Written by Anna Vorhes

Born
September 4, 1892, in Marseilles, but grew up in Aix-en-Provence

Died
June 22, 1974, in Geneva, Switzerland

Premiere
October 25, 1923, at Theatre des Champs-Elysee in Paris

Instrumentation
two flutes, (one doubling piccolo), oboe, two clarinets, bassoon, alto saxophone, French horn, two trumpets, trombone, piano, three timpani + two small timpani, one percussionist (snare drum, tenor drum, tambourin, pedal bass drum + cymbal attachment, cymbals, tambourine, wood-block and cowbell), two violins, violincello, double bass.  The alto saxophone part appears in the score where a viola part would generally be.

Duration
15 minutes

Something interesting to listen for
Milhaud was intrigued by jazz.  He was also a young composer in Paris at a time when experimenting with the materials of music was very in vogue.  In this piece you will hear interesting melodies, driving and gentle rhythms at various times, and the sense of jazz within the art music forms of fugue and march.  He experiments with polytonality, the technique of having part of the orchestra play in one key while another part plays in a different key.  The imitation of African rhythms leads to complex rhythmic language.  On first hearing, this may seem unusual, but if you listen carefully it's not hard to follow, or to imagine the story of the ballet.

Program Notes

Darius Milhaud was part of a group of composers recognized as Les Six in Paris.  The group were loosely allied, without a common mission, style or shared teachers, though they were all friends and shared a wider group of friends and acquaintances in the artistic community of Paris.  The support and critiques they offered each other did help them grow as young composers.

When World War I arrived, Milhaud tried to enlist, but due to health problems was assigned to work with refugees of the war.  This led eventually to his position as attaché to Paul Claudel, the ambassador to Brazil and the poet and writer who supplied many librettos to Milhaud.  The Brazilian music, that combination of Spanish influence and the rhythm of the indigenous people, intrigued the composer.  The two men traveled the world together in the course of their duties, and it was on a visit to London Milhaud first heard jazz.  American Billy Arnold brought his band to London, and in 1920, Milhaud heard them which changed his life.  He sought out jazz performances and in 1922 went to New York to study the genre.  He visited the most famous clubs that were the center of jazz development.

Paris at the time was intrigued by both jazz and by Africa and art, music, dance, and culture imported from there.  When the Ballet Suédois (Swiss Ballet) commissioned Milhaud to write a new work for them, he started with a creation myth that had been popularized in Swiss poet Blaise Cendrars' collection of African myths.  The resulting ballet is in five segments depicting h ow the gods created the earth and mankind.  Milhaud knit together music with strong rhythm, melodies that draw us in, and elements of both jazz and art music.  The sections, played without a break, are:

1. Chaos before Creation
2. Lifting Darkness and Creation of Tree, Plants, Insects, Birds and Beasts
3. Man and Woman are Created
4. The Desire of Man and Woman
5. The Kiss

The lifting of darkness section features a fugue using jazz motives.  The entire piece has a lightness about it that implies the joy of creation.

The costumes for the original performance, and the unusual feel of the music with its roots in jazz and symphonic music both made the work a curiosity that intrigued audiences, though they weren't sure about the new mix between symphony and jazz band.  The composer referred to it as "making wholesale use of the jazz style to convey a purely classical feeling."

Perhaps Leonard Bernstein described this work the best when he said, "The Creation of the World emerges not as a flirtation but as a real love affair with jazz."