A composer active in 20th-century France. His father, Jacques, was an exporter, and his mother, Marguerite, was a talented pianist who had studied under Antoine-François Marmontel and Le Couppey, both renowned piano professors at the Paris Conservatoire (hereafter, Paris Conservatoire). It is said that Ibert particularly favored the works of Bach, Chopin, and Mozart, as his mother enjoyed playing them. At his mother's wish for him to become a violinist, Ibert began playing the violin at the age of four. However, he was frail from childhood and easily fatigued by violin lessons, so he began studying piano under Marie Délé, a pianist who coached students preparing for the Paris Conservatoire entrance examinations.

Upon completing his secondary education, Ibert obtained the Baccalauréat, the French university entrance qualification, and began working at his father's company. Concurrently, he started taking solfège lessons and accompanying singers, gradually venturing into composition. Ibert, who also enjoyed theater and once considered becoming a comedic actor, was encouraged by Manuel de Falla to audit Émile Pessard's harmony class at the Paris Conservatoire in 1910. The following year, he was admitted as a formal student. In 1912, he advanced to André Gedalge's counterpoint class, and in 1913, to Paul Vidal's composition class, where he studied for three years. In Gedalge's counterpoint class, he became close with Darius Milhaud and Arthur Honegger, who would later be known as "Les Six," and they mutually spurred each other on.

Despite these friendships, critics did not include Ibert among the members of "Les Six." This was largely due to his frequent absences from Paris, rather than his compositional approach or style. He served as a naval officer during World War I, which broke out in 1914, and in 1919, at the age of 29, he won the Prix de Rome and studied in Italy. It is said that his application for the Prix de Rome was made against the opposition of Gedalge and Vidal. According to Jacques Feschotte, who later wrote Ibert's biography, the composer prepared for the competition with the assistance of Nadia Boulanger. Henri Büsser, a composer who participated in the jury for the Grand Prix, stated that he was greatly impressed by the originality of the submitted cantata, Le Poète et la Fée. This award and his three-year stay in Italy launched Ibert's career as a composer. During the same period, he married the sculptor Rosette Veber. The Veber family was artistically inclined, with a painter father and a writer sister. Ibert met Rosette through Délé, who had close family ties with the Vebers.

The 1920s: A Period of Prolific Work

The 1920s marked a period of sustained prolific work for Ibert. His works were officially performed in public for the first time at a Concerts Colonne performance on October 22, 1922. The program featured La Ballade de la geôle de Reading, composed a year earlier in 1921, conducted by Gabriel Pierné. Furthermore, in January 1924, his representative work Escales, composed during his studies in Rome, premiered to great acclaim. These two successes spread Ibert's name not only in France but also internationally. In 1925, the ballet Les Rencontres, an adaptation of a piano piece composed the previous year, premiered at the Opéra. Around this time, his works also began to be published by the music publisher Alphonse Leduc. In 1927, the one-act opéra bouffe Angélique premiered to great success, establishing Ibert as one of the leading composers of his generation.

The 1930s and the Directorship of the Académie de France

In the subsequent 1930s, his compositions for orchestra, film scores, and chamber music were particularly prominent. Ibert successively released works such as the Flute Concerto, composed between 1932 and 1933, and the Concertino da Camera for alto saxophone and eleven instruments, composed in 1935. He also began conducting his own works both in France and abroad. In 1937, he co-composed the operetta L'Aiglon with Honegger, a friend from his Paris Conservatoire days. In the same year, he was appointed by the government as the Director of the Académie de France at the Villa Medici, the residence for Prix de Rome winners. Traditionally, candidates for this directorship were chosen from members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, making Ibert's appointment, as a non-member, an unusual event that garnered significant media attention. Ibert himself was dedicated to his role of connecting Paris and Rome through cultural exchange and preferred the calmer atmosphere of Rome to Paris. Consequently, he served as director until 1960, with the exception of the period during World War II when France and Italy were enemy nations.

World War II

During World War II, French composers were forced to adopt various responses depending on their circumstances. When the French capital moved to the spa town of Vichy in central France in July 1940, and the Vichy regime, a Nazi German puppet government, was established, composers remaining in France were compelled to choose between continuing their activities in line with the regime's wishes or resisting the Nazis. In 1940, Ibert had composed Ouverture de Fête at the request of the Japanese government to celebrate the 2660th Imperial Year. However, the Vichy regime banned his music. Consequently, Ibert first fled to Antibes, a town on the Mediterranean coast in southern France, and continued his compositional activities. During his stay in Antibes, he created works such as his String Quartet and the incidental music for A Midsummer Night's Dream. For several months between 1942 and 1943, he temporarily resided in Switzerland, but he returned to France and lived in Haute-Savoie until August 1944. Subsequently, at the request of General Charles de Gaulle, who liberated Paris from Nazi occupation with the Allied forces, Ibert was recalled to Paris.

Post-War and Later Life

After World War II, Ibert continued his compositional activities while also serving as the Director of the Académie de France. In October 1955, he was appointed Director of the National Opera Union, which oversaw the Paris Opéra and the Opéra-Comique. However, due to a worsening of his pre-existing health issues, he resigned from the directorship in April 1956. Two months later, Ibert was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, one of the academies comprising the Institut de France, succeeding Guy Ropartz. While continuing his public duties, he suffered a heart attack at his Paris home on February 5, 1962, and passed away at the age of 71. Several works about Ibert had already been published during his lifetime. In 1963, Georges Auric published Notes sur la vie et l'œuvre de Jacques Ibert, and in 1990, an exhibition titled "Hommage à Jacques Ibert: Centenaire de sa naissance, 1890-1990" was held at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France to commemorate his centenary, indicating an ongoing re-evaluation of his work.

Compositional Style

A notable characteristic of Ibert's compositional style, similar to the works of Poulenc, Milhaud, and Henri Sauguet, is his consistent adherence to traditional tonality. He maintained a distance from atonality, polytonality, and serialism, preferring to use harmonies with added or altered notes in ninth and eleventh chords. Furthermore, the contrapuntal writing he acquired during his time at the Paris Conservatoire often forms the structural basis of his works. Among the composers who influenced him, one can name Debussy, Dukas, Roussel, and Bartók. On the other hand, he exchanged visits and held concerts with composers of "Les Six" and Ravel, mutually inspiring each other as prominent figures in 20th-century French music. Although Ravel was a generation older than Ibert, he consistently held Ibert's abilities in high regard. Honegger also stated that there would be no incongruity in including Ibert or Roland-Manuel in "Les Six," a group named by the critic Henri Collet.

Genres

Ibert's compositional genres were diverse. In addition to orchestral works such as Escales and Féerique, where his abilities were most fully displayed, he left behind music in all genres, including chamber music, vocal music, and works for solo instruments. His String Quartets, in particular, are highly regarded, comparable to the works of Debussy and Ravel, and can be considered one of the representative chamber music works of 20th-century France.

Dramatic Works

Ibert had an affinity for genres containing dramatic elements, leaving many notable works in opera, ballet, incidental music, and film scores. Ibert's first opera was Persée et Andromède, ou Le Plus Heureux des trois, composed in 1921, a two-act work with a libretto by his wife Rosette's sister, Michelle. Michelle worked under the pseudonym "Nino" and also provided the libretto for Angélique, which premiered in 1927. Ibert composed a total of seven operas, two of which were co-composed with Honegger, up until his last opera, Le Chevalier Errant, in 1943. He also had a particularly strong passion for film music, making statements criticizing the poor working conditions for composers in this field. Representative works include the music for the 1932 film Don Quichotte, starring Feodor Chaliapin, and its songs, as well as the ballet music for Invitation to the Dance, produced with a scenario by American dancer Gene Kelly.

Piano Solo Works

His piano solo works comprise 13 pieces, ranging from Histoires, composed in 1908, to Petite Suite en quinze images, composed in 1943, along with several piano reductions of orchestral works. Most of his works for solo piano were written early in his career. Pieces such as Histoires (1922), Les Rencontres (1924), and Toccata sur le nom d'Albert Roussel (1929) remain widely popular today. He also frequently used the piano as an accompanying instrument for songs or incorporated it into chamber music ensembles.

Writings and Legacy

Ibert, who also engaged in public activities such as serving as the Director of the Académie de France, left behind interviews and essays, through which his reflections on the nature of French music in his time and for the future can be understood.