Jean Wiener

Early life, education, and classical pianist

Jean Wiener was born in Paris on 19 March 1896.^[1] He was trained at the Conservatoire de Paris where he was a pupil of André Gedalge (composition)^[2] and Yves Nat (piano).^[3] At the conservatoire he befriended his fellow classmate Darius Milhaud^[1] with whom he maintained a lifelong friendship.^[2] He was also a close friend of Erik Satie who would frequently visited Wiener's home or met with him at social events.^[4] Trained as a classical pianist at the conservatory, he was highly gifted in this regard and notably performed the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's Trois mouvements de Petrouchka in December 1922 at a special Christmas concert organized by the composer.^[3] In May 1924 he performed the premiere of Stravnsky's Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments in an arrangement for two pianos with the composer as his fellow keyboardist. This was a private concert given ten days prior to the work's official premiere.^[3] He subsequently toured with Stravisky in concerts of this work.^[2]

Jazz pianist and concert impresario

During World War I Wiener encountered jazz and ragtime for the first time from American troops in France who brought that music with them, and he subsequently began playing jazz in the post-War years as the house pianist at Bar Gaya in Paris. He took this job largely because of his financial problems, and was committed to playing from seven in the evening until two in the morning.^[5] He subsequently worked as the pianist at Le Boeuf sur le Toit; beginning when it opened in January 1922^[6] when Bar Gaya's owner decided to open larger premises due to the large crowds Weiner was attracting to the tiny Bar Gay venue.^[5] In the early 1920s Bar Gaya was a frequented spot by many artists and musicians of note, among them Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, and the composers of Les Six whom Wiener befriended.^[5] This crowd followed Weiner to Le Boeuf sur le Toit which became a center of both jazz and avant-garde music in Paris.^[5][6]

Wiener's close friendships with important French composers led him to establish an influential concert series known as the Concerts Wiéner which were given from 1921 through 1924.^[2] The series was known for challenging what was acceptable as concert music; boldy programming avant-garde works by young French composer, including those of Les Six, alongside jazz and popular music. It was rare among French concerts of its era not only for promoting new music but also for featuring contemporary German and Austrian repertoire at a time when anti-German sentiment was high in France.^[7] This included the first performance in France of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire.^[2] Milhaud and André Gide's secular cantata for 5 voices and chamber ensemble, Le retour de l'enfant prodigue (composed 1917), was given its first performance at one of these concerts on 23 November 1922 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.^[6]

Wiener et Doucet

Wiener's concert series was financially supported by Winnaretta Singer, Princess de Polignac,^[3] and she notably commissioned Weiner's Concerto franco-américain for piano and strings in which he incorporated American jazz idioms with French popular song and neo-Baroque music.^[2] The success of the October 1924 premiere of this work at Weiner concert series led the composer to create a piano duo arrangement for the work that he could more easily tour with. He enlisted the Belgian pianist Clement Doucet as his performing partner in a successful concert tour in which the pair interspersed classical works by composers like Bach and Mozart and popular music such as hot dance, blues, and jazz.^[2][8] The playing relationship between Doucet and Wiener had begun earlier at the Le Boeuf sur le Toit in c. 1922 where they began performing periodically as a jazz piano duo.^[5]

The success of Wiener's initial concert tour with Doucet led to a longtime collaboration between the two men. As Wiener et Doucet, they performed together routinely from 1925 through 1938; appearing internationally in music halls, variety theatre, and major concert venues in both Europe and the North America.^[2] They also made numerous recordings together.^[9]

Film composer and later life

In the midst of touring with Doucet, Wiener began working as a film score composer in the 1930s, often in collaboration with the conductor Roger Desormière. With the outbreak of World War II he stopped performing and because of his Jewish background spent time in hiding while Paris was occupied by Nazi Germany.^[2] During this time he continued to compose film scores anonymously with his friend Roger Désormière putting his name to the scores and collecting money for Wiener so that he could maintain income to live.^[2]

After the end of the war in 1945, Wiener continued to devote himself fully to composition; most often but not limited to film scores.^[2] He composed the opening theme music used by the Office of French Radio and Television's history series Histoires sans paroles [fr] which aired from 1964-1986. His compositional output included the scores to more than 300 films encompassing both feature and short film lengths.^[10]

Stéphane Wiéner (January 25, 1922 – April 12, 1998, alto player in the Lespine Quartet) is his son (from his first marriage). His daughter (from his second marriage), Elizabeth Wiener, is an actress,^[10] singer and singer-songwriter.

Jean Wiener published his memoirs in 1978 as Allegro Appassionato. Most of his music remains unpublished. He died in Paris on June 8, 1982 at the age of 86.^[2]

Concert and chamber works

Wiener composed a number of concertos which included a Concerto Franco-Americain (1924) notable for its influences of jazz, a concerto that he described as Concert Pour Orchestre Et Un Piano Principal (1970, concerto for orchestra and a principal piano), and a concerto for accordion (1966).^[2]

His chamber music includes a sonata for cello and piano. In 1955 he set a selection of Robert Desnos' Chantefables for voice and piano.^[2]

Solo piano music

Film scores

Stage works

• Olive chez les nègres, ou Le village blanc (1926, operetta)^[2]