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Darius Milhaud

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Darius Milhaud was born in 1892 in Marseille and grew up in Aix-en-Provence, which he regarded as his true city. He was a French composer, conductor and teacher, a member of Les Six and one of the most prolific composers of the twentieth century. His list of works ends at opus number 443. He began as a violinist and switched to composition. At the conservatoire in Paris he met Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. From 1917 to 1919 he was in Brazil as secretary to the poet and ambassador Paul Claudel.

Music and breakthrough

In Brazil he was struck by the popular music of the country. You can hear that in Le Boeuf sur le toit, with melodies by, among others, Ernesto Nazareth, and in Saudades do Brasil, a suite of twelve dances that evoke twelve districts of Rio de Janeiro. In 1922 he heard real jazz for the first time in Harlem, which strongly influenced his music. A year later he completed La création du monde. His music makes much use of polytonality, that is, several keys at once.

Influence

Milhaud was also an influential teacher. He taught at Mills College in California and in Paris. His students included Dave Brubeck, Burt Bacharach, Steve Reich, Philip Glass and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Brubeck studied with him because Milhaud incorporated jazz into his work. To Bacharach he said that he should not be afraid of a melody that people can remember and whistle. In this way Milhaud forms a bridge between classical music, jazz and pop.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to La création du monde and notice the saxophone and the bluesy melodies among the orchestra. Can you hear where jazz enters classical music?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Categories: Artists