Darius Milhaud in the United States, 1940–71: Transatlantic Constructions of Musical Identity
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DARIUS MILHAUD IN THE UNITED STATES, 1940–71: TRANSATLANTIC CONSTRUCTIONS OF MUSICAL IDENTITY Erin K. Maher A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music in the College of Arts and Sciences. Chapel Hill 2016 Approved by: Annegret Fauser Andrea Bohlman Tim Carter David Garcia Mark Katz © 2016 Erin K. Maher ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Erin K. Maher: Darius Milhaud in the United States, 1940–71: Transatlantic Constructions of Musical Identity (Under the direction of Annegret Fauser) When the French Jewish composer Darius Milhaud (1892–1974) fled his homeland with his wife and son at the time of the German invasion in 1940, this displacement marked the beginning of three decades of engagement with the musical culture and institutions of the United States. After seven years of wartime exile in Oakland, California, Darius and Madeleine Milhaud divided their time between Oakland and Paris, taking on a transatlantic existence that enabled them to assume distinct roles in U.S. musical life. Both during and after World War II, the composer taught on the faculty of Mills College, participated in intersecting musical networks, and continued to compose prolifically. He also continually renegotiated his identity as a composer—and as a Frenchman in the United States—in response to professional opportunities, personal circumstances, and cultural shifts. This dissertation presents the first in-depth study of Milhaud’s activity in the United States, interpreting the results of new archival research through frameworks of identity construction and transnational mobility. In exile, Milhaud emphasized Frenchness to create space for himself in the U.S. musical landscape while also “defending French culture” through music. After the war, he continued to present himself as a “French composer,” while Jewish identity also took on an increasingly prominent place in his professional life as new institutions and ideologies of “Jewish music” emerged. Milhaud established a reputation as an aesthetically iii open-minded teacher, and when his neoclassical idiom began to fall out of favor, he attempted to exert continued authority by positioning himself as a mediator between the musical establishment and the new avant-garde, connected to U.S. and French musical communities through his yearly travels. During this time, Madeleine Milhaud carried out her own creative activity, but also oriented her public image around that of her husband, whose postwar reputation was complicated by factors including age and disability. Through an exploration of one composer’s construction of identity, this dissertation asks questions about the goals and effects of musical biography while contributing to scholarly conversations on exile and migration, French and Jewish identities, and the generational shifts of postwar modernism. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Despite the many hours I spent writing alone in my apartment or in the library, this dissertation was anything but a solitary endeavor. First and foremost, I thank my advisor, Annegret Fauser— under whose guidance I have done things I thought were far beyond me—for keeping me on track, for helping me to grow as a scholar and as a human being, and for believing in me more than I believe in myself. I also thank the other members of my committee: Tim Carter’s wide- ranging knowledge and attention to detail improved every piece of writing I sent him; Andrea Bohlman’s enthusiastic inquisitiveness pushed me to think beyond my scholarly comfort zone and to delight in doing so; Mark Katz and David Garcia have facilitated my development as a scholar not only as members of my dissertation committee, but also as, respectively, my Master’s thesis advisor and the Director of Graduate Studies. Earlier in my graduate career, Brigid Cohen cultivated my interest in migration and transnationalism through her Fall 2011 seminar, “Music, Musicology, and Cross-Cultural Encounter,” and conversations with her shaped this dissertation in its beginning stages. Michael Figueroa joined the Chapel Hill music faculty at just the right moment to help me expand my understanding of how Milhaud fits into the broader world of Jewish music. I am indebted to many of my fellow graduate students, past and present, for commenting on my drafts, accompanying me through this seven-year venture, showing me the path ahead, and making sure I know that no matter how many social events I might skip, I am never alone. I especially thank Karen Atkins, Molly Barnes, Christa Bentley, Gina Bombola, Chris Bowen, Cathy Crone, v Megan Eagen, Kim Francis, Naomi Graber, Catherine Hughes, Maggie Kadel, Will Robin, Kristen Turner, Oren Vinogradov, Jennifer Walker, and Chris Wells. I received financial support for this project from a number of sources. I began my research as a James W. Pruett Fellow in Music at the Library of Congress in the summer of 2011. My parents generously covered the cost of dozens of train tickets in the summer of 2012 so that I could commute daily from their house outside Philadelphia to the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. An Off-Campus Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, supplemented by a travel grant from the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies, enabled me to spend ample time at Mills College, where I not only did archival research, but also came to know the campus that Milhaud loved so much. My research in Paris and Basel was supported by the American Musicological Society’s M. Elizabeth C. Bartlet Fund for Research in France, the Kenan Graduate Student Activities Fund, and the Paul Sacher Stiftung. I am grateful for the assistance of the librarians and archivists in each of the institutions where I found material for this project, particularly Michèle Noirjean and Robert Piencikowski at the Paul Sacher Stiftung, Richard Boursy and Emily Ferrigno at Yale University, and Janice Braun and Karma Pippin at Mills College. While on campus in Chapel Hill, I held a teaching assistantship in the Department of Music, and my final year of writing was funded by an American Fellowship from AAUW. My four years as an undergraduate music composition major at Moravian College set me on this path. In particular, I thank my composition instructor and thesis advisor, Larry Lipkis, for encouraging my enthusiasm for twentieth-century music history; my flute teacher, Robin Kani, for introducing me to the French flute repertoire; my French professors, Jean-Pierre Lalande and Joanne McKeown, for helping me develop the language skills necessary for this dissertation; and vi my roommate and friend, Jen Bauer, for being a music nerd with me. Before college, I learned from Rob Ross that composers are people too. My friends outside musicology—some of whom have been listening to me talk about Milhaud for a decade or more—have cheered me on, kept me entertained, and answered questions about everything from French translation to California geography. They include Katelyn Browne, Julie Cramer, Zanna Fredland, Jessica Jackson, Aliyah Johnson, Rachael Linden, Rebecca Maxfield, Cassidy Percoco, Lydia Spielberg, and Leanna Yip. A special thanks goes to Kyra Davies, who never lets me forget that composers are hilarious. Finally, I thank my family—my parents, Chris and Donna; my siblings, Brian and Amanda; and my sister-in-law, Rachel. Without the countless ways in which you have supported and sustained me, I could not have done any of this. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ......................................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... xii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................................................... xiii NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION AND TRANSLATION ............................................................. xiv INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Milhaud Sources and Scholarship ............................................................................................... 6 Composers and Biography ........................................................................................................ 11 Biography as Historiographical Intervention ............................................................................ 20 Milhaud and the United States before 1940 .............................................................................. 27 Chapter Overview ..................................................................................................................... 35 CHAPTER ONE: A FRENCH COMPOSER IN EXILE (1940–44) ........................................... 41 Aix-en-Provence, 1939–40 ....................................................................................................... 43 From Aix to Oakland ................................................................................................................ 52 Separation from France ............................................................................................................. 60 Isolation and Community .........................................................................................................