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| Milhaud | |
|---|---|
| Name | Darius Milhaud |
| Birth date | 4 September 1892 |
| Birth place | Aix-en-Provence, France |
| Death date | 22 June 1974 |
| Death place | Geneva, Switzerland |
| Era | 20th-century classical |
| Occupations | Composer, teacher, conductor |
| Notable works | Le boeuf sur le toit; La Création du monde; Suite provençale |
Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a prolific 20th-century French composer, conductor, and teacher associated with Les Six, French music, and major modernist movements. His output encompassed orchestral, chamber, vocal, ballet, and film genres, and his career intersected with institutions such as the Paris Conservatoire, New York Conservatory of Music, and Mills College. Milhaud's work reflects influences from Brazil, African American music, jazz, and contemporaries like Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky, and Claude Debussy.
Born in Aix-en-Provence into a Provençal Jewish family, he studied violin and composition at the Paris Conservatoire and privately with Charles-Marie Widor and Vincent d'Indy. Early contacts included attendance at performances by Camille Saint-Saëns, Gabriel Fauré, and visits to salons frequented by Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel. A pivotal formative period came during a 1917 diplomatic posting in Rio de Janeiro, where Milhaud encountered Brazilian popular and indigenous music and met composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos and performers linked to the Rio Carnival.
Milhaud was a member of Les Six alongside Francis Poulenc, Arthur Honegger, Georges Auric, Germaine Tailleferre, and Louis Durey, contributing to the Parisian avant-garde scene centered on venues like the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Salle Gaveau. He composed ballets for choreographers such as George Balanchine and worked with impresarios including Sergei Diaghilev and institutions like the Opéra-Comique. In the 1940s he emigrated to the United States, holding posts at Bard College, California State University, and Mills College, where he taught composers who later taught figures linked to American music and serialism.
Milhaud's style blended polytonality, rhythmic vitality, and melodic clarity, often incorporating elements drawn from Brazilian music, West African musical traditions, and jazz idioms heard in the clubs of New Orleans and Paris. His techniques show affinities with Impressionism as practiced by Claude Debussy and contrapuntal practices recalling Johann Sebastian Bach and Palestrina in sacred works. Milhaud engaged with contemporaries such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Arnold Schoenberg, and Béla Bartók in debates over modern harmony and often favored accessible textures akin to Erik Satie and Francis Poulenc. He experimented with large-scale choral forces in the tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven and Hector Berlioz while also writing intimate chamber pieces that display connections to Maurice Ravel.
Notable stage, orchestral, and chamber pieces include the ballet Le boeuf sur le toit, the jazz-influenced ballet La Création du monde, the Suite provençale, and numerous string quartets and symphonies. His output encompassed over 400 opus numbers including concertos for piano, violin, cello, and less conventional solo instruments, drawing performers such as Pablo Casals, Arthur Rubinstein, Jacques Thibaud, and Isaac Stern to premiere his works. Large choral-symphonic creations relate to the lineage of Giuseppe Verdi and George Frideric Handel in scale, while piano miniatures reflect the salon tradition of Frédéric Chopin and Erik Satie.
Milhaud composed film scores and incidental music for theater and cinema, collaborating with directors and playwrights from the French and American scenes. His film music was featured in productions alongside the cinematic works of figures like Jean Renoir, Marcel Carné, and later collaborations connected to Hollywood émigrés such as Max Ophüls and Billy Wilder. He wrote theater music for dramatists in the tradition of Jean Cocteau and supplied incidental scores for productions at venues including the Comédie-Française.
As a pedagogue, Milhaud taught at institutions including Paris Conservatoire, Mills College, Radcliffe College, and Bard College, influencing students such as Dave Brubeck, Steve Reich, Philip Glass (indirectly through milieu), and Olly Wilson. His methods emphasized craftsmanship, counterpoint, and rhythmic innovation, contributing to transatlantic exchange between French and American compositional schools. Milhaud's legacy is preserved in archives at institutions akin to the Bibliothèque nationale de France and university special collections; his influence echoes in the practices of later composers tied to neo-classicism and world music incorporation.
Milhaud married twice and maintained friendships with artists across Europe and the Americas, including painters from the School of Paris and writers such as Paul Claudel and Jean Cocteau. He received honors such as membership in the Légion d'honneur and commissions from leading ensembles like the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra. Late-career recognition included retrospectives at festivals such as the Edinburgh Festival and recordings by labels associated with artists like Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. Milhaud died in Geneva in 1974, leaving a vast catalogue that continues to be performed and studied by ensembles linked to contemporary classical music and historical performance movements.
Category:French composers Category:20th-century composers