Like his elder brother, Abel Combarieu [fr] (born 30 January 1856 in Cahors) who was to become the Private Secretary of Président de la République Émile Loubet, Jules Combarieu was the son of Henri Combarieu, a printer, and Marie-Louise Salbant, who married in Quercy in 1855.

He first studied at la Sorbonne, then in Berlin with Philipp Spitta.

[1] In 1901, Combarieu founded the Revue d'histoire et de critique musicales, which became La Revue musicale in 1904 before merging with the journal of the Société internationale de musique (S.I.M.)

Between 1904 et 1910, he was professor of music at the Collège de France.

His brother Abel Combarieu was the uncle of diplomat and writer Paul Morand, a member of the Académie française.