Édith Lejet (19 July 1941 – 15 July 2024) was a French composer and music educator.

Biography

Born in Paris, Lejet was the youngest of three children in a family with an engineer father. Lejet studied with Marcel Beaufils (aesthetics), Henri Challan (harmony), Marcel Bitsch (counterpoint and fugue), Jean Rivier and Andre Jolivet (composition) at the

Paris Conservatory The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

. She was in residence at the

Casa de Velázquez The ''Casa de Velázquez'' is a French school in Spain modelled on the Villa Médicis in Rome, and Villa Abd-el-Tif in Algeria.''75 aniversario de la Casa de Velázquez. Memoria gráfica 1928-2003'', Madrid, Casa de Velázquez, 2006, 182 p. - acc ...

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

from 1968 to 1970. Lejet taught harmony at the Sorbonne from 1970 to 1972, and subsequently became professor at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris. In 2004, Lejet was appointed professor of composition at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot. Lejet died on 15 July 2024, at the age of 82.

Honours

* Prize Bleustein-Blanchet in 1967 of Vocation * Florence Gould Prize (Academy of Fine Arts, Paris) * William and Nomma Copley Foundation Award (Chicago) * Prize Herve Dugardin (SACEM, Paris) * Second Grand

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1968 * Music Awards Board of SACEM in 1979. * Honorary Professor at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris (Cité de la Musique) * Professor of composition at the Ecole Normale de Musique Alfred Cortot in Paris * Nadia and Lili Boulanger Prize (Academy of Fine Arts, Paris) in 2003

Works

Solo instrument

* ''Cinq pièces brèves'', for piano (1965), unpublished, 7’ * ''Trois eaux-fortes'', for piano (1990–1992), Amphion, 10’ * ''Fleurs d’opale'', for piano (1997), Lemoine, 6’ * ''Triptyque'', for organ (1979), Lemoine, 18’ * ''Ave Maria'', for organ (1988), J.M. Fuzeau, 3'21 * ''Métamorphoses'', for harp (1981), Transatlantiques, 4’ * ''De lumière et de cieux embrasés'', for harp (2010), Lemoine, 5’ * ''Deux soliloques'', for horn (1991), Amphion, 6’ * ''Volubilis'', for cello (1981), Amphion, 7’ * ''La Houle à l'assaut des récifs'', for cello (2010), Lemoine, 6’ * ''Palette'', for percussion (1973), Heugel, 3’ * ''Gémeaux'' (''Trois Figures du Zodiaque'' no. 1), for guitar (1978), Amphion, 5’30 * ''Contrastes et couleurs'', for guitar (1983), Transatlantiques, 2’45 * ''Lion'' (''Trois Figures du Zodiaque'', no. 2), for guitar (1991),

Max Eschig Max Eschig (27 May 1872 – 3 September 1927) was a Czech-born French music publisher who published many of the leading French composers of the twentieth century, later also including many East European and Latin American composers. Life Eschig wa ...

, 3’30 * ''Balance'' (''Trois Figures du Zodiaque'', no. 3), for guitar (1982), Transatlantiques, 6’ * ''America'', for guitar (1987), unpublished, 5’30 * ''La Voix des voiles'', for guitar (1989), Max Eschig, 4’

Two instruments

* ''Musique pour trombone et piano'' (1972), Billaudot, 5’ * ''Quatre pièces en duo'', for double bass and piano (1975), Alphonse Leduc, 5’ * ''Méandres'', for saxhorn, tuba or bass trombone and piano (1976), Billaudot, 5’30 * ''Saphir'', for saxophone (baritone and alto) and piano (1982), unpublished, 10’ * ''Emeraude et Rubis'', for two flutes (1982), Transatlantiques, 3’ * ''Jade'', for alto saxophone and percussion (1983),

Salabert Francis Salabert (born François-Joseph-Charles Salabert, 27 July 1884 – 28 December 1946) was an innovative and influential French music publisher, who was the head of Éditions Salabert in the first half of the twentieth century. Biography ...

, 2’30 * ''Trois Petits préludes'', for alto saxophone and piano (1985), Lemoine, 10’ * ''Tourbillons'', for clarinet and piano (1986), Billaudot, 4’30 * ''Almost a song'', for viola and guitar (1995), Eschig, 7’ * ''Parcours en duo'', for baritone saxophone and percussion (2001), unpublished, 8’30 * ''Bruit de l'eau sur de l'eau'', for two violins (2009), Lemoine, 5’

Chamber music (small ensembles)

* ''Musique pour trompette et quintette de cuivres'' (1968), Billaudot, 13’ * ''Quatuor de saxophones'' (1974), Billaudot, 13’ * ''Aube marine'', for saxophone quartet (1982), Lemoine, 7’ * ''Echos dans la vallée'', for violin, clarinet and piano (1995), unpublished, 10’

Music for orchestra or instrumental ensembles

* ''Monodrame'', for violin and orchestra (1969), Billaudot, 18’ * ''Espaces nocturnes'', for eight musicians (1976), Radio-France, 17’ * ''Harmonie du soir'', for 12 string instruments (1975–77), unpublished, 15’ * ''Ressac'', for orchestra (1985), Leduc, 10’ * ''Cérémonie'', for saxophone ensemble (1986), Lemoine, 4’ * ''Améthyste'', for 12 string instruments (1990), unpublished, 9’30 * ''Des fleurs en forme de diamants'', for guitar and 7 instruments (1997, revision in 2003), unpublished, 10’ * ''Diptyque'', for organ and 12 string instruments (2002-2003), unpublished, 12’ * ''Toute la nature sort de l'or'', for 15 instruments (2009), unpublished, 7’

Music for voice and/or choir

* ''Quatre mélodies sur le Poème de Cante Jondo de Federico Garcia Lorca'', for mezzo or soprano and piano (1965), unpublished, 7’30 * ''Le journal d'Anne Frank'', for female choir and 8 instrumentalists (1968-1970), Billaudot, 27' * ''L'Homme qui avait perdu sa voix'', for 4 singers and 11 instrumentalists (1984), Radio-France, 35’ * ''Les Mille-pattes'', for children choir and instruments (1989), Lemoine, 13’ * ''Les Rois-mages'', for 6 singers, mixed choir and 11 instrumentalists (1987-1989), Amphion, 60’ * ''Sept Chants sacrés'', for 12 female singers and organ (1990-2003), unpublished, 15’ * ''Trois Chants pour un Noël'', for equal voices choir with an instrumental accompaniment (1995), unpublished, 7’30 * ''Missa brevis'', for mixed choir and organ (1996), unpublished, 12’ * ''Psaume de joie'', for mixed choir, percussion et double bass (1998), unpublished, 10’ * ''L'Herbier de Colette'', for soprano and piano (2004-2006), unpublished, 20’ * ''Le Noël du grillon'', for twelve female singers and three instruments (2007), unpublished, 8'

References

External links

Official site of Édith Lejet

Anne-Charlotte Rémond, 'Edith Lejet, un accomplissement artistique' (podcast). Radio France, 20 June 2022

Wise Music Classical page on Édith Lejet
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lejet, Edith 1941 births 2024 deaths 20th-century French classical composers 21st-century French classical composers Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris Academic staff of the École Normale de Musique de Paris Conservatoire de Paris alumni French women classical composers French music educators Musicians from Paris Academic staff of Paris-Sorbonne University Prix de Rome for composition French women music educators 20th-century French women composers 21st-century French women composers