Cleveland State University EngagedScholarship@CSU Darius Milhaud Society Newsletters Michael Schwartz Library 1988 The Darius Milhaud Society Newsletter, Vol. 4, Spring 1988 Darius Milhaud Society Follow this and additional works at: https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/milhaud_newsletters Part of the History Commons, and the Music Commons How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! Recommended Citation Darius Milhaud Society, "The Darius Milhaud Society Newsletter, Vol. 4, Spring 1988" (1988). Darius Milhaud Society Newsletters. 2. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/milhaud_newsletters/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Michael Schwartz Library at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Darius Milhaud Society Newsletters by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE DARIUS MILHAUD SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Cleveland, Ohio Spring 1988 Vol. 4, No. I I ma:Je too much chamber music in my youth-sonatas, trios, quinJets. music and also for iJs economy of means. It is at the same time an plnyed wuh my fmher at home, or with the quartet ofmy good oldBruguier intellectual discipline and the crucible ofthe most intense emotion. [Mi/haud's first violin teacher, in Aix-en-Provence} not to have retained ~--- the taste for it. ..[Chamber music} is a f orm, the quanet especially, that carries thought and which bears the most profound expression ofoneself, with the means limited to four bows. It isperhaps a son {of expression] less direct but very satisfying for its austerity, iJs essentio/ character ofpure QUARTER-CENTURY REVIEW 25 Years Ago Current Season 1962- 1963 1987- 1988 Darius Milhaud ruts his cake at the Mills College celebration ofhis 70th On October 18. 1987, Madame Madeleme Milhaud, in Cleveland. birthday . received a hand-crafted book oftributesandreminiscences byfriends and former students. Photo by Marguerite B. Campbell. On Friday, January 19, 1962, Darius Milhaud conducted a concert of his music in the Hercules Hall in Munich, Germany. The program,organized Mll.HAUD ARCHIVE ENDOWMENT SPONSORS CONCERT by Musica Viva, featured performances of La Creation du Monde, L 'Homme et so n Desir, Deuxieme Suite Symphonique and The Mills College Milhaud CoUection Archive Endowment Ag~mnon. This event anticioated Milbaud's 70th birthday, twenty­ sponsored a free concert of Milbaud's vocal and piano music on April five and a halfyears ago, on September 4, 1962. The comments by Darius lOth in the Danforth Lecture HaU of the new Aron Art Center on the Milhaud were translated into German by Willi Reich and printed in the Mills campus. Allen Shearer, baritone, with Barbara Shearer, pianist, 1962 program booklet. Warmest thanks to Ursula Komeitcbouk, performed two major song cycles, Quatre Poemes de Paul Claude/ Assistant to the Director of the Cleveland Institute of Art, past president of pour Baryton, Op. 26 ( 1915, 1917) and Tristesses, Op. 355 (1956). Oeveland's Maison FranfOise, and a founding trustee of the Darius Mrs. Shearer was piano soloist in PrinUmps, Op. 25 and Op. 66 (1915 Milhaud Society, who translated Milhaud'sstatement and Jean Cocteau' s -1920), six piano pieces in two volumes. tnbute into English for inclusion in this newsletter. Both Mr. and Mrs. Shearer teach at the University of California. Berkeley. Mr. Shearer, composer as well as performer, has written and l BELIEV E IN THE FUTURE recorded songs soon to be released on the Contemporary Record Society Certain questions are bemg asked regularly in aU times: where label, and bas recorded performances of other American works for CRl. are we going? What is music coming to? What are the prospects for Mrs. Shearer, former assistant to Karl Ulrich Schnabel and previous the future? Artist-in-Residence at the American Academy in Rome, performs with At present these questions are being asked w1th particular chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras in North America and urgency. We have indeed lived through half a century in the course Europe and bas released an album of piano music by Schumann on the of which the most powerful revolutions occurred in the field of Alba label. music, especially in regard to the language of sound (Tonsprache). The program at Mills was planned and implemented by Einion One need only mention the names of Debussy, Stravinsky, Dafydd, a young musicologist from Wales, who wrote his master's thesis Schoenberg. The contemporary composer therefore bas at his on Milbaud's cantatas and is a graduate assistant at Mills for the academic disposal ao extraordinary variety of means, expressive, rich, new year 1987-88. He also translated the Claude! texts and prepared the continued ... continued . .. -1- ISSN 0898-1558 HONORARY TRUSTEES HONORARY COMMITTEE MadPil'inl' Milhaud, Chair Maurice Abravnnel Charles Jones Leonard Bernstein Virgil Thomson Vityu Vronsky