ABSTRACT
The publication of Andre Jolivet's Ecrits edited by Christine Jolivet-Erlih revealed the extent of Jolivet's activity as a music critic. Jolivet's weekly reports not only provide a series of detailed glimpses into five months of musical activity in Occupied Paris, but also demonstrate what a perceptive and broad-minded critic he was. The first of Jolivet's reports begins with a plea for enlarging the repertoire for viola – something Jolivet had done himself with the Chant d'oppression for viola and piano of 1935; much later, in 1967, he also wrote Cinq eglogues for solo viola. Jolivet returned to another work in which he was directly involved in his fourth report: Jeanne d'Arc was based on texts by seven poets, with music by seven composers, celebrating landmarks in the life of Joan of Arc. It was a more senior French composer to whom Jolivet turned in his next report, devoted mainly to a review of Paul Le Flem's Le Rossignol de Saint-Malo.
