Jacques Ibert: A Giddy Girl for piano

I remember walking into the Music Room at Coatbridge High School and hearing a pupil playing a neat little piece. This was more than fifty years ago. She told me it was A Giddy Girl by someone called Jacques Ibert. I never knew whether she was practising it for an exam or just learning it for fun, although it has been used as an ABRSM Grade 5 piece. I asked if I could try it myself, sat down at the piano, and got no further than the fourth bar.

Since then, I have made a little progress with the piece, but more importantly, I have discovered much more music by Ibert.

Jacques Ibert (1890–1962) was the ultimate "free spirit" of 20th-century French music. Born in Paris, he was a brilliant student who managed to win the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1919 - on his first attempt - a feat made even more impressive considering his studies were interrupted by his service as a naval officer in World War I. 

Ibert is often described as "eclectic." He famously refused to join any specific musical "club," like the Impressionists or the then avant-garde "Les Six." Instead, he wrote music that was simply pleasant to hear, blending sparkling wit, Mediterranean warmth, and elegant craftsmanship. Whether he was writing a silly circus-like tune in Divertissement or the lush, travel-inspired Escales (Ports of Call), his work always feels luminous and full of life.

Later in his career, he became a major cultural diplomat, directing the Villa Medici in Rome and leading the Paris Opéra. He believed that "all systems are valid," a philosophy that allowed him to compose everything from film scores to flute concertos with the same effortless charm.

A Giddy Girl is the fourth number in Ibert’s 1922 piano suite, Histoires. This collection of ten pieces was written between 1912 and 1922; most were composed during Ibert's years at the French Academy at the Villa Medici, inspired by his travels to Spain, Italy, and Tunisia. Overall, they represent a subtle balance of Impressionistic textures and Neoclassical structures.

Subtitled “Dans un style de romance sentimentale anglaise” - translated as “In the style of a gentle English love song” - the actual “giddiness” of the title is conveyed through sharp articulation and rhythm.

Lasting about 90 seconds, the work is structured in a loose ternary (A-B-A) form. The opening bars establish the “giddy” motif driven by a whimsical, uneven rhythm; despite being written in 4/4 time, the music suggests a folk dance or even hints at a waltz. This playful character is reinforced by a texture of staccato notes and rapid grace notes, evoking the "hopping" steps of a flighty protagonist.

The central section is marked ‘Un peu plus lent’ (a little slower) uses similar rhythmic structures in the accompaniment but adds a melody in the upper register of the right hand giving a gentle lyricism.

A reprise of the initial theme is ornamented with chromatic grace notes that heighten the sense of mischief, leading to a short coda with some wayward modulations before finally ending on the tonic G major.

A Giddy Girl serves as a musical "snapshot” - a refined, humorous vignette that perfectly captures Ibert’s core philosophy that music should be a source of pleasure and light-hearted fantasy.

Listen to Jacques Ibert’s  A Giddy Girl for piano on YouTube, here. It includes the full score of the piece.

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962): Bostoniana

The orchestral work, Bostoniana was originally to have been Jacques Ibert’s Second Symphony. It was commissioned as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Sadly, only two movements were completed before the composer’s death on 5 February 1962. To make matters worse, the manuscript was lost whilst the composer was in Rome. Only the first movement was recovered. The work was premiered on 25 January 1963 by the BSO under the baton of Charles Munch.

French composer Jacques Ibert was born in Paris on 15 August 1890. He was schooled at the College Rollin in his hometown, then at the Paris Conservatoire. In 1919 he won the coveted Prix de Rome with his La Ballade de la geôle de Reading, inspired by Oscar Wilde's poem. Much of his career was spent writing music for the theatre – ballet, opera, and incidental music, often in an approachable style. He was director of the Académie de France between 1937 and 1960, and, for a brief period, director of the Opera-Comique in Paris.

Ibert is best remembered for his witty orchestral Divertissement, the short piano piece, Le petit âne blanc, and his sumptuous portrayal of the Mediterranean in Escales. His characteristic qualities included “brilliant humour, rapier-like wit, charm and originality.” Stylistically, he ranged from neo-impressionistic, “with subtle moods and delicate effects” to the satirical. Towards the end of his life, a new tauter mood appeared in some of his work. Jacques Ibert died in Paris on 5 February 1962.

The programme notes for the premiere performance of Bostoniana explained that “the movement has the indication Allegro comodo. After an introduction conspicuous for rhythmic chords by the woodwinds and brass, the main part of the movement begins, the signature changing from common time to an established 3/8. The principal theme is set forth by the strings, marcato. A quieter section, poco piu tranquillo, begins with a sustained melody from the strings with harp accompaniment. The music gathers liveliness and substance in development, and at last broadens out to a close in triple forte.”

Andre Jolivet, reviewing the first Parisian performance of Bostoniana wrote: “The piece is remarkable for the clear arrangement of its argument and the economy of orchestral material. When one peruses the score, one is bewildered by its masterful simplicity and by the easy way in which every resource of an art devoted to sensibility and logic, to music in short, is brought into play.”

Ibert’s Bostoniana can be heard on YouTube played by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Louis Frémaux, here. The same recording can be heard with the orchestral score, here. The version by the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal conducted by Charles Dutoit is here.

In fact, compared to some of Ibert’s earlier music it is more spartan in impact, less witty, but still full of orchestral magic. Hubert Culot, appraising Frémaux’s account (EMI Classics Gemini 5176392) suggested that “…this short symphonic movement may be the real surprise in this compilation of Ibert’s orchestral output, for it has a muscular and forceful energy reminiscent of the composer’s great friend Arthur Honegger. It amply shows that Ibert was also capable of great things.” (MusicWeb International 8 June 2008).