Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud. Portrait by Imogene Cunningham. Darius Milhaud Paul Collaer Translated and edited by Jane Hohfeld Galante With a definitive catalogue of works compiled from the composer's own notebooks by Madeleine Milhaud and revised by Jane Hohfeld Galante M San Francisco Press Inc. Box 6800, San Francisco, CA 94101-6800 Copyright © 1988 by San Francisco Press, Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1988 978-0-333-48544-6 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without permission. First published 1988 by San Francisco Press, Inc. Box 6800, San Francisco, CA 94101-6800, USA and in the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth (except Canada) by The Macmillan Press Ltd London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-911302-62-2 (San Francisco Press) ISBN 978-1-349-10653-0 ISBN 978-1-349-10651-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-10651-6 Library of Congress Catalogue Card No. 84-050720 Table of Contents Translator's note, vii David, 149 Preface to the English-language edition, Fiesta, 154 viii La mere coupable, 156 Foreword, xiv Saint-Louis, 157 I. Aix-en-Provence, 1 Last works, 159 II. The man, 12 Incidental music, 160 III. The art, 23 VII. Vocal music IV. The music, 31 Songs, 163 V. The language, 39 Vocal ensemble music, 172 VI. The dramatic works Religious music, 179 La brebis egaree, 53 VIII. Instrumental music Protee, 59 Piano, 184 L 'homme et son desir, 63 Chamber music, 188 Le boeuf sur le toit, 67 Symphonic music, 214 La creation du monde, 69 Concertos, 222 Salade and Le train bleu, 75 Conclusion, 228 Les malheurs d'Orphee, 79 Catalogue of compositions arranged Le pauvre matelot, 87 chronologically by categories, 231 Esther de parpentras, 93 Contents, 233 The operas-minute, 103 Catalogue of compositions arranged by L 'Ores tie, 105 opus numbers, 353 Christophe Colomb, 128 Catalogue of compositions arranged Maximilien, 137 alphabetically by title, 366 La sagesse, 141 Discography, 376 Medee, 144 Bibliography, 389 Bolivar, 147 Publishers, 398 v Translator's Note In 1947 Milhaud's lifetime friend and advocate Paul Collaer published the first comprehensive book on the composer. It was neither a biography, strictly speaking, nor a technical musical analysis, but rather a sensitive appreciation of the personality and music of a man who, through letters, conversations, and shared experiences, had revealed himself to Collaer more than to almost any other friend of his mature years. Twenty-five years later, after Milhaud's death, the author once again took up his pen in order to finish the story. It was his intent to add comments regarding the compositions of those later years and to give an overview of certain characteristic patterns in Milhaud's musical intent and accomplishment. The book must be read and enjoyed in this context. Because it was written in two parts, separated by many years, I found some redundancies and out-of-context interpolations of material which I have rearranged and in some cases eliminated. However, my intent has been to remain true to the letter as well as the spirit of the original, always keeping in mind the admonition, "Quine recn!e pas, assasine." As for the catalogue of compositions included in this edition, it has been edited in such a way as to make it serve the needs of performing musicians as well as music historians. Information supplied by the composer's widow has been rechecked, augmented, and amended where necessary so that this is doubtless the most complete and accurate list of Milhaud's works published to date. Collaer never visited the United States and so was unable to sense fully the impact of Milhaud's presence in this country, particularly in that corner of California where he took up residence. I have therefore added a Preface concerning his American years. Every student, friend, or casual acquaintance who knew him during that period could add a string of personal reminiscences to my account, for Milhaud related to people in a very specially directed way. Perhaps some day the story will be told more fully. For readers who seek a more detailed analysis of the music, I would suggest perusal of the Bibliography. The 443 opus numbers have invited the attention of a considerable number of Ph.D. candidates and other scholars and will doubtless continue to do so; for, as Claude Rostand has remarked, "Darius Milhaud's stature becomes increasingly impressive as his music becomes better and better known." * * * Darius Milhaud was born at Aix-en-Provence on 4 September 1892. He entered the Paris Conservatory in 1909, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of the first world war. Wishing to serve his country but unable to join the military for reasons of health, he became secretary to the writer Paul Claude!, who had been appointed French minister to Brazil. When he returned from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in the autumn of 1918, he quickly became a leading member of the musical avant-garde and soon gained world renown. The fall of France during the second world war forced him to settle in the United States, where he became associated with Mills College in Oakland, California. After 1947 he spent alternate years in California and France, where he was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. During the summertime he taught at the Aspen Festival in Colorado. The crippling effects of his precarious health never diminished his energies as a composer, and he continued to add to his prolific list of works up to the time of his death on 22 June 1974 in Geneva. Jane H. Galante vii Preface to the English-language Edition It is an interesting attribute of collective human mentality that, no matter how much we are shaken and bewildered by history in the mak ing, once events have become part of the past, we tend to view them as inevitable. No one can forget the terrors of the years 1939-1945, but we have come to take for granted the influence that the artists and in tellectuals fleeing European upheaval had on America. Rarely do we stop and ask: What if there had been no war and persecution? What if, for example, Darius Milhaud had not sought refuge in the United States? Now that over a third of a century has elapsed, it is timely to pose this question, in two parts: what special meaning did Milhaud's presence have for America? and what did the thirty or so years he spent here contribute to this unalterably French composer? A perusal of Paul Collaer's admirable study partially answers the second of these questions. As Collaer has shown, Milhaud had been fully shaped as both man and musician long before he came to these shores. That being so, one wonders why it was that he continued to make California his home long past the time when he could have re turned to France. The reason must stem from the very same qualities of mind and spirit that had formed him at an early age and that guided his inner destiny throughout a lifetime. Loyalty was doubtless one sentiment that bound him to the country that had welcomed him so open-heartedly, for Milhaud was a man of selective but strong loyalties. His parents, his wife and child, a very few friends, his religion, his native country, the town where he was born, and the whole region of Provence-these were profound lifetime at tachments and, along with his music, the only real essentials in his life. For all his love of people and of artistic stimulation, his joy at being with friends and colleagues, and his enthusiasm for the musical pro ductivity of the great cities of Europe, above all Paris, it was to the quiet natural surroundings of Aix that he had retired almost every summer before the war to do his most felicitous creative work. Aix as a heritage and a remembered haven never ceded its impor tance in Milhaud's affections, but when he returned there in 1947 after his years of forced exile, it had become a sad and alien place. As in so many other parts of the Continent, war had taken a heavy toll. Perhaps it was only then that he realized how much the little cottage on a Cali fornia hillside had come to mean to him. Here were the same plants, viii the same bird songs, and the calm and detachment that he had found at Aix in earlier years. Here also was the opportunity to associate with kind and discreet colleagues, to be surrounded by youth, and to benefit from the stimulus of a lively city only a few miles away. In numerous letters, interviews, and magazine articles, Milhaud re ferred to his enjoyment of the Mills College campus in Oakland, Cali fornia. "I am very happy here," he repeatedly asserted. "I work well in this calm atmosphere." Visitors from abroad called the campus a ter restrial paradise. Truly, it was a place of trees-giant eucalyptus, pines, and acacias-of quiet walkways, ponds, and flowing streams. Time would have seemed suspended had it not been for the quarter hourly reminder of bells from the campanile. Milhaud often described the verdure of his "enchanted oasis," the wild animals that visited it fearlessly, and most of all the birds. In spite of many attractive offers to leave this small, private women's college and join other institutions of higher learning, he always resisted.

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