preparation.

(ed. with Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

(ed.), Jean-Philippe Rameau, Zoroastre, version 1756, vol. IV.26 of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Opera Omnia (Kassel: Bärenreiter/Société Jean-Philippe Rameau), at press.

(ed.), François Collin de Blamont, Circé, cantate à voix seule avec symphonie (Versailles: Éditions du centre de musique baroque de Versailles, 2020), 40 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Philippe Rameau, Prayers for the Convalescence of Louis XV (Frome: Septenary Editions, 2020), vi + 10 pp.

(ed. with Julien Dubruque), Louis-Nicolas Clérambault, La Muse de l’opéra, ou Les Caractères lyriques, cantate à voix seule avec symphonie (Versailles: Éditions du Centre de musique baroque de Versailles, 2017), 56 pp.

(ed. with Sylvie Bouissou and Solveig Serre), Rameau, entre art et science (Paris: École des Chartes, 2016), 554 pp.

The Rameau Compendium (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2014), xi + 269 pp.; expanded 2nd edition, 2017, 272 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Philippe Rameau: Zaïs, vol. IV/15 of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Opera Omnia (Kassel: Bärenreiter/ Société Jean-Philippe Rameau, 2011), full score (lxiv + 400 pp.), vocal score (356 pp.)

(with Caroline Wood), French Baroque Opera: A Reader (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), ix + 160 pp.; enlarged 2nd edition (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), xiv + 214 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Philippe Rameau, Zoroastre, version 1749, vol. IV.19 of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Opera Omnia (Paris: Billaudot, 1999), full score (xcv + 438 pp.), vocal score (302 pp.)

(ed.), Masterpieces of the French Baroque: Nine Motets from the Century of Louis XIV (London: Faber Music, 2000), 32 pp.

(with James R. Anthony et al.), The New Grove French Baroque Masters (London: Macmillan, 1986), 318 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Philippe Rameau, “Les Indes galantes”, The Composer’s Transcriptions for Harpsichord (London: Oxford University Press, 1980), 34 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Marie Leclair ‘l’aîné’, Première recréation, op. 6 (London: Oxford University Press, 1979), 35 pp.

(ed.), Jean-Marie Leclair ‘l’aîné’, Two Trio Sonatas, op. 13, nos 1 & 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 1976), 26 pp.

(ed.), André Campra, Operatic Airs, The Baroque Operatic Arias, vol. 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 1973), x + 94 pp.

Articles and chapters in journals, symposia, dictionaries etc.

‘Louis Dupré and the Isthmian Games: Reconstructing the Sequence of Actions during an Olympic-Style Contest in Rameau’s Naïs (1749)’, in Jean-Noël Laurenti et al. (eds), La Danse française et son rayonnement (1600-1800). Nouvelles sources, nouvelles perspectives (Paris: Classiques Garnier), at press

‘When Scarlatti met Rameau? Reflections on a Probable Encounter in the 1720s’, in Bruce Gustafson (ed.), The Worlds of Harpsichord and Organ: Liber Amicorum David Fuller (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press), at press.

‘Le Ballet figuré chez Cahusac: hidden implications of a stage direction in Zaïs (1748) by Rameau’, in Thomas Soury and Alexandre de Cran (eds.), De ‘L’Europe galante’ de Campra à ‘La Caravane du Caire’ de Grétry: les métamorphoses du ballet en un genre majeur de l’art lyrique français (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles) (Paris: Éditions Aedam Musicae), at press.

‘A Cluster of Allusions to Vivaldi’s Le quattro stagioni in Rameau’s “Anacréon” (1757)’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

Four articles for the Dictionnaire de l’Opéra de Paris sous l’Ancien Régime, ed. Sylvie Bouissou, Pascal Denécheau and France Marchal-Ninosque (Paris: Classiques Garnier, 2019-2020).

‘Un groupe d’emprunts aux Quattro stagioni de Vivaldi dans Anacréon (1757) de Rameau et Bernard’, in Raphaëlle Legrand and Rémy-Michel Trotier (eds), En un acte : Les Actes de ballet de Jean-Philippe Rameau (Paris: Éditions Aedam Musicae, 2019), pp. 129-140.

‘Rameau and the Tax Farmers: Authenticating the Paroles qui ont précédé le Te Deum (1744)’, in Musiques en liberté: entre la cour et les provinces au temps des Bourbons, ed. Bernard Dompnier and Catherine Massip (Paris: École des Chartes, 2018), pp. 261-274.

‘Agostino Steffani and the French Style’, in Colin Timms, Claudia Kaufold and Nicole Strohmann (eds), Agostino Steffani: Europäischer Komponist und hannoverscher Diplomat der Leibniz-Zeit (Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2017), pp. 67-87.

