André Jolivet (; 8 August 1905 – 20 December 1974) was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

al thought, Jolivet drew on his interest in

acoustics Acoustics is a branch of physics that deals with the study of mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician ...

and

atonality Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on ...

, as well as both ancient and modern musical influences, particularly on instruments used in ancient times. He composed in a wide variety of forms for many different types of ensembles.

Life

André Jolivet was born on 8 August 1905, at rue Versigny in Montmartre, Paris, the son of Victor-Ernest Jolivet and Madeleine Perault; his father an artist, his mother a pianist. Jolivet developed an interest in the arts early in his life, taking up painting and cello lessons at the age of 14. However, he was encouraged by his parents to become a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, going to teachers' college and teaching

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

in Paris (taking three years in between to serve in the

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

). One of his own teachers, however, believed Jolivet had a future in music, strongly encouraged him to pursue composition, and introduced him to Paul Le Flem, Jolivet's first teacher in composition. Le Flem gave Jolivet a firm grounding in classical forms of

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

and

counterpoint In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. The term originates from the Latin ...

. After hearing his first concert of

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian and American composer, music theorist, teacher and writer. He was among the first Modernism (music), modernists who transformed the practice of harmony in 20th-centu ...

, Jolivet became interested in atonal music, and then on Le Flem's recommendation became the only European student of

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

, who passed on his knowledge of

musical acoustics Musical acoustics or music acoustics is a multidisciplinary field that combines knowledge from physics, psychophysics, organology (classification of the instruments), physiology, music theory, ethnomusicology, signal processing and instrument buil ...

, atonal music, sound masses, and

orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...

. In 1936 Jolivet co-founded the group '' La jeune France'' along with composers

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, and Yves Baudrier, who were attempting to re-establish a more human and less abstract form of composition. ''La jeune France'' developed from the

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

chamber music society ''La Spirale'', formed by Jolivet, Messiaen, and Daniel-Lesur the previous year.

Private life

Jolivet married twice, firstly violinist Martine BarbillionDuchesneau, M. (2007). ''L'avant garde musicale et ses sociétés à Paris de 1871 a 1939.'' Mardaga. in 1929; they had a daughter, Francoise-Martine (1930–2004). In 1933, he married Hilda Ghuighui (also spelt Guigue) (1906–1996),Guigue, H. (1978). ''Avec...Andre Jolivet''. Flammarion, Paris. and they had three children, Pierre-Alain (1935–2005), Christine (b. 1940), and Merri (1943-2014).Rae, C. (2006): "Jolivet on Jolivet. An Interview with the Composer's Daughter", in: ''The Musical Times'', Spring 2006.Décès de l’artiste Merri Jolivet
/ref>

Death

Jolivet died in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1974 aged 69, leaving unfinished his opera ''Le Soldat inconnu''. He was buried at

Montmartre Cemetery The Cemetery of Montmartre () is a cemetery in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, France, that dates to the early 19th century. Officially known as the Cimetière du Nord, it is the third largest necropolis in Paris, after the Père Lachaise Cemet ...

next to the composer Henri Sauguet (section 27, near the grave of

Hector Berlioz Louis-Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and conductor. His output includes orchestral works such as the ''Symphonie fantastique'' and ''Harold en Italie, Harold in Italy'' ...

Career

Jolivet's aesthetic ideals underwent many changes throughout his career. His initial desire as an adolescent was to write music for the theater, which inspired his first compositions, including music for a ballet.

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

Paul Dukas Paul Abraham Dukas ( 1 October 1865 – 17 May 1935) was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, having abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions. His best-k ...

, and

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

were to be his next influences after he heard a concert of their work in 1919; he composed several piano pieces while training to become a teacher before going to study with Le Flem. Schoenberg and Varèse were strongly evident in his first period of maturity as a composer, during which his style drew heavily upon

and modernistic ideas. ''Mana'' (1933), the beginning of his "magic period", was a work in six parts for piano, with each part named after one of the six objects Varèse left with him before moving to the United States. Jolivet's intent as a composer throughout his career was to "give back to music its original, ancient meaning, when it was the magical, incantatory expression of the religious beliefs of human groups." ''Mana'', even as one of his first mature works, is a reflection of this; Jolivet considered the sculptures as fetish objects. His later writing continued to seek the original meanings of music and its capacity for emotional, ritual, and celebratory expression. In 1945 he published a paper declaring that "true French music owes nothing to

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

", though both composers drew heavily upon themes of ancient music in their work; Jolivet and ''La jeune France'' rejected

neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

in favor of a less mechanical and progressive and instead a more spiritual style of composition. Later, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Jolivet shifted away from atonality and toward a more tonal and lyrical style of composition. After a few years of working in this more simplistic style, during which time he wrote the comic opera ''Dolorès, ou Le miracle de la femme laide'' (1942) and the ballet ''Guignol et Pandore'' (1943), he arrived at a compromise between this and his earlier more experimental work. The ''First Piano Sonata'', written in 1945, shows elements of both these styles. Finally realizing his youthful ambition to write for the theater, Jolivet became the musical director of the Comédie Française in 1945, a post he held until 1959. While there he composed for plays by

Molière Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (; 15 January 1622 (baptised) – 17 February 1673), known by his stage name Molière (, ; ), was a French playwright, actor, and poet, widely regarded as one of the great writers in the French language and world liter ...

