ABSTRACT
Drawn from the composer's notes and conversations, the quotations bear witness to the importance Andre Jolivet attached not only to the role of music in society but also to his growing interest in the teaching of composition during the late 1950s. From 1927 to 1942, Andre Jolivet worked as a teacher employed by the Ministere de l'Instruction Publique, which, in 1932, became the Ministere de l'Education Nationale. The inaugural programme for Jolivet's 1959 lectures announced that: 'Andre Jolivet will give a series of composition and analysis classes focusing on the origins and techniques of French music'. Learning twelve-tone technique during his studies with Varese, Jolivet considered that the method's inability to privilege one pitch over another, rendering them all equal in a melodic discourse, ignored the physical laws of sound organisation. Another philosophical aspect of Jolivet's teaching was the idea of bringing together a group of composers as a community.
