Jean-Féry Rebel (April 18, 1666 - Jan. 2, 1747) was a French composer, conductor, violinist, and harpsichordist. The son of a tenor in Louis XIV's private chapel, he was a child prodigy, and would go on to study with Jean Baptiste Lully. Rebel was highly innovative; he was the first composer to utilize a tone cluster (a musical chord made up of at least three adjacent tones in a scale}, and one of the first French composers to compose sonatas in the Italian style of the day.

Les Caracteres de la Danse, written in 1715, is a short but charming collection of French dances. There are no separate movements within; instead the dances flow seamlessly from one to the next, and the music was intended to accompany dancers. Rebel, being the innovator that he was, used different and exciting meters within the work, and it was very popular during his time; George Frederic Handel conducted this wonderfully creative work himself in 1725.

Here are some recordings of this work you can enjoy!

Florilegium
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Karlsson Barock