Babin llenri Saugm•t, France Grant Johannesen Dave Brubeck OdPttc Vnlabregue Wurzburger Aaron Copland Paul Collaer, Belg1um FOUNDING TRUSTEES: Clinton and KathannP Warne. Ursula Kom,.itchouk ( 1962- 1963 1987- 1988 improved rewurces, a wealth ofidioms, diverse ways of expression program notes for the concert. A reception followed in the Bender Room and phrasing, some of them closely related to one another, and of the Mills College Library where the Milhaud Collection is on display. others that have only very distant roots in common. From the tonal The following observations were made by a concert listener: music which for centuries has blossomed in the bosom of the Milbaud's Quatre P~mes pour Baryton are written to diatonic system to the music of the twelve-tone series, musical Paul Claudel's Corona benignitatis anniDei, deeply-felt poetry of creativity has run the gamut from polytonality to free atonality; the strong spiritual imagery. The cycle ends with Obsession, an ancient modal music, too, has seen a vigorous revival, not to emotionally moving text that is an impassioned plea to God, set by mention attempts at further subdividing tones (quarter tones, etc.) Milhaud in a slow tempo and with much intensity. These songs, and the challenge of combmmg these various sounds in a thousand composed shortly after Sept Poemes de Paul Claude/ de Ia different ways. Now that all these possibilities have been thoroughly Connaissaru:e de L'Est, show styltsuc Similarities to the earlier investigated and exploited by contemporary composers, some work, both in their treatment as miniature monodramas and in superficial people appear and say, "See! Everything bas been said their cumulative emotional impact The musica.l structures of the in every ~ible way! Music has reached a dead end! Do you think Quatre Poimes are often but not alwasy tri-partite. and dramatic it can find a way out'?'' These days. it is quite the fashion to reply -as changes of texture, tempo and nuance enhance the messages ofthe many polls of recent }ear.. show - with an attitude of despairing texts. The tessitura of the piano is frequently low·l}ing, \\hich gives pt:.'-\imi!.m, admitting that everything bas indeed already been said, a sombre. even dark, cast to the total sound field, wuh momentsof and that no one can see a \\ay ouL higher-lying passages that create contrast. The QuoJrePoemesare I want to answer that question in my turn. I want to take this cohesive in style, yet varied in tempo, mood and atmosphere· the opportunity to say that I do not by any means share this pessimism result. a compelling group of \Ongs. Allen Shearer, though a bit and that I prot~t fiercely and formally against stat.ement:s of this tense in physical demeanor, sang with clear, well-projected tone sort. On the contrary, I feel extremely fortunate that 1 am able to and easily understandable French enunciation. Barbara Shearer express firm confidence in the future. was in complete command of the demanding piano part. never An excellent first reason is that, to me, there s1mply is nothmg overshadowed the voice, consistently supported at the most that could justify the pcssamistic sentiments that are currently so appropriate dynamic level, and performed in sensitive ensemble general and widespread. A second reason is the fact that such with her husband. Both are art~ts of great intelligence and mature pessimism has been around at all times; it has indeed - and musicality. verifiably so- been the stronger, the richer the penod. When I am The six piano pieces of Printemps form a series of intro­ asked the above qu~tions, I usually cite, as one example among spective pianistic ruminations. Although very demanding musi­ thou.c;ands, an instance I have witnessed myself: Paul Dukas, a cally, they are never ~howy . Often the music moves in contraSting great artist because ofhL~ talent as a composer as well as because of contrapuntal lines ~hich require dear delineation and balance hi!. profound and probing intellect, once said that the ultimate leveb, and most important. need only touches of pedal to enhance refinement had bt.-en reached with Ravel, and that it would be very legato or resonance. Mrs. Shearer ne\·er made the mistake of difficult to exceed the limn.'> he had reached. Yet after Ravel came over-pedalling, and she projected melodies with excellent clarity, Stravinsky and a great many others who brought us many chose tempi with care and achieved subtleties of balance and refinements. nuance that made each piece an exqui.~ite gem. Incidentally, speaking of the currently fashionable attitude of The long cycle for baritone, Tristesses. with tellts by Francis total discouragement, one might ask whether what appears as Jammes, was written in Paris and premiered at Aspen by Mack pe:.simasm und an impotence complex, is in reality conceit, Harrell and Vrctor Babin. It expresses yet a third aspect of arrogance and exc~ive pride.