Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Dictionnaire de musique was published in 1767. The work gathered his views on melody, notation, opera and musical expression. It appeared in an Enlightenment culture that debated whether music's power lay in reason, nature, language or feeling.

Rousseau's musical ideas influenced lyric theory, song and Romantic thinking about natural expression. His dictionary helps connect poetry to voice, melody and the emotional force of words performed aloud.