General Biography on Ibert

Salzedo’s lifespan overlaps exactly with that of Jacques Ibert, a compatriot and fellow student at the Paris Conservatory (although Salzedo’s prescience placed him at conservatory a few years before Ibert). After taking prizes in composition in 1914, Ibert’s career was put on hold by military duty during the First World War. Immediately thereafter, however, he was back to work, and with the coveted Prix de Rome in hand, Ibert took to the road to absorb the music of Italy and North Africa. These travels materialized in an eclectic and diverse compositional voice, one hard to pinpoint—as it changes, often dramatically, from one work to the next—but also one that sparked wide-ranging musical interests and contributions. He also tried to stay aloof from the caprices of fashion and novelty; as he put it, “I want to be free—independent of the prejudices which arbitrarily divide the defenders of a certain tradition and the partisans of a certain avant garde.”

(c) Jason Stell