Composers

MAURICE JAUBERT (1900-1940)

Maurice Jaubert was born in Nice, on January 3rd, 1900. He studied at the Lycée Masséna and, in 1916, was awarded a first piano prize from the Nice Conservatory. He moved to Paris, studied law and litterature at the Sorbonne, while continuing his musical training. In 1919, he became the youngest lawyer in France, following in his father’s footsteps.

In 1920, he was drafted for two years in the 7th Corps of Engineers ; it was during this period that he decided to give up law practice and devote all his time to music. He left Nice in the first months of 1923 to further his musical education in Paris. His compositions at the time include pieces for piano, chamber music, melodies (Quatre Romances de Toulet, Les Chants sahariens, etc.) and a ballet, Les Pêcheurs.

He wrote his first stage music in 1925 for Calderon’s El Magico Prodigioso. He often collaborated with writers afterwards, either childhood friends (Claude-André Puget, Georges Neveux), or writers he admired like Jean Giraudoux (Elpénor and later on the stage music for Tessa and The Trojan War Will Not Take Place), and above all Jules Supervielle, who became one of his best friends : after having set to music « Airs », one of the Trois Sérénades, he composed with him a choregraphic poem, Le Jour (1931), performed for the first time under the direction of Pierre Monteux ; nine years later, he composed his last melodies at the front, Saisir, once again based on poems by Supervielle.

His first chance at composing for the screen came in 1929, when he wrote the score for a German silent film directed by Hanns Schwartz, The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna. He was seducted by this new art form that he understood well and, between 1930 and 1939, he composed the music for some of the most important French films of the period : Jean Vigo’s Zéro de conduite and L’Atalante ; several documentaries by Jean Painlevé and Henri Storck ; 14 juillet and Le Dernier Milliardaire by René Clair ; Jacques and Pierre Prévert’s L’Affaire est dans le sac ; Julien Duvivier’s Carnet de bal (Life Dances On) and La fin du Jour (The End of a Day) ; Drôle de drame (Bizarre, Bizarre), Le Quai des brumes (Port of Shadows), Hôtel du Nord and Le Jour se lève (Daybreak) by Marcel Carné.

As a conductor, he played his own works, as well as those of his contemporaries ; he also recorded several films scores by Arthur Honegger, Jacques Ibert and Darius Milhaud.

His friend Vladimir Golschmann conducted in St. Louis the first performance of Suite française (1932). In Great Britain, he scored a film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and produced by John Grierson ; he also gave a lecture on film music and wrote the music for a BBC Radio programme (The Voice of Paris).

In Belgium, he scored several short films directed by Henri Storck and wrote the music for Quartier nègre, a Georges Simenon play produced in Brussels, in 1936. His friend André Souris conducted the first performance of the Concert flamand in Brussels, in 1938.

He felt very much concerned by the political situation in Europe at the time and his opinions were clearly defined. He became a regular contributor to Esprit, where he published among others, in 1936, an article on film music, which is still considered authoritative today and has been translated in several languages.

His major works composed during the thirties are : la Ballade, la Sonata a due, les Intermèdes, la Suite française, Géographies, Le jour, la Cantate pour le temps pascal, O mes frères perdus, based on two poems by Paul Eluard, L’Eau vive, a series of melodies on poems by Jean Giono. All these works were performed either under his own direction, or by such distinguished conductors as Vladimir Golschmann, Pierre Monteux, Manuel Rosenthal, André Souris, Charles Münch.

Maurice Jaubert was mobilized on September 2nd, 1939, and incorporated in the 1st Corps of Engineers at Epinal. As reserve captain, he commanded a company of pioneers. He stayed on the front line from September 1939 to the first days of June 1940. There, he finished Saisir, on poems by Jules Supervielle, and composed, at the begining of 1940, Trois Psaumes pour le temps de guerre.

Maurice Jaubert was wounded on June 19th, 1940, at Azérailles ; he was taken to the hospital in Baccarat and died the same day.