Presents
Darius Milhaud
La Creation du Monde for Piano Quintet, Op.81b
Le Creation du Monde can be traced back to Milhaud’s 1920 London trip. where he first encountered jazz. He was so enamoured of it, that he planned a trip to Harlem in New York City, the home of the so called “real jazz". In 1922, he traveled to New York, visiting Harlem where he spent his time mingling with jazz musicians. The experience made a lasting impression on him. When he returned to Paris, to his surprise, he found that jazz had already arrived. The black American jazz singer Josephine Baker, then active in Paris, was immensely popular and the sounds of Le Jazz Hot could be heard in all of the cabarets over the city. Milhaud began writing in what he called a jazz idiom, using the melodies and rhythms of the blues. La Creation du Monde was meant to be a ballet. The score called for a small orchestra of seventeen instruments. The ballet was an immediate success, many said because of the risqué costumes. Nonetheless, at the suggestion of friends, Milhaud also made a version for piano and string quartet shortly thereafter. In five movements, the work opens with a melancholy Prelude which has many of the elements heard later. Next comes a lively, jazzy Fugue. The third movement is a gentler Romance. Then comes a rollicking Scherzo. The finale, the longest of the movements, has all of the moods of the preceding movements and is a summation.
Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) was born in in the French city of Marseille. He studied composition at the Paris Conservatory with Charles-Marie Widor and became a member of the so called "Les Six", a group of modernist French composer who were active during the first part of the 20th century. During the course of his long career, he frequently traveled abroad, sometimes for pleasure, sometimes from necessity. During the First World War, Milhaud served as secretary to the French ambassador to Brazil. During the Second World War, he moved to America during the Nazi occupation of France. The sights and sounds of the cultures of he saw always interested him. In his music one often hears the sounds of Brazilian dances and American, but also the “modern” trends of French music during the 1910s and 1920s.
Parts: $39.95