‘Saint-Saëns, d’Indy and the Rameau Œuvres complètes: New Light on the Zoroastre Editorial Project (1914)’, in Deborah Mawer (ed.), Historical Interplay in French Music and Culture, (Abingdon: Routledge, 2017), pp. 64-80.

‘La Maga et les bergers: quelques emprunts génériques à l’opéra vénitien dans les motets dramatiques de Marc-Antoine Charpentier’, in Catherine Cessac (ed.), Les Histoires sacrées de Marc-Antoine Charpentier: une histoire de genre (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 125-40.

‘Rameau, Cahusac and the Rituals of French Freemasonry: Curious Parallels between Zoroastre and a Contemporary Masonic Exposure’, in Sylvie Bouissou, Graham Sadler and Solveig Serre (eds), Rameau: entre art et science (Paris: École des Chartes, 2016), pp. 117-32.

‘The Inner String Parts in the Operas of Lully: Authorship, Function and Evolution’, in Florence Gétreau and Jean Duron (eds), Les Cordes de l’orchestre français sous le règne de Louis XIV: instruments, répertoires et singularités (Paris: Éditions Vrin, 2015), pp. 219–40.

‘La Bibliothèque musicale du Dr Charles Burney’, in Catherine Massip et al. (eds), Collectionner la musique: érudits collectionneurs (Turnhout: Brepols, 2015), pp. 99-115.

‘“Even good Homer nods”: Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Remarques sur les Messes à 16 parties d’Italie and his copy of Beretta’s Missa Mirabiles elationes maris’, in Bulletin Charpentier, 5 (2015), pp. 3-28.

‘The Italian Roots of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Chromatic Harmony’, in Anne-Madeleine Goulet and Gesa zur Nieden (eds), Europäische Musiker in Venedig, Rom und Neapel 1650-1750 / Les musiciens européens à Venise, Rome et Naples 1650-1750 / Musicisti europei a Venezia, Roma e Napoli 1650-1750 (Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2015), pp. 546–70 [with Shirley Thompson].

‘The Dramatic Motets of Marc-Antoine Charpentier: a “foyer d’italianisme” within the liturgical context’, in Cécile Davy-Rigaux (ed.), La Musique d’Église et ses cadres de création dans la France d’Ancien Régime (Florence: Olschki, 2014), pp. 159–74.

‘Adapting an Italian Style and Genre: Charpentier and the falsobordone’, in Caroline Giron-Panel and Anne-Madeleine Goulet (eds), Musique à Rome au XVIIe siècle (Rome: École française de Rome, 2012), pp. 405-422.

‘Identifier les cantates « orchestrales » d’André Campra: l’implication des interprètes et des éditeurs’, in Catherine Cessac (ed.), Itinéraires d’André Campra (1660-1744): d’Aix à Versailles, de l’Église à l’Opéra (Wavre: Mardaga, 2012), pp. 371-389.

‘Charpentier’s Void Notation: The Italian Background and its Implications’, in Shirley Thompson (ed.), New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpenter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 31-61.

‘Rameau, Jean-Philippe’, in Annette Landgraf and David Vickers (eds), The Cambridge Handel Encyclopedia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 519.

‘The “Orchestral” French Cantata (1706–1730): Performance, Edition and Classification of a Neglected Repertory’, in Michael Talbot (ed.), Aspects of the Secular Cantata in Late Baroque Italy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2009), pp. 201-30.

‘From Themes to Variations: Rameau’s Debt to Handel’, in Michelle Biget and Rainer Schmusch (eds), “L’Esprit français” und die Musik Europas: Entstehung, Einfluß und Grenzen einer aesthetischen Doktrin (Hildesheim: Olms, 2007), pp. 592-607.

‘Idiosyncrasies in Charpentier’s Continuo Figuring: their Significance for Editors and Performers’, in Catherine Cessac (ed.), Les Manuscrits autographes de Marc-Antoine Charpentier (Wavre: Mardaga, 2006), pp. 137-156.

‘The French Baroque Orchestra: Lully, Charpentier, Couperin’, in Jonathan Wainwright and Peter Holman (eds), From Renaissance to Baroque: Change in Instruments and Instrumental Music in the Seventeenth Century (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 271-273.

‘A Philosophy Lesson with François Couperin? Notes on a Newly-discovered Canon’, Early Music, xxxii/4 (2004) pp. 541-547.

Numerous articles for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd edition, London: Macmillan, 2001).

‘The Basse continue in Lully’s Operas: Evidence Old and New’, in Jérôme de La Gorce and Herbert Schneider (eds), Quellenstudien zu Jean-Baptiste Lully/L’Œuvre de Lully: Études des sources – Hommage à Lionel Sawkins (Hildesheim: Olms, 1999) pp. 382-397.

