Milhaud, Darius (däryüs` mēyō`), 1892–1974, French composer. Milhaud studied at the Paris Conservatory. In Brazil (1917–19) as an aide to Paul Claudel Claudel, Paul (pōl klōdĕl`), 1868–1955, French dramatist, poet, and diplomat.
..... Click the link for more information. , poet and French minister to Brazil, he became acquainted with Brazilian folk music. Upon his return to France, he became one of the group known as Les Six Six, Les (lā sēs), a short-lived group of six young early 20th-century French musicians.
..... Click the link for more information. . Milhaud became professor of composition at Mills College, Oakland, Calif., in 1940. He is especially celebrated as a composer for the stage; his operas include Le Pauvre Matelot (1927; libretto by Jean Cocteau Cocteau, Jean (zhäN kôktō`), 1889–1963, French writer, visual artist, and filmmaker.
..... Click the link for more information. ) and Christophe Colombe (1930; libretto by Claudel). Milhaud's outstanding ballets are La Création du Monde (1923) and Le Boeuf sur le toit; or, The Nothing Doing Bar (1920). A prolific composer, Milhaud also wrote symphonies, concertos, orchestral music, chamber music, and songs. He was among the first to exploit polytonality and developed new rhythmic structures influenced by Brazilian and jazz elements.

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Notes without Music (tr. 1953, repr. 1970).

Milhaud, Darius

(born Sept. 4, 1892, Aix-en-Provence, France—died June 22, 1974, Geneva, Switz.) French composer. Milhaud studied at the Paris Conservatoire, then at the Schola Cantorum with Vincent d'Indy. He became known as one of Les Six, a group of young French composers. His music is characterized by polytonality (simultaneous use of different keys), as in Saudades do Brazil (1921); though dissonant, his compositions retain a lyrical quality. The influence of jazz is audible in his best-known work, the ballet The Creation of the World (1923). He wrote many ballets, operas, and film scores in the 1920s, culminating in the grand opera Christophe Colomb (1928). Milhaud had a longtime association with the Aspen Music Festival, which he helped found in 1949.