Jean Rivier

Alexis Fernand Félix Jean Rivier (21 July 1896 – 6 November 1987)[1] was a French composer of classical music in the neoclassical style.

The son of Henri Rivier [fr], a co-inventor of Armenian paper, he composed over two hundred works, including music for orchestra, chamber groups, chorus, piano, and solo instruments.

Jean Rivier (1896–1987), a twentieth-century French composer of the neo-classical school, is remembered primarily for his flute compositions.

Despite his successful career, Rivier's music was often eclipsed by the increasingly avant-garde compositions of more progressive French composers.

With music set to poems by Guillaume Apollinaire, Henri Mahaut, Arthur Rimbaud, Pierre de Ronsard, Clément Marot, Joachim du Bellay, René Chalupt [fr], and Paul Gilson, the songs are characterized by quartal and quintal harmonies, modality, polychords, parallelism, contrasting moods, and expressive emotions.His complete piano works have been published in one volume by Salabert.