The Savages

Last week I teased you with a short piece from 1725 that was the soundtrack for an operation. This week I’m staying  in the same year, same country (France) for perhaps an even greater musical oddity: an interpretation of  Native Americans by 18th century civilization.

In 1725, French settlers in Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of the Mitchigamea and five other chiefs to Paris. On 25 November 1725, they met with King Louis XV. Chicagou had a letter read pledging allegiance to the crown. They later danced three kinds of dances in the Théâtre-Italien, inspiring Rameau to compose his dances of the savages.

There’s an even odder version on YouTube that I didn’t embed because this is a G-rated (maybe PG-13) website. The savages are nude.