‘Marc-Antoine Charpentier and the “basse continue”’, Basler Jahrbuch für historische Musikpraxis, xviii (1994), pp. 9-30 [with Shirley Thompson].

24 articles for The Viking Opera Guide, ed. Amanda Holden (London: Viking, 1993).

‘Vincent d’Indy and the Rameau Œuvres complètes: A Case of Forgery?’, Early Music, xxi/3 (1993), pp. 415-421.

31 articles for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1992).

‘A Re-examination of Rameau’s Self-borrowings’, in John Hajdu-Heyer (ed.), Jean-Baptiste Lully and the Music of the French Baroque: Essays in Honor of James R. Anthony (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 259-290.

‘Patrons and Pasquinades: Rameau in the 1730s’, Journal of the Royal Musical Association, cxiii (1988), pp. 314-337.

‘The Paris Opéra Dancers in Rameau’s Day: a Little-known Inventory of 1738’, in Jérôme de La Gorce (ed.), Colloque international, Dijon 1983 (Paris/Geneva: Slatkine, 1987), pp. 519-531.

Introduction to Jean-Philippe Rameau: Les Paladins, comédie lyrique (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 1986), xxxvi + 300 p. [with R. Peter Wolf].

‘Rameau’s Singers and Players at the Paris Opéra: a Little-known Inventory of 1738’, Early Music, xi/3 (1983), pp. 453-467.

‘Rameau, Pellegrin and the Paris Opéra: the Revisions of Hippolyte et Aricie During its First Season’, The Musical Times, cxxiv (1983), pp. 533-537.

‘Rameau’s Castor et Pollux’, Early Music, ix/3 (1981), pp. 419-420.

‘Rameau and the Orchestra’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, cviii (1981-2), pp. 47-68.

Five entries in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980).

‘Naïs, Rameau’s “Opéra pour la paix”’, The Musical Times, cxxi/7 (1980) pp. 431-433.

‘Notes on Leclair’s Theatre Music’, Music & Letters, lxi (1980), pp. 147-157 [with Neal Zaslaw].

‘The Role of the Keyboard Continuo in French Opera, 1673-1776’, Early Music, viii/2 (1980), pp. 148-157; translated by Irma Perrotti as ‘Il ruolo del continuo alla tastiera nell’opera francese 1673-1776’, in Scritti sull’opera e sul teatro in musica (1977-1981), Quaderni dell’IRTEM (Rome: Istituto Ricerca Teatro Musicale 1986), pp. 39-58.

‘Rameau’s Zoroastre: the 1756 Reworking’, The Musical Times, cxx/4 (1979), pp. 301-303.

‘Rameau’s Harpsichord Transcriptions from Les Indes galantes’, Early Music, vii/1 (1979), pp. 18-24.

‘A Letter from Claude-François Rameau to J.J.M. Decroix’, Music & Letters, lix/2 (1978), pp. 139-147.

‘Rameau’s Last Opera: Abaris, ou Les Boréades’, The Musical Times, cxvi/4 (1975), pp. 327-329.

‘Rameau, Piron and the Parisian Fair Theatres’, Soundings, iv (1974), pp. 13-29.

Published translations

Francesca Pagani, ‘A little-known contribution to the Lulliste-Ramiste dispute: Jean Galli de Bibiena’s Mémoires et aventures de monsieur de *** (1735)’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

(with Natalie Lithwick) Raphaëlle Legrand, ‘Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Art d’aimer: music and eroticism in the Age of Enlightenment’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

Thomas Soury, ‘Re-assessing attributions to Louis de Cahusac of the librettos of Rameau’s Io, Zéphire and Nélée et Mirthis’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

Thomas Leconte, ‘An anonymous Messe des morts on themes by Rameau and Mondonville’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

[with Jenifer Ball], Laura Naudeix, ‘The impact of human and material contingencies on artistic creation: the case of Rameau’s Les Indes galantes’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

[with Jenifer Ball], Rémy-Michel Trotier, ‘Stage sets and music in Rameau’s operas’, in Graham Sadler, Shirley Thompson and Jonathan Williams (eds), The Operas of Jean-Philippe Rameau: Genesis, Staging, Reception, Ashgate Interdisciplinary Essays on Opera (Abingdon: Routledge), at press.

Julien Dubruque, ‘The “Couperin Chord”’, Early Music, xlviii (2020), pp. 307-17.

[with Peter Bloom], Denis Herlin, ‘A bibliographical imbroglio: Books 1 and 2 of Couperin’s Pièces de clavecin’, Early Music, xlviii (2020), pp. 319-33.

Marie Demeilliez, ‘Contexts for Couperin’s L’art de toucher le clavecin’, Early Music, xlviii (2020), pp. 335-46.

