Though he was a Frenchman, some music by André Jolivet sounds exotic, even the
Chansons naïves, part of a considerable quantity of ‘educational’ music he wrote for various instruments. According to Hilda Jolivet’s
Avec André Jolivet (Flammarion, Paris, 1978), the six
Chansons naïves were composed in 1949, although the reference books say 1951. They were intended for his own children to play while learning the piano, and they have the piquancy of a complex modern style simplified without losing its essential character.
from notes by Max Harrison © 1986
