“Sommeil de Rameau” was composed in homage to Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764), whose music I have long loved and admired; 2014 was the 250th anniversary of his death. I have drawn on characteristics of the sleep scene in French Baroque stage works and cantatas, which first occurred in “Les amants magnifiques” (1670), a comédie-ballet by Molière and Lully. Due to the popularity of the substantial scene in Lully’s tragédie en musique “Atys” (1676), sleep scenes became more firmly established, and many examples can be found during the following hundred years, Rameau’s stage works included. Wh...