Florence Gétreau, ‘Satirical portraits and visual lampoons of Rameau and his works’, Early Music, xliv (2016), pp. 523-37.

Erik Kocevar, ‘New light on Jean-Philippe Rameau’s biography revealed by revisions to his fathe’s will’, Early Music, xliv (2016), pp. 539-51.

Denis Herlin, ‘“Souvent dans le plus doux sort”: Notes on a Newly-discovered Autograph Letter and Drinking Song by François Couperin’, Early Music, xli (2013), pp. 393-401.

[with Shirley Thompson], Catherine Cessac, ‘“Une source peut en cacher une autre”: Added Preludes and Instrumental Cues in the Mélanges’, in Shirley Thompson (ed.), New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpenter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 185-205.

[with Shirley Thompson], Théodora Psychoyou, ‘The Historical Implications of a Distinctive Scoring: Charpentier’s Six-Voice Motets for Mademoiselle de Guise’, in Shirley Thompson (ed.), New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpenter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 207-227.

[with Shirley Thompson], Benjamin Pintiaux, ‘Médée within the Repertory of the tragédie en musique: Intertextual Links and the “Posterity” of Charpentier’s Opera’, in Shirley Thompson (ed.), New Perspectives on Marc-Antoine Charpenter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 251-268.

Editions for opera productions, concerts, recordings, broadcasts

Jean-Féry Rebel, Les Élémens. Staged by English Bach Festival (conductor, Andrew Parrott), Banqueting House, Whitehall, and Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 1979 and Holland Festival. Amsterdam, 1979; tele-recording by ORTF: Opéra Royal, Château de Versailles, 1979; concert performance by St James’s Baroque Players/Ivor Bolton, BBC Henry Wood Proms, broadcast Radio 3, 1997.

Jean-Philippe Rameau, Zoroastre (1756 version). Semi-staged by English Bach Festival, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, 1979 (conductor, Andrew Parrott).

Rameau, Hippolyte et Aricie. Staged by English Bach Festival at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Athens Festival, 1980 (conductor, Sir Charles Mackerras); recorded by Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski (Archiv), 1994.

Rameau, Pigmalion, acte de ballet. Staged by English Bach Festival, Opéra Royal, Versailles, 1980 (conductor, Nicholas McGegan); recorded 1980 (Erato).

Rameau, Naïs, Opéra pour la Paix. Staged by English Bach Festival at the Théâtre Municipal, Dijon, Old Vic Theatre, London, and Opéra Royal, Versailles, 1980 (conductor, Nicholas McGegan); recorded 1980 (Erato).

Jean-Marie Leclair, ‘l’aîné’, Ouverture en trio, op. 13 no. 5 and trio sonata in D, op. 14. Performed by London Baroque, broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1981.

Rameau, Castor et Pollux (1754 version). Staged by English Bach Festival at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1981 (conductor, Charles Farncombe), and at the Salle Gamier, Monte Carlo (conductor, Roger Norrington), 1981; recorded 1982 (Erato).

Rameau, Platée (1749 version). Staged by English Bach Festival, Opéra Royal, Versailles, 1983 and Sadlers Wells Theatre, London, 1983 (conductor: Jean-Claude Malgoire); broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1983 (conductor, Nicholas Kraemer) in collaboration with the European Broadcasting Union; Paris Opéra production recorded by Les Musiciens du Louvre/Marc Minkowski, 1993 (Archiv); DVD of Paris Opéra production recorded 2003.

Rameau, Les Boréades. Staged at the Royal Academy of Music, 1986 (conductor, Roger Norrington).

Rameau, Overture Zaïs. Concert performance by St James’s Baroque Players/Ivor Bolton, BBC Henry Wood Proms, broadcast BBC Radio 3, 1997; recording by Les Talents Lyriques/Christophe Rousset, L’Oiseau-Lyre, 1998.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Precatio pro filio Regis (H166) and Quemadmodum (H174). Prepared for concert tour ‘Praying for reign: private music of a king-in-waiting’, given by ‘Emma Kirkby and Friends’, Southampton, Bristol, Tonbridge, York, Hull (2004-05).

Rameau, concert suites from Dardanus and Les Paladins. Prepared for San Francisco Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (conductor, Nicholas McGegan), broadcast BBC Henry Wood Proms (2005).

Journal guest editorships

Early Music, ‘François Couperin’, xlvii/3 (2020), vi + 134 pp.

Early Music, ‘Jean-Philippe Rameau and his world’, xliv/4 (2016), iv + 179 pp.

Early Music, ‘French Baroque Music’, xli/3 (2013), iv + 178 pp.

Early Music, ‘French Baroque I’, xxi/2 (1993), 159 pp.

Early Music, ‘French Baroque II’, xxi/3 (1993), 175 pp.