La creation du monde, Overture and Tableau I (1922-23) - Darius Milhaud

Milhaud would probably have agreed with Bernstein’s description of his work as what?

A love affair

What was one of Milhaud’s initial steps?

Choosing the instruments for his ensemble

What does Milhaud point to as his influence for the instruments chosen for the Ensemble?

His New York visit

Milhaud adopted the same orchestra as used where?

In Harlem

The orchestra used in Harlem had how many solo musicians?

17

What musical comedy did Milhaud credit with influencing him?

Liza (1922)

Liza was a sequel to what?

Shuffle Along

Liza was the musical comedy for which what composer had written a book?

Maceo Pinkard

During the Overture what characteristics are intermixed?

Classical and jazz

The melody of what instrument floats serenely over quiet pulsations in the background?

Saxophone

The trumpet interjects with what?

A short, riff like syncopated second theme

What does the trombone play?

Occasional glissandos

What feature of Milhaud is more associated with art music?

The use of polytonality

More specific that polytonality, what does Milhaud use?

Bitonality

During the opening which instruments play in the key of D minor?

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

Which instruments play in the key of D major?

Pianos left hand, string bass, and timpani

The uncommon harmonic layering Milhaud uses can be seen as a way to create what?

The ambiguous blue notes of jazz

The blue notes of jazz blur the distinction between what keys?

Major and minor

Tableau I is a vigorous mixture of what?

Art music and jazz traits

The introduction presents several instruments performing what patterns?

Ostinato patterns

The layers used have what effect?

A heterophonic effect

What do the layers work against?

The meter in a hemiola fashion

How do the layers work against the meter in a hemiola fashion?

By grