Betsy Jolas


Elizabeth MacDonald Jolas is a French and American composer.
WWW betsyjolas.com

Life and career

Jolas was born in Paris on 5 August 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, also studied singing. Together with Betsy's father, the poet and journalist Eugene Jolas, she founded and edited the magazine transition, which published over ten years many of the great writers of the interwar period.
Her family settled in the United States in late 1940. While completing her general studies in New York, then specializing in music at Bennington College, she joined the Dessoff Choirs, discovering Renaissance music, which had a lasting influence on her work.
After graduating from Bennington College, Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to continue her studies at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique, notably with Darius Milhaud and Olivier Messiaen. From 1971 to 1974 she served as Messiaen's assistant at the Conservatoire, and in 1975 was appointed to the faculty. She has since then also taught in the U.S., at Yale, Harvard, Mills College, the University of California, Tanglewood, and the University of Michigan.
Jolas is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Her numerous works are written for a great variety of combinations and have been widely performed, by artists such as Kent Nagano, Anssi Karttunen, Claude Delangle, William Christie, Håkan Hardenberger, Antoine Tamestit, Nicolas Hodges, and Sir Simon Rattle, and ensembles and orchestras including the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
Among Jolas's notable students is the composer Robert Carl.

Personal life

Jolas married the physician Gabriel Illouz in 1949; the pair had three children. She retains dual U.S./French citizenship.

Style

Descriptions of Jolas's style note her early experience of 16th-century Western European polyphonic vocal music, continual exploration of vocality encompassing both vocal and instrumental works, and a flexible but steady flow free from conventional metric pulse. Though drawn to some aesthetic aspects of the serialism of her close contemporary Pierre Boulez and others, Jolas has remained an independent figure who never adopted serial technique.

List of major works

For an extended list, see List of compositions by Betsy Jolas.

Operas

Le Pavillon au Bord de la Rivière, chamber opera in 4 actsSchliemann, opera in 3 actsLe Cyclope, chamber opera in 1 act

Orchestral

D'un opéra de voyage for chamber orchestraQuatre Plages for string orchestraWell Met for string orchestraTales of a summer sea for orchestraCinq pièces pour Boulogne B Day for symphony orchestraA Little Summer Suite
  • ''Les Belles Années ''

Solo works with orchestra or ensemble

Points D'Aube for viola and ensembleMusique d'hiver for organ and small orchestraTrois Rencontres for solo string trio and symphony orchestraStances for piano and orchestraHistoires vraies double concerto for trumpet and pianoSide Roads for cello and string orchestrab Tunes for Nicolas piano concerto for Nicolas Hodges and BBC Symphony Orchestra

Works for large ensemble

Figures for 9 instrumentsJ.D.E. for 14 musiciansD'un opéra de poupée en sept musiques for 11 instrumentsPréludes, Fanfares, Interludes, Sonneries for wind band
  • Sonate à 8 for cello octet

Chamber music

  • Quartets Nos. 1–6 O Wall for wind quintetQuatuor VII for trumpet, violin, viola and celloEpisode No. 1–9 for various solo instrumentsB for Sonata for pianoMusique de jour for organSignets, hommage à Maurice Ravel for pianoFemme le soir for cello and piano

Chorus

Mass for choir, soloists and orchestra
  • Motet I–IV for various voices, chorus, orchestra, ensembleEnfantillages for women's or children's choir in 3 equal voicesL'oeil égaré dans les plis de l'obéissance au vent, cantate radiophonique for soprano, contralto, baritone, mixed choir and orchestraDans la chaleur vacante, cantate radiophonique for choir and orchestraAutres enfantillages for children's or women's choir with clarinet ad libitum

Vocal

Mots for soprano and ensemble
  • Quartet No. 2 for soprano and string trioLiring Ballade for baritone and orchestraSigrancia-Ballade for baritone and orchestraL'Ascension du Mont Ventoux for soprano, narrator, flute, clarinet, violin, cello and harp

Honors