H. Maurice Jacquet

H. Maurice Jacquet, born Maurice Henri Louis Fernand Jacquet on 18 March 1886 in France, was a composer, conductor, and book writer whose career spanned European opera houses, American concert halls, and Broadway. He died on 29 June 1954 in New York.

Jacquet was the son of Alfred Eugene Gustave Jacquet, a photographer, and Jeanne Joséphine Henriette Noël, a singing teacher. His early musical ambitions were directed toward becoming a virtuoso, and he undertook formal study with Francis Thomé, a composer and pianist. Recognizing his aptitude for composition, his parents arranged for him to continue his training under Émile Pessard, a professor of composition at the Conservatoire de Paris. He also studied conducting with Alexandre Luigini, a French composer and conductor, through whom he developed professional connections with Jules Massenet and Gustave Charpentier, regularly directing their works.

His compositional output encompassed art songs, symphonic poems for soloists and orchestra, and piano works. Among his early stage works, Messaouda, a one-act opéra comique written with Davin de Champclos and André Mauprey, premiered at the Théâtre Moncey in Paris in 1908. Romanitza, a four-act lyrical drama set to a poem by Maurice Magre, was presented at the Théâtre Municipal of Calais in April 1913. Additional stage works composed during his European years include Le Poilu, a two-act comédie-opérette with a libretto by Maurice Hennequin and Pierre Veber, and La Petite Dactylo, a three-act vaudeville with a libretto by Hennequin and Georges Mitchell, both from 1916. L'As de cœur ou Jim-Jim, a three-act operetta with a libretto by André Mauprey, received its first performance in 1925, as did Son Altesse Papillon, a three-act operetta co-composed with Mauprey. Jacquet also served for a period as conductor at the Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris.

In 1926, Jacquet was appointed to the music staff of the newly opened Roxy Theatre in New York, alongside Ernö Rapée, Frederick Stahlberg, and Charles Previn. That same year, he participated in the Federation of French Veterans of the Great War Inc. Grand Concert and Annual Ball at the Hotel Plaza in New York, appearing alongside performers including Lucienne Boyer, Doris Niles, Leon Rothier, M. Van De Putte, and Raymonde Delaunois. During the 1920s he had relocated to America with his wife, harpist Andrée Amalou-Jacquet, the daughter of conductor Auguste Amalou. Prior to settling in the United States, Jacquet had also traveled to Canada and Cuba, where he directed the National Philharmonic Orchestra for a period.

His Broadway career brought him to New York in the 1929–1930 season. His verified Broadway credits include the musical The Silver Swan, the musical The Well of Romance — a two-act comedy operetta with a libretto by Preston Sturges — and the play Spanish Love, for which he contributed as book writer. While living in Hollywood, he composed film music, including the score for the 1932 American horror film White Zombie and work on the 1929 family comedy The Holy Terror and the 1930 family comedy Bear Shooters.

In 1927, Jacquet composed The Mystic Trumpeter, a cantata for mixed voices, orchestra, and children's chorus. His instrumental works include Cantique à l'ancienne for harp, Bouquet de Noëls for violin with piano or organ accompaniment, and the piano piece Rhapsodie sur un chant canadien "Alouette," all from 1925. Maurice Baron, a French-American clarinetist and composer, dedicated his 1928 piano work Love's Splendor to Jacquet. In 1911, Jacquet dedicated his mélodie Chanson de l'Inconstant to French lyric tenor Edmond Clément. In 1937, Jacquet founded the third version of the American Opera Company in Trenton, New Jersey, which produced two operatic productions before dissolving. He published a book, The Road to Successful Singing, in 1947.

Jacquet was married three times. He first wed Rebecca Dusserele on 14 April 1904 in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, divorcing on 18 May 1908. On 9 January 1909, he married Helena Anna Marx in the 9th arrondissement of Paris; that marriage also ended in divorce after eleven years. His third and final marriage was to Andrée Augustine Louise George dit Amalou, known professionally as Andrée Amalou-Jacquet, a harpist, in the commune of Ézanville in the Seine-et-Oise department of Île-de-France.