Ibert Jacques Ibert

Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French composer. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his first attempt, despite studies interrupted by his service in World War I.

Ibert pursued a successful composing career, writing (sometimes in collaboration with other composers) seven operas, five ballets, incidental music for plays and films, songs, choral works, and chamber music. He is probably best remembered for his orchestral works including Divertissement (1930) and Escales (1922).

As a composer, Ibert did not attach himself to any of the prevalent genres of music of his time, and has been described as an eclectic. This is seen even in his best-known pieces: Divertissement, for small orchestra is lighthearted, even frivolous, and Escales (1922) is a ripely romantic work for large orchestra.

In tandem with his creative work, Ibert was the director of the Académie de France at the Villa Medici in Rome. During World War II he was proscribed by the pro-Nazi government in Paris, and for a time he went into exile in Switzerland. Restored to his former eminence in French musical life after the war, his final musical appointment was in charge of the Paris Opera and the Opéra-Comique.

Music

Ibert refused to ally himself to any particular musical fashion or school, maintaining that "all systems are valid", a position that has caused many commentators to categorise him as "eclectic". His biographer, Alexandra Laederich, writes, "His music can be festive and gay … lyrical and inspired, or descriptive and evocative … often tinged with gentle humour…[A]ll the elements of his musical language bar that of harmony relate closely to the Classical tradition." The early orchestral works, such as Escales, are in "a lush Impressionist style", but Ibert is at least as well known for lighthearted, even frivolous, pieces, among which are the Divertissement for small orchestra and the Flute Concerto.

Ibert's stage works similarly embrace a wide variety of styles. His first opera, Persée et Andromède, is a concise, gently satirical piece. Angélique displays his "eclectic style and his accomplished writing of pastiche set pieces". Le roi d'Yvetot is written, in part in a simple folklike style. The opéra bouffe Gonzague is another essay in the old opera bouffe style. L'Aiglon, composed jointly with Honegger, employs commedia dell'arte characters and much musical pastiche in a style both accessible and sophisticated. For the farcical Les petites Cardinal the music is in set pieces in the manner of an operetta. By contrast Le chevalier errant, a choreographic piece incorporating chorus and two reciters, is in an epic style. Ibert's practice of collaborating with other composers extended to his works for the ballet stage. His first work composed expressly for the ballet was a waltz for L'éventail de Jeanne (1929) to which he was one of ten contributors, others of whom were Ravel and Poulenc. He was the sole composer of four further ballets between 1934 and 1954.

For the theatre and cinema, Ibert was a prolific composer of incidental music. His best-known theatre score was music for Eugéne Labiche's Un chapeau de paille d'Italie, which Ibert later reworked as the suite Divertissement. Other scores ranged from music for farce to that for Shakespeare productions. His cinema scores covered a similarly broad range. He wrote the music for more than a dozen French films, and for American directors he composed a score for Orson Welles's 1948 film of Macbeth, and the Circus ballet for Gene Kelly's Invitation to the Dance in 1952.

Works

Operas

• Persée et Andromède, 1921
• Angélique, 1927
• Le roi d'Yvetot, 1930
• Gonzague, 1931
• L'Aiglon (Acts 1 and 5, the rest by Arthur Honegger), 1937
• Les petites cardinal (operetta, with Honegger), 1938
• Barbe-bleue, 1943

Ballet

• Les amours de Jupiter, ballet (1945)
• Le chevalier errant, épopée choréographique (1951)

Orchestral

• La ballade de la geôle de Reading (1920)
• Escales (1922)
  1. Rome – Palerme
  2. Tunis – Nefta
  3. Valencia
• Valse (1927; for the children's ballet L'éventail de Jeanne, to which ten French composers each contributed a dance)
• Divertissement (1929)
• Suite symphonique (1930)
• Symphonie marine (1931)
• Ouverture de fête (1940)
• Louisville Concerto (1953)
• Hommage à Mozart (1955)
• Bacchanale (1956)
• Tropismes pour des amours imaginaires (1957)
• Bostoniana (1961; first movement of an unfinished symphony)

