Uploaded November 2010 | Updated September 2026, 5 days ago
In 1920, Darius Milhaud had already toyed with the idea of aleatory music. The "Cocktail for Singer and Four Clarinets" is just one experiment in "controlled chance." In the second movement of the String Septet, each measure lasts one second. While one or several other instruments follow their normal course in playing the score, certain measures can be repeated for as many seconds (measures0 as is indicated by the composer. There resunts from this, in the words of Paul Colaer, "the impression of a controlled musical kaleidoscope, of a rapidly discreet careering and of joyful near-misses." The String Septet was first performed in the Library of Congress in Washington on October 30th 1964.
Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 -- 22 June 1974) was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality (music in more than one key at once).
Born in Marseilles to a Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent d'Indy. As a young man he worked for a while in the diplomatic entourage of Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist, who was serving as French ambassador to Brazil.
n 1925, Milhaud married his cousin, Madeleine (1902 - 2008), an actress and reciter. In 1930 she bore him a son, the painter and sculptor Daniel Milhaud, to be the couple's only child. [2]
The Milhauds left France in 1939 and emigrated to America in 1940 (his Jewish background made it impossible for him to return to his native country until after its Liberation). He secured a teaching post at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he collaborated with Henri Temianka and the Paganini Quartet. In an extraordinary concert there in 1949, the Budapest Quartet performed the composer's 14th String Quartet, followed by the Paganini's performance of his 15th; and then both ensembles played the two pieces together as an octet.[3] The following year, these same pieces were performed at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the Paganini and Juilliard Quartet.[4]
Legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck arguably became Milhaud's most famous student when Brubeck furthered his music studies at Mills College in the late 1940s (he named his eldest son Darius). However, his former students also include two of the seminal figures in America's version of minimalism, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, several arrangers and composers associated with West Coast modern jazz and popular songwriter Burt Bacharach.
In 1920, Darius Milhaud had already toyed with the idea of aleatory music. The "Cocktail for Singer and Four Clarinets" is just one experiment in "controlled chance." In the second movement of the String Septet, each measure lasts one second. While one or several other instruments follow their normal course in playing the score, certain measures can be repeated for as many seconds (measures0 as is indicated by the composer. There resunts from this, in the words of Paul Colaer, "the impression of a controlled musical kaleidoscope, of a rapidly discreet careering and of joyful near-misses." The String Septet was first performed in the Library of Congress in Washington on October 30th 1964.
Darius Milhaud (4 September 1892 -- 22 June 1974) was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality (music in more than one key at once).
Born in Marseilles to a Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre. He studied composition under Charles Widor and harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He also studied privately with Vincent d'Indy. As a young man he worked for a while in the diplomatic entourage of Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist, who was serving as French ambassador to Brazil.
n 1925, Milhaud married his cousin, Madeleine (1902 - 2008), an actress and reciter. In 1930 she bore him a son, the painter and sculptor Daniel Milhaud, to be the couple's only child. [2]
The Milhauds left France in 1939 and emigrated to America in 1940 (his Jewish background made it impossible for him to return to his native country until after its Liberation). He secured a teaching post at Mills College in Oakland, California, where he collaborated with Henri Temianka and the Paganini Quartet. In an extraordinary concert there in 1949, the Budapest Quartet performed the composer's 14th String Quartet, followed by the Paganini's performance of his 15th; and then both ensembles played the two pieces together as an octet.[3] The following year, these same pieces were performed at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the Paganini and Juilliard Quartet.[4]
Legendary jazz pianist Dave Brubeck arguably became Milhaud's most famous student when Brubeck furthered his music studies at Mills College in the late 1940s (he named his eldest son Darius). However, his former students also include two of the seminal figures in America's version of minimalism, Philip Glass and Steve Reich, several arrangers and composers associated with West Coast modern jazz and popular songwriter Burt Bacharach.
