The son of Henri Rivier [fr], a co-inventor of Armenian paper, he composed over two hundred works, including music for orchestra, chamber groups, chorus, piano, and solo instruments.
Jean Rivier (1896–1987), a twentieth-century French composer of the neo-classical school, is remembered primarily for his flute compositions. However, this prolific composer was extremely active in French musical circles from the period after World War I until his death. He composed over two hundred works, including symphonies, chamber music, concertos, choral music, piano works, music for solo instruments, and accompanied songs. For fourteen years, he shared with Darius Milhaud a position as Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatory, and continued as sole professor from 1962 until his retirement in 1966. Rivier was a founding member of Triton,[3] a musical society that promoted new music, and he was associated extensively with the French Radio (ORTF). Despite his successful career, Rivier's music was often eclipsed by the increasingly avant-garde compositions of more progressive French composers.
Rivier's songs are best represented by his twenty-nine published mélodies or poèmes, notable for their brevity, attention to detail, and their lyrical melodies, tonal harmonies with creative dissonances, and carefully structured forms (especially ABA forms). With music set to poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, Henri Mahaut, Arthur Rimbaud, Pierre de Ronsard, Clément Marot, Joachim du Bellay, René Chalupt [fr], and Paul Gilson, the songs are characterized by quartal and quintal harmonies, modality, polychords, parallelism, contrasting moods, and expressive emotions.
— David Michael Tadlock, The published songs of Jean Rivier[4]
Compositions
3 Points Seches for piano
4 Fantasmes for piano
4 Sequences Dialogues (need instrumentation)
Alternances for piano
Andante espressivo ed allegro burlesco (three movements) for clarinet and piano
Symphony No. 2 in C major for string orchestra (1937)
Symphony No. 3 in G major for string orchestra (1937)
Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major for string orchestra (1947)
Symphony No. 5 in A minor (1950)
Symphony No. 6 in E minor "Les Présages" (1958)
Symphony No. 7 in F major "Les Contrastes" (1971)
Symphony No. 8 for string orchestra (1978)
Torrents for piano
Trois mouvements for clarinet and piano
Virevoltes for flute
His complete piano works have been published in one volume by Salabert.
Discography
Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Trumpet and Orchestra appears on French Saxophone Concertos, Naxos 8.225127; and on Virtuose Saxophonkonzerte, Koch Schwann
Oiseaux tendres appears on Manuela Wiesler [de]: Flute Music Naxos BIS-CD-689
Symphonies No. 3 in G, No. 4 in B♭, and No. 8 (all for strings) Calmel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Bernard Calmel, on Pavane CD ADW 7328 (1994) (currently out of print)