Concertos

• Concerto for Cello and Wind Instruments (1925)
• Flute Concerto (1934)
• Concertino da camera for Alto Saxophone and Eleven Instruments (1935–1936)
• Symphonie Concertante for Oboe and String Orchestra

Vocal/choral orchestral

• Le poète et la fée

Chamber/instrumental

• Six pièces for harp solo (1916–1917)
• Trois Pièces for organ Pièce Solennelle, Musette, Fugue (1920)
• Deux mouvements for 2 flutes (or flute and oboe), clarinet and bassoon (1921)
• Jeux, Sonatine for flute and piano (1923)
• Le Jardinier de Samos for flute, clarinet, trumpet, violin, cello and percussion (1924)
• Française for guitar (1926)
• Arie (Vocalise) for flute, violin and piano (1927)
• Aria for flute (or other instrument) and piano (1927, 1930)
• Trois pièces brèves for wind quintet (1930)
• Ariette for guitar (1935)
• Cinq pièces en trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1935)
• Entr'acte for flute (or violin) and harp (or guitar) (1935)
• Pièce for flute solo (1936)
• String Quartet (1937–1942)
• Capriccio pour dix instruments for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, harp, 2 violins, viola, and cello (1936–1938)
• Trio for violin, cello and harp (1944)
• Deux interludes for flute, violin and harpsichord (or harp) (1946)
• Étude-caprice pour un Tombeau de Chopin for cello solo (1949)
• Ghirlarzana for cello solo (1950)
• Caprilena for violin solo (1950)
• Impromptu for trumpet and piano (1950)
• Carignane for bassoon and piano (1953)
• Arabesque for bassoon and piano

Piano

• Histoires, ten pieces for piano (1922)
  1. La meneuse de tortues d'or (D minor)
  2. Le petit âne blanc (F♯ major)
  3. Le vieux mendiant (E major)
  4. A Giddy Girl (G major)
  5. Dans la maison triste (C♯ minor)
  6. Le palais abandonné (B minor)
  7. Bajo la mesa (A minor)
  8. La cage de cristal (The crystal cage) (E minor)
  9. La marchande d'eau fraiche (The water seller) (F♯ minor)
  10. Le cortège de Balkis (F major)
• Toccata (D major)
• Escales (arr. for piano by the composer)
• Le vent dans les ruines (En Champagne)
• Les rencontres (Petite suite en forme de ballet)
• Matin sur l'eau
• Noel en Picardie
• Petite suite en 15 images (1944)
  1. Prélude
  2. Ronde
  3. Le gai vigneron
  4. Berceuse aux étoiles
  5. Le cavalier Sans-Souci
  6. Parade
  7. La promenade en traineau
  8. Romance
  9. Quadrille
  10. Sérénade sur l'eau
  11. La machine à coudre
  12. L'adieu
  13. Les crocus
  14. Premier bal
  15. Danse du cocher
• Valse de L'éventail de Jeanne (arr. for piano by the composer)
• Vetrennaya Girl

Incidental music

• Suite Élisabéthaine for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1942)
• Entr'acte for Pedro Ignacio Calderón's El médico de su honra (Le médecin de son honneur) (1937)

Film music

• S.O.S. Foch (director, Jean Arroy), 1931
• Les Cinq Gentlemen maudits (Julien Duvivier), 1931
• Don Quichotte (Georg Wilhelm Pabst), 1932
• The Two Orphans (Maurice Tourneur), 1933
• Maternité (Jean Choux), 1934
• Justin de Marseille (Tourneur), 1935
• Golgotha (Duvivier), 1935
• Le Coupable (Raymond Bernard), 1936
• The Former Mattia Pascal (L'Homme de nulle part) (Pierre Chenal), 1937
• Conflict (Léonide Moguy), 1938
• The Patriot (1938)
• Le Héros de la Marne (André Hugon), 1939
• La Comédie du bonheur (Marcel L'Herbier), 1940
• Les Petites du quai aux fleurs (Marc Allégret), 1944
• Macbeth (Orson Welles), 1948
• Circus (ballet for Invitation to the Dance, Gene Kelly), 1952;
• Marianne de ma jeunesse (Duvivier), 1954