Darius Milhaud (1892 - 1974)

Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French modernist composer, conductor, music critic and teacher.

Born into a Jewish family, Milhaud studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Paul Dukas and Vincent d'Indy. During his years of study, he met his future colleagues in Les Six, A. Honegger and J. Taifer. Around 1913, Milhaud began to use bitonality and polychords in his music. He studied polytonality (the simultaneous use of different keys) and consistently developed this technique.

Milhaud's bold, individual style was particularly evident in the ballets Man and His Desire (1918) and The Creation of the World (1923). He wrote incidental music for Claudel's Protea (1920). His other works include the operas Christophe Colomb (1930), David (1954), Medea (1939), and others, totaling 16 operas. A prolific composer, Milhaud wrote more than 400 works, including scores for radio and film, arrangements of the Jewish Sabbath morning service, symphonies, and choral works. Among chamber works, the composer composed many concertos for strings and other instruments.

In 1940 Millau became a professor at Mills College in Oakland, California; in 1947 he was one of the founders of the Summer Conservatory of Music at the Music Academy of the West in California. After 1947, he also taught at the Paris Conservatory of Music almost until the end of his life. His students include many future jazz and classical composers.