ABSTRACT
A notable facet of the case of Andre Jolivet is the unusual amount and seriousness of attention that he devoted to writing articles on music theory. The main corpus of Jolivet's theoretical writings dates from later 1930s through to mid-1940s. It is supplemented by occasional later contributions and, with some caveats, by Hilda Jolivet's account of her husband's work which contains much useful anthologised material and quotation. The first technical proposal in 'La Magie' is for 'new modulatory procedures', comprising concepts of 'doubled bass' and 'inferior resonances' – supposed 'subharmonics'. Having overviewed Jolivet's theory, this chapter explores its relationship with his practice, centring upon Cinq danses rituelles. Among most suitable ways of analysing Jolivet's music, congruent with his typical pitch-cum-modal hierarchies, is a flexible post-tonal voice-leading, which traces pitch motions from relative tension to resolution over a fundamental bass. Where Jolivet's music becomes highly complex or genuinely atonal, set-theoretic techniques prove very instructive, and may be combined with post-tonal voice-leading.