, Racine,

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

, and Claudel, scoring 14 works in total. He also continued to compose for the concert hall, often inspired by his frequent travels around the world, adapting texts and music from Egypt, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia into his distinctly French style. During the 1950s and 1960s, Jolivet wrote several

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The ...

s for a variety of instruments including

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

bassoon The bassoon is a musical instrument in the woodwind family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuosity ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

. These works, while highly regarded, all demand virtuosic technical skill from the performers. Jolivet is also one of the few composers to write for the

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , ) or ondes musicales () is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a lateral-vibrato Keyboard instrument, keyboard or by moving a ring tied to a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. D ...

, an early electronic instrument, completing a concerto for it in 1947, 19 years after the instrument's invention. Jolivet founded the ''Centre Français d'Humanisme Musical'' at

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence, or simply Aix, is a List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, city and Communes of France, commune in southern France, about north of Marseille. A former capital of Provence, it is the Subprefectures in France, s ...

in 1959, and in 1961 went to teach composition at the Paris Conservatoire. Recordings of Jolivet's music appears on the labels

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, and guitars, crafted by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th ...

Erato In Greek mythology, Erato (; ) is one of the Greek Muses, the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius of Rhodes playfully sugge ...

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

, and BIS.

Selected works

Chamber and solo music

* ''12 Inventions'', for wind quintet, trumpet, trombone, and string quintet (1966) * ''Adagio'', for strings (1960) * ''Andante'', for string orchestra (1934) * ''Cérémonial'', homage to Varèse for six percussion instruments (1968) * '' Chant de Linos'', for flute, violin, viola, cello, and harp (1944) * ''Chant d'oppression'', for viola and piano (1935) * ''Cinq danses rituelles'' (1939) * ''Cinq églogues'', for viola solo (1967) * ''Cinq incantations'', for flute (1936) * ''Cosmogonie'', for piano (1938) * ''Deux études de concert'', for guitar (1965) * ''Fantaisie-Impromptu'', for saxophone and piano (1953) * ''Hymne à l'univers'', for organ (1961) * ''Mana'', six pieces for piano (1935) * ''Mandala'', organ (1969) * '' Pastorales de Noël'', for flute, bassoon, and harp (1943) * ''Rhapsodie à sept'', for seven winds and strings (1957) * ''Sérénade'', for two guitars (1956) (dedicated to the duo of Ida Presti and Alexandre Lagoya) * ''Sérénade'', for wind quintet with principal oboe (1945) * ''Sonata'', for flute (1958) * ''Sonatine'', for flute and piano (1961) * ''Sonatine'', for flute and clarinet (1961) * ''Sonatine'', for oboe and bassoon (1963) * ''String Quartet'' (1934) * ''Suite delphique'', for 12 instruments (1943) * ''Suite en concert'', for flute and four percussion instruments (1965) * ''Suite en concert'', for cello (1965) * ''Tombeau de Robert de Visée'', for guitar (1972)

Keyboard

* ''Cinq danses rituelles'', for piano (1939) * ''Cosmogonie'', for piano (1938) * ''Hymne à l'univers'', for organ (1961) * ''Mana'', six pieces for piano (1935) * ''Mandala'', for organ (1969) * ''Six Etudes'', for piano (1931) * Sonata, for piano (1945) * Sonata, for piano (1957) * ''Trois Temps No. 1'', for piano (1931) * ''Trois Temps No. 2'', for piano (1931)

Concertos

* ''Concerto for ondes Martenot and orchestra'' (1947) * ''Concertino for trumpet, piano, and string orchestra'' (1948) * '' Concerto for flute and strings'' (1949) * ''Concerto for piano'' (1951) * ''Concerto for harp and chamber orchestra'' (1952) * '' Concerto for bassoon, strings, harp, and piano'' (1954) * ''Concerto for trumpet'' (1954) * ''Concerto for percussion'' (1958) * ''Concerto for cello number 1'' (1962) * ''Concerto for flute and percussion'' (1965) * ''Concerto for cello number 2'' (1966) * ''Concerto for violin'' (1972)

Orchestral music

* 3 ''Symphonies'' (1954, 1959, 1964) * ''Cinq danses rituelles'' (orchestral version, 1941) * ''Cosmogonie'' (orchestral version, 1938) * ''Danse incantatoire'' (1936) * ''Suite delphique'', for strings, harp, ondes Martenot, and percussion (1943) * ''Symphony for strings'' (1961)

Vocal music

Songs

* ''Les trois complaintes du soldat'', for voice and orchestra (1940) * ''Poèmes pour l'enfant'', for voice and eleven instruments (1937) * ''Songe à nouveau rêvé'', concerto for soprano and orchestra * ''Suite liturgique'' pour voice, oboe, cello, and harp (1942) * ''Épithalame'', for 12-part choir (1953)

Sacred music

* ''La vérité de Jeanne'', oratorio (1956) * Mass ''Uxor tua'' (1962) * ''Messe pour le jour de la paix'' (1940)

Ballets

* ''Ariadne'' (1964) * ''Ballet des étoiles'' (1941) * ''Guignol et Pandore'' (1943) * ''L'inconnue'' (1950) * ''Les quatre vérités'' (1940) * ''Marines''

Operas

* ''Antigone'' (1951) * ''Bogomil'' (unfinished) * ''Dolorès ou Le miracle de la femme laide'' (1942)

References

External links

Les Amis d'André Jolivet (official site)
* , '' Chant de Linos'', Britten-Pears Ensemble {{DEFAULTSORT:Jolivet, Andre 1905 births 1974 deaths 20th-century French classical composers 20th-century French male musicians Burials at Montmartre Cemetery Composers for the classical guitar French opera composers French male opera composers Composers from Paris Pupils of Edgard Varèse Composers for flute