(PP. 88-95) Music Section IV: Jazz at the Ballet → Listening Guide 10 (ACADEC '25-'26)

*Still need to do the Listening Guide for La Creation

What prejudiced some people against jazz?

The red-light origins of jazz

What won over many other listeners of jazz immediately?

Its energetic appeal

What did various classical composers find ways to interweave?

Jazz with art music, both in the U.S. and overseas

What did jazz composers experiment with?

Classical techniques

How did Deborah Mawer describe the relationship between jazz and classical?

“Jazzing the classics” and “classicizing jazz”

What country was especially receptive to the exciting sounds coming from across the Atlantic?

France

What was Claude Debussy’s lifespan?

1862-1918

What did Claude Debussy incorporate into his compositions?

Javanese elements after hearing a gamelan orchestra perform at the 1889 Universal Exposition

How did many French listeners first hear the sounds of ragtime, blues, and jazz in the decade before the Roaring Twenties?

By means of lively performances of the 369th Infantry Regiment Band, nicknamed the “Hellfighters”

Who organized the Hellfighters?

Lt. James Reese Europe

What was Lt. James Reese Europe’s lifespan?

1880-1919

What did Lt. James Reese Europe do before the Hellfighters?

He led a notable orchestra in NY; he served as musical director for Vernon and Irene Castle, the society dancers credited with being the first to popularize the foxtrot

What prevented the Hellfighters from serving in combat alongside white American soldiers?

U.S. segregation laws

What was the 369th Infantry Regiment Band offered the chance to do in 1917?

Transfer to the French Army as American reinforcements

Who was the first African-American officer to lead his troops into combat during WWI?

Lt. Europe

What was all the rage among the French audiences for the Hellfighters?

Their “jazzy” interpretations

What did Aaron Copland remark 60 years after the Jazz Age?

“It may be difficult to imagine today that the very idea of jazz in a concert hall was [provocative] in the twenties, but it seems that any piece based no jazz was assured of a mild succes de scandale [a success derived from its notoriety or scandalous nature]”

What was Aaron Copland’s lifespan?

1900-90

What did Copland probably have in mind when he remarked about the Jazz Age?

One of the earliest prominent interweavings of jazz into a classical genre: La creation du monde (The Creation of the World)

What is La creation du monde described as?

A 1923 ballet by the young French composer Darius Millhaud

What was Darius Milhaud’s lifespan?

1892-1974

How is Milhaud pronounced?

Mee-yo

What did Milhaud love to do?

Travel

What did Milhaud compose late in his life?

A suite for piano titled Le globe trotter

What was responsible for Milhaud’s first major journey?

The First World War

Where was Milhaud a student when WWI broke out?

The Paris Conservatory

Why couldn’t Milhaud enlist into WWI?

For medical reasons

What was Milhaud’s contribution to WWI at first?

To assist Belgian refugees

When did Milhaud begin working in the foreign ministry’s propaganda department in WWI?

After receiving word that one of his closest childhood friends had died in combat

Who was a close friend of Milhaud?

Paul Claudel

What was Paul Claudel’s lifespan?

1868-1965

What was Paul Claudel’s profession?

Poet and diplomat

Why did Milhaud travel as the “attache in charge of propaganda”?

Claudel was posted to Brazil as the French ambassador in 1917

Where was Claudel sent in 1918?

Brazil to Washington, D.C., and Milhaud also accompanied him to the U.S.

What did Milhaud not mention in his memoirs?

Any of the popular music he would have encountered in 1918

What did Milhaud discuss in his memoirs?

His delight in hearing an American jazz orchestra in London in 1920, exclaiming, “The new music was extremely subtle in its use of timbre… The constant use of syncopation in the melody was of such contrapuntal freedom that it gave the impression of unregulated improvisation”

When did Milhaud return to France after hearing the American jazz orchestra in London?

1919

What was Milhaud a frequent visitor of in Paris?

A club in Paris that specialized in “American Tin Pan Alley, blues, and dance tunes”

Who did Milhaud renew his friendship with who he had met during their years at the Paris Conservatory?

French composers Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre

Who dubbed the group Les Six in 1920?

A French journalist

Who composed Les Six?

Darius Milhaud, Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre

Why were Les Six composed?

They shared an impulse to write music that was not derived from the German tradition but instead was open to inspiration “from everyday life;… machines;… the music hall, the circus and the jazz band; and its principal qualities were to be dryness, brevity, and straightforwardness”

Who was absent from a 1922 painting including the majority of Les Six?

Durey

What was an innovative dance company that worked with members of Les Six on several occasions?

The Ballets Suedois

What happened to Milhaud in 1922?

An American who had studied piano with Debussy offered to arrange a performance tour for Milhaud in the U.S., and Milhaud was quick to accept

How did Milhaud startle American reporters in 1922?

By discussing his serious interest in the Black jazz music he was hearing; they were more accustomed to art-music composers ignoring popular styles completely

What are biographers of Milhaud fairly certain he saw during his 1922 visit to America?

Shuffle Along

What did Milhaud acquire on his 1922 visit to America to take home with him?

Some Black Swan recordings

What company gave Fletcher Henderson his start as a bandleader?

Black Swan

What seemed right after Milhaud’s return to France after his trip to America in 1922?

A jazz bellet

What does The Ballets Suedois mean?

The Swedish Ballet

Who commissioned a score from Milhaud?

The Ballets Suedois

What was the foundation for the story that Milhaud created for the Ballets Suedois?

An African creation myth

What is a scenario?

A storyline

How many sections was La creation du monde?

6 sections that consisted of an overture (labeled “Prelude”) and five tableaux (“tableau’ in French means “scene”)

What are the 5 tableauxs in La creation du monde?

I. The Chaos Before Creation

II. The slowly lifting darkness, the creation of trees, plants, insects, birds, and beasts

III. Dance of Created Beings—Man and woman created

IV. The desire of man and woman

V. The Man and Woman Kiss--Coda

What was used to create the depiction of La creation du monde?

Various modern French artists contributed their expertise to the costumes and sets, and the dancers wore masks and animal costumes to depict the developing creates of the earth

What did 3 large “gods of creation” wear in the depiction of La creation du monde?

Enormous, cubist costumes that were several meters tall; they were very difficult to dance in because they were so heavy and inflexible

Where did La creation du monde premiere?

Paris

When did La creation du monde premiere?

October 25, 1923

When did Milhaud extract music from La creation du monde and made a concert-suite version for piano and string quartet?

1926

What was the second item advertised in the left column of a 1924 poster for the Ballets Suedois?

Milhaud’s La creation du monde

What was the initially reaction to the full ballet of La creation du monde?

Mixed

What did Milhaud write about the critical reception to the full ballet of La creation du monde?

“The critics decreed that my music was not serious and was better suited to dance-halls and to restaurants than to the concert-stage. 10 years later, these same critics were discoursing on the philosophy of jazz, and demonstrating learnedly that La Creation was my finest work”

Who conducted the recording we listen to for La creation du monde?

Leonard Bernstein

What was Leonard Bernstein’s lifespan?

1918-90

How many years after the premiere of La creation du monde did conductor and composer Bernstein took the reassessment even further?

30 years

Who was a strong advocate for Milhaud’s La creation du monde?

Leonard Bernstein

What did Leonard Bernstein write about after discussing the jazz-tinged compositions of several early-20th-century composers?

“Out of all this has come one real masterpiece, one full-length, fully developed jazz work that had such character and originality that even today it sounds as fresh as it did when it was written in 1923. It is a ballet called The Creation of the World, by the brilliant French composer Darius Milhaud.”

Why did Leonard Bernstein take the liberty of calling La creation du monde a masterpiece?

“Because it has the one real requisite of a masterpiece—durability. Among all those experiments with jazz that Europe flirted with in this period, only The Creation of the World emerges complete, not as a flirtation but as a real love affair with jazz.”

When was La creation du monde, Overture and Tableau I created?

1922-23

Who created La creation du monde?

Darius Milhaud

What would Milhaud probably agreed with Bernstein about?

His description of his work as a “love affair.”

What did Milhaud say about the creation of La Creation?

“At last […] I had the opportunity I had been waiting for to use those elements of jazz to which I had devoted so much study”

What was one of Milhaud’s initial steps for La Creation?

To choose the instruments for the ensemble, and he pointed to his NY visit as his chief influence, saying “I adopted the same orchestra as used in Harlem, [with] 17 solo musicians”

What musical comedy did Darius Milhaud credit as the direct inspiration for his instrumentation?

The Shuffle Along sequel titled Liza (1922)

When was Liza released?

1922

Who wrote the book for Liza?

Maceo Pinkard

What happens during the Overture of La Creation?

Classical and jazz characteristics are intermixed

What does the alto saxophone do in the Overture in La Creation?

The alto saxophone’s melody floats serenely over quiet pulsations in the background

What do the trumpets do after the alto saxophone’s melody in the Overture of La Creation?

The trumpets interject periodically with a short, riff-like and syncopated second theme, and the trombone plays occasional glissandos

What is one features that Milhaud uses that is more associated with art music of the era?

Milhaud’s use of polytonality, or, more specifically, bitonality

What all plays in the key of D Minor during the opening of La Creation?

The saxophone, the right hand of the piano, violins, and cello

What all plays in the key of D major during the opening in La Creation?

The piano’s left hand, the string bass, and the timpani

What does the uncommon harmonic laying in La Creation can be seen as a way to create?

The ambiguous blue notes of jazz that blur the distinction between major and minor keys

What is Tableau I of La Creation of mixture of?

Art music and jazz traits

What does the introduction of Tableau I in La Creation present?

Several instruments performing ostinato patterns. These layers have a heterophonic effect; moreover, they work against the meter in a hemiola fashion by grouping their pulses into groups of 3+3+3+3+4 (instead of 4+4+4+4)

How many bars of the score is 16 pulses in Tableau I of La Creation?

4 bars

What time signature is Tableau I of La Creation notated in?

Although its notated in 2/2, most performers put emphasis on the quarter-note pulses in every bar rather than on the two half notes

How is the first Tableau divided in La Creation?

3 large-scale sections (A-B-C), and in addition to the ostinatos, Milhaud also incorporates a fugue in the first section (A)

What was a less common structure in the 20th century?

A fugue

What launches the fugue subject in Tableau I of La Creation?

The string bass, filled with neighboring tones and syncopation

What is the first instrument to imitate the fugue subject in La Creation?

The trombone, followed by the saxophone, then the trumpet

What does each instrument move on to play after playing the fugue subject in La Creation?

A countersubject (while the subsequent instrument is performing the subject)

What clef is used for the fugue subject in La Creation?

The bass clef

What describes the imitative counterpoint of a fugue in La Creation?

Inherently complicated, but Milhaud adds additional complexity

What do all the instruments that do the fugue in La Creation do?

Not only are they associated with jazz, but they also all intermix notes from major and minor parallel scales to create the effect of blues harmony, such as the adjacent F# and F-natural in the third measure

How long is the fugue measure in La Creation?

5 measures, which creates a polyrhythmic tension against the 4 measure patterns of the ostinato

What do the successive entrances of the subject in La Creation move through?

A series of circle-of-fifths key changes (E-A-D), the same harmonic motion that Sweet Georgia brown would employ 2 years later

What is Tableau I’s second section, B, signaled by in La Creation?

A prominent woodblock