Jeanine Rueff

{{Short description|French composer and music educator}}Jeanine Rueff (5 February 1922 – c. September 1999) was a French composer and music educator.

Biography

Jeanine Rueff was born in Paris and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Tony Aubin, Henri Challan, Jean and Noël Gallon, and Henri Busser. During her time at the Paris Conservatory, she was awarded first prizes in harmony, fugue and counterpoint, composition and history of music{{Cite web |last=Tellez |first=Pedro |date=2020-10-10 |title=TROIS POUR DEUX Jeanine Rueff |url=https://joanmf.com/trois-pour-deux-jeanine-rueff/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=JoanMF |language=en-US}}. In 1948 she won second place in the Grand Prix de Rome with Odette Gartenlaub.

Rueff was a collaborative pianist at the Conservatoire de Paris beginning in 1950, accompanying students in the saxophone class of Marcel Mule and in the clarinet class of Ulysse Delécluse. She taught solfège, sight-singing, and aural skills there from 1960 to 1971. Later, Rueff also taught a harmony course, continuing until 1988.{{Cite web |last=Tellez |first=Pedro |date=2020-10-10 |title=TROIS POUR DEUX Jeanine Rueff |url=https://joanmf.com/trois-pour-deux-jeanine-rueff/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=JoanMF |language=en-US}}.

Her long tenure at the Conservatoire de Paris suggests she influenced many other musicians. Her former pupils include many conservatory directors and teachers in regional and national schools and universities{{Cite web |last=Tellez |first=Pedro |date=2020-10-10 |title=TROIS POUR DEUX Jeanine Rueff |url=https://joanmf.com/trois-pour-deux-jeanine-rueff/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=JoanMF |language=en-US}}. Rueff's most famous pupil was Jean-Michel Jarre, a pioneer of French electronic music.

She wrote extensively for saxophone, saxhorn, euphonium, baritone horn, clarinet and cornet. Her compositions for saxophone are often used as required contest solos, and are taught in universities throughout the world.{{cite web |title=Composer Information |url=http://www.trevent.org/linermain.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728124703/http://www.trevent.org/linermain.htm |archive-date=28 July 2011 |access-date=21 September 2010}} ; "Jeanine Rueff", in Sax, Mule & Co, Jean-Pierre Thiollet, H & D, 2004, p. 172

Rueff was buried on 22 September 1999.

Works

In 1945, Rueff received the Prix Favareille-Chailley-Richez for a jazz piano quintet. She also composed the chamber opera Le Femme d'Enée (1954), a concerto for four saxophones and a Symphonietta (1956).

Her portfolio includes many staples of the clarinet and saxophone canon, including:

  • Concerto for Clarinet, Op. 15 (1950)
  • Variazioni for clarinet (1976)
  • Concert en Quatuor for Saxophone Quartet
  • Concertino for Saxophone, Op. 17 for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra (1951)
  • Chanson et Passepied, Op. 16 for Alto Saxophone and Piano (1951)
  • Sonata for solo saxophone (1968)

Other notable works include a Trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1960){{Cite web |title=Rueff, Jeanine_Trois Pièces |url=https://www.clarinetallmusic.com/products/rueff-trois-pieces-oboe-clarinet-bassoon-reed-trio-leduc |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=CAMco Music, LLC |language=en}}, Dialogues for viola and piano (1970) the chamber opera La Femme d'Énée (1954), a Symphonietta 1956), a Diptyque for flute and piano (1954). Additionally, Rueff composed numerous didactic works, which is unsurprising given her role as a professor at the Conservatoire de Paris. Her last composition, in 1999, was a series of concert pieces for bass trombone in the program of the Concours International de Trombone in Guebwiller.{{cite book |last=Wild |first=Nicole |title=Théâtre de l'Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762-1972 |last2=Charlton |first2=David |year=2005}}{{Cite web |last=Tellez |first=Pedro |date=2020-10-10 |title=TROIS POUR DEUX Jeanine Rueff |url=https://joanmf.com/trois-pour-deux-jeanine-rueff/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=JoanMF |language=en-US}}

Rueff's compositions have been performed internationally and recorded by notable musicians including Frederick Hemke, Annelies Vrieswijk, Joan Martí-Frasquier, Saxallegro Ensemble, and Quatuor Ellipsos{{Cite web |last=Tellez |first=Pedro |date=2020-10-10 |title=TROIS POUR DEUX Jeanine Rueff |url=https://joanmf.com/trois-pour-deux-jeanine-rueff/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=JoanMF |language=en-US}}.

References