Jankélévitch, Vladimir

Jankélévitch, Vladimir, French philosopher and writer on music; b. Bourges, Aug. 31, 1903; d. Paris, June 6, 1985. He was educated in Paris at the School of Oriental Languages and at the École Normale Supérieure; received a degree in philosophy in 1925 and the doctorat es lettres in 1933. He was a prof, of philosophy at the Institut de Prague (1927–33), then at the univs. of Lille (1933-39; 1945-52) and Toulouse (1939–5). He was a prof, of ethics and moral philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris (1952–78). His writings on music reflect his philosophical bent and include Gabriel Fauré et ses mélodies (Paris, 1938; 2^nd ed., aug., 1951, as Gabriel Fauré, Ses mélodies, son esthétique), Maurice Ravel (Paris, 1939; 2^nd ed., aug., 1956, as Ravel; new ed., rev. and aug., 1995), Debussy et le mystère (Neuchâtel, 1949), La Rhapsodie, verve et improvisation musicale (Paris, 1955), Le Nocturne: Fauré: Chopin et la nuit: Satie et le matin (Paris, 1957), La Musique et l’ineffable (Paris, 1961; 2^nd ed., 1983), La Vie et la mort dans la musique de Debussy (Neuchâtel, 1968), Fauré et l’inexprimable (Paris, 1974), Debussy et le mystère de l’instant (Paris, 1976), with B. Berlowitz, Quelque part dans l’inachevé, Moussorgsky, Liszt, Bartók, Chopin…(Paris, 1978), Liszt et la rhapsodie: Essai sur la virtuosité (Paris, 1979), and La Présence lointaine, Albéniz, Severac, Mompou (Paris, 1983).

Bibliography

L. Jerphagnon, J. (Paris, 1969).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire