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Jolivet’s early music theory and its practice in Cinq danses rituelles (1939)

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  • Deborah Mawer
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Publication date6/11/2018
Host publicationAndré Jolivet: music, art and literature
EditorsCaroline Rae
PublisherLund Humphries
ISBN (print)9781472442956
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

A notable facet of the case of André Jolivet (1905-74) is the unusual amount and seriousness of attention that he devoted to writing articles on music theory. Generally, this was a reflective account which sought to explain both his compositional technique and his wider philosophy. What results is a rich theoretical repertoire to supplement the music. The objective of this chapter is thus twofold: firstly, to survey the most important concepts propounded in theoretic writings from the composer’s first mature period, chiefly those found in ‘André Jolivet, ou la magie expérimentale’; secondly, to pursue such music theory in action, with specific reference to Cinq danses rituelles (1939). Through this dual process, I aim to gauge relations between theory and practice, as well as those between Jolivet’s compositional approach to elucidating his music (‘poietic’ dimension) and receiver-based analytical or interpretative (‘esthesic’) approaches.