Jocelyne Binet

Binet, Jocelyne

Jocelyne Binet. Composer, pianist, teacher, b East Angus, near Sherbrooke, Que, 27 Sep 1923, d Quebec City 13 Jan 1968; B MUS (Montreal) 1943, L MUS composition (Montreal) 1946. She studied at the École supérieure de musique d'Outremont (École Vincent-d'Indy), where her teachers were Claude Champagne (theory and composition) and Jean Dansereau and Jean-Marie Beaudet (piano). In 1946 she obtained a CAPAC prize for composition. She studied at the Paris Cons 1948-9 on a bursary from the French government and 1949-51 on another from the Quebec government. Her teachers were Tony Aubin (composition), Noël Gallon (counterpoint and fugue), and Olivier Messiaen (analysis). On her return to Canada she taught 1951-7 at the École Vincent-d'Indy, 1952-61 at the JMC Orford Art Centre, 1957-59 at the CMM; taught analysis and counterpoint 1957-68 at Laval University, and also gave private lessons. Serge Garant, Gilles Tremblay, and Monique Vachon were her pupils in counterpoint.

Among Binet's works are four pieces for orchestra, Evocation (1948), Danse (1949), Un Canadien à Paris (1951) and L'Amour endormi with soprano (no date), as well as some chamber music, including a Trio for violin, cello and piano (1945) and a Suite for flute, piano, and strings (1946). In addition to several songs, she wrote, for solo voice, female choir, and piano, a Petite Suite vocale (1945, words by Jean-Henri Fabre, dedicated to Champagne,.the manuscript of which is deposited with the CMM), and Nocturne (1946). Her works have been performed on radio and in concert in Brazil, Canada, and France, in particular by the Canadian Trio (1948), which consisted of Gilles Lefebvre, Colombe Pelletier and Rafael Masella, and also by Gérard Souzay who sang her Cycle de mélodies on seven poems by Paul Éluard.in a 1955 recital program Her papers are held at the ANQ in Quebec City.