Romantiques: Trois poemes pour voix et piano. (Voice).

Romantiques: Trois poemes pour voix et piano, by Andre Jolivet. Gerard Billaudot, Paris, distributed by Theodore Presser Co., (588 N. Gulph Rd., King of Prussia, PA 19406), 2000. 20 pp., $14.95. Difficult.

Andre Jolivet (1905-1974) is known primarily for his instrumental compositions, but has little reputation in the contemporary vocal world. For years his songs have been difficult to find, but recently the French publisher Gerard Billaudot has reissued a number of these early songs, distributed in the United States through Theodore Presser.

Just the past year, Presser released Romantiques. Composed in the mid-1930s when Jolivet was exploring his most adventurous compositional techniques, these songs are based on poems by three rather obscure poets (one in translation from the original Spanish), all contemporaries of Jolivet. They are drawn from a volume of poems published in 1936 entitled "Romantiques," hence the name of the song set. Jolivet was a member of the French avant-garde composer group known as "La jeune France" (which included Massiaen), and was influenced musically by Schonberg, Stravinsky, and especially by his teacher, Edgard Varese. Jolivet delved deeply into mathematics, philosophy and "the primordial forces that regulate the Universe." His many interests included the leading artistic and literary movements of his day, and his songs clearly reflect these diverse interests and influences.

The early songs considered here employ techniques of percussive rhythm, sound masses and non-serial atonality that Jolivet learned from Varese. Open fifths, fourths and tritones, modality and whole-tone scales abound. Meter changes frequently; accidentals are profuse. Vocally, these songs are very demanding, requiring of the singer a soprano voice of extended range and dynamic flexibility, a keen sense of pitch, the ability to ...