Milhaud, Darius

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Milhaud, Darius

Cantate de Psaumes Op. 425 for baritone and chamber orchestra

SKU: 4232 Category:

26,00 

Darius Milhaud – Cantate de psaumes for baritone and chamber orchestra – opus 425 (1967)

(born in Marseille, France, September 4, 1892 — died in Geneva, Switzerland, June 22, 1974)

Darius Milhaud was a French composer. In his youth, he studied the violin, and as an adult he often conducted his own compositions. Later in life, he also became a music teacher.

Milhaud was born at the home of his maternal grandparents in Marseille and grew up in nearby Aix-en-Provence, where his father was a successful dealer in almonds. Both of his parents were musically inclined: his father was an amateur pianist, and his mother trained for many years as a singer. She was descended from a distinguished family of Sephardic Jews in Italy, and the Milhaud family was very active in the Jewish community of Aix for several generations.

In 1909, Milhaud moved to Paris to study at the Conservatoire. He studied orchestration with Paul Dukas and composition with André Gedalge. While there, he began a life-long friendship with fellow musician Jean Wiéner.

During this time, Milhaud also met Paul Claudel, a poet, playwright, and diplomat whose work Milhaud had admired for several years. It was an odd pairing; Claudel was twenty-four years older than Milhaud and was a devout Roman Catholic, but their meeting in 1912 launched a partnership that lasted until Claudel’s death in 1955. They collaborated on numerous operas and ballets, and Milhaud often turned to Claudel’s poetry to find source material for other vocal works.

Not long after Milhaud left the conservatory, Claudel, who was then French consul in Rome, offered him a position as secretary. Milhaud accepted, but before he could begin, Claudel was appointed minister to Brazil, and the young composer decided to accompany Claudel to South America.

They spent 1917 and 1918 based in Rio de Janeiro. After World War I ended, Claudel was called back to France, but most ships had been commandeered by the military, and travel was challenging. To return to Paris they had go by way of New York, and while they were sailing north along the east coast of the Americas, the engines of their ship failed. They drifted for weeks before being rescued. During this voyage Claudel began to translate individual psalms into French, a practice he continued for many years. …

 

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