What is music?
It is, first of all, an act of communication…
Music is an inexhaustible source of youth, buoyancy, dynamism, impulse and love.
These words belong to André Jolivet, one of the most interesting composers of the second half of the 20th century.
He is known as a member of the creative group La jeune France (Young France), a friend of the outstanding French composer Olivier Messiaen and an author of oriental style compositions which combined pristine magical rhythms and an invocating melody.
"I want music to have its original ancient sense back, when it was an expression of a magical and invocating element of a religion which united people," here's one of the key ideas running through Jolivet's entire creative work.
The French composer and conductor André Jolivet was born on 8 August 1905 in Paris. His father was into painting, and his mother and sister, both pianists, acquainted young André with Claude Debussy's compositions. Jolivet studied piano and cello during his childhood and adolescence years. Along with music, he displayed a serious interest in painting and theatre. It continued like this until his meeting with Paul Le Flem, a versatile musician and demanding teacher, which put an end to his doubts about his future occupation. Afterwards, the teacher recollected his first meeting with the future composer, "Once, a young man (of about thirty) came to me who wanted to devote himself to composition. I was struck … with the seriousness, calm will and resolution of my interlocutor. I had a look at several sketches with him … and was pretty much surprised reading his hieroglyphs, details of writing, audacity of the rhythm, uncommon melodic turns, which demonstrated sprouts of style, subsequently blossoming ones."
In 1930, Le Flem acquainted André with a friend, composer Edgard Varèse. This is what Jolivet wrote about the latter, "Varèse attracted my attention to the sound, we combined our work on searching for new sounds with the study of acoustic laws using at most unusual yet natural timbres of each instrument, as well as oriental ones, in particular Indian modes and rhythms."
At that time Jolivet created his first mature works, among which there was a composition which opened a whole series of compositions based on the so-called "magic" theme – that was the Mana piano suite (1935) inspired with six fetish objects given to him by Varèse. (The word "mana" in one of the African languages refers to mysterious power living in things). This line was continued with Five Incantations for flute, Five Ritual Dances for orchestra and Delphic Suite for twelve instruments.
According to Jolivet, he is a successor of Hector Berlioz, Emmanuel Chabrier, Claude Debussy, Albert Roussel and Edgard Varèse. The principal feature of Jolivet's music is interaction between European and Oriental cultures.
The composer's numerous works include symphonies, a mass, a comic opera, a ballet, compositions for piano, orchestral suites, vocal and chamber music, and a whole series of concertos for various instruments and orchestra – flute and percussions, piano, cello, trumpet, and even for an instrument named ondes Martenot (Martenot waves).
In 1931, young Olivier Messiaen took notice of Jolivet's compositions. The two composers had much in common in terms of their creative views – both were interested in exotic cultures, strived to expand and update the figurative world of music.
In 1935, Jolivet, Messiaen, Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur and Nestor Lejeune co-founded the avant-garde music society La spirale. Yves Baudrier joined them a year later and it led to the establishment of La jeune France. The composers were united with a "pursuit of sincerity, generosity and conscientious criticism." The principal goal of the collaboration was stated in their manifesto, "to create and facilitate the creation of music. The group will continue the work of their great predecessors who turned French music of our century into one of the most precious possessions of civilization." Their motto was "for humanism and religion!" Practically speaking, they wanted to give human warmth and psychological insight back to music.
The group's activities were interrupted when World War II began. Jolivet became an officer of an antitank battery. He was mobilized on the first days of the war and spent a year and a half in the French army.
The historical events influenced the composer's general attitude and understanding of arts. His style became simpler. He rejected an excessively complicated harmony for the sake of melody, clarity of statement and stronger lyricism. During the war, he composed a vocal cycle titled The Three Complaints of a Soldier (1940), Intimate Poems for voice, piano and chamber ensemble (1944), and Mass for the Day of Peace for voice, organ and tambourine (1940).
Since the late 1940's Jolivet entered a period of genuine creative maturity, expanded his genre palette and saw his popularity grow. He composed for various competitions of instrumentalists at the Paris Conservatory, for the French radio and music festivals at music lovers' and professionals' requests. "… I want to use all the expressive means discovered by my predecessors, even those that have remained almost unnoticed. Just like Darius Milhaud, but in my own way, I want to compose in all genres."
Theatre occupied a large space in the composer's biography. Being the musical director and conductor of the Comédie Française for many years, Jolivet carefully preserved the great traditions of Molière, Racine and Corneille, wrote music to their plays and works of Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Lope de Vega and Goethe.
In 1951, Jolivet's universal ambitions led him to Pierre Schaeffer's research studio on the radio where he studied the area of concrete music and also paid attention to the timbre aspect of compositions. That was the time when Jolivet began to work on instrumental concerto, one of the most important genres of his career.
The composer visited the Soviet Union on a number of occasions as a conductor and honorary guest of the organizational committee of the Tchaikovsky International Competition and the USSR Union of Composers. Many of his works were performed in this country. So, in 1966, a concert featuring his First Symphony, Five Ritual Dances for orchestra and two of his concertos, one for flute and chamber string orchestra and the other for harp and orchestra, conducted by the composer took place at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
During the last years of his life Jolivet dedicated himself to teaching. From 1966 and until the end of his days the composer was a professor of the Paris Conservatory where he taught composition. He planned to write an opera titled Unknown Soldier, but the idea remained unrealized – André Jolivet died of influenza on 20 December 1974.
Jolivet's legacy is uncommonly extensive. In addition, he was one of the most significant personalities of the post-war era music life not only due to his creativity but also his active musical and social work. He took part in numerous artistic projects and was a co-founder and then a vice president of the National Music Society, an honorary chairman of the professional union of musicians of France, a jury member at many competitions, a principal advisor for musical issues at the French Ministry of Culture.
Firma Melodiya presents an album which is released in Russia for the first time. It only slightly unveils the music world of the French composer whose works are unfortunately almost unknown in this country.
The album includes selected symphonic and concerto compositions which reflect the composer's creative hand in an evident manner.
Much more distinctly than his other works, the concertos showcase the French origin of Jolivet's musical language rendered with grace and soaring expressiveness. So, the Concerto for flute No. 1 clearly 'speaks' French reminding us of Debussy's words, "the French Language is a language of nuances not stresses."
The composer dedicated his Second Concerto for cello to the outstanding Mstislav Rostropovich. Speaking of the soloist, Jolivet noted, "I wrote for Rostropovich knowing that at present he is the only one who is able to cope with the very big difficulties of this part. But this is exactly what pushes the cello technique forward. In about ten years, I hope, many will be able to perform what is only accessible to Rostropovich now."
The concerto is very virtuosic and complicated. It uses diverse techniques of cello playing, and at the same time its music is very humane, emotional and lyrical. One can hear the concerto as a reproduction of a voice of a romantic hero with his passion, stormy emotions and suffering.
The Concerto for piano and orchestra was an important step for the development of the idea of humanity. It grew out of three symphonic pictures inspired with music of Africa, Middle East and Polynesia. Each of its movements has its own timbre colouring with the beat of percussions, bizarre melodies of the vibraphone and xylophone, and piano solo prevailing by turns.
The premiere of the Concerto brought Jolivet the public recognition. Later on, the composition was awarded the Grand Prix of Paris thanks to Francis Poulenc's active support. In 1958, a spectacular ballet performance was staged to the music of the Concerto at the Opéra-Comique.
In the 1950's and 1960's, one of the most fruitful periods of Jolivet's career, he created three symphonies. In his symphonic concepts, the composer touched upon the subject of an artist and his time, which was so significant to many prominent composers of the 20th century. In his First Symphony, Jolivet ponders over eternal philosophical issues of being such as life and death, struggle and overcoming, which made for the prevailing dramatic element. It is linked with the creations of the great symphonists Beethoven, Berlioz, Liszt and Franck. The significance of Debussy's music is great too as it influenced the format and melodic development of the symphony.
Impressions of the nature, everyday life and culture of Africa and Polynesia were important in Jolivet's works and influenced the figurative structure of all three symphonies. Jolivet's symphonism could be generally defined as post-romantic. The spirit of modern times runs through his artistic images.
For his Five Ritual Dances the composer chose topics which, in his opinion, reflected the most important aspects of primitive peoples' life – Initiation Dance, Heroic Dance, Wedding Dance, Stealing Dance and Funeral Dance. The critics dubbed the composition a "French Rite of Spring." It is no coincidence as the Dances are oriented at searching for new expressive means based on rhythm and melody. A sophisticated play of timbres and harmonic colouring make this work associated with impressionistic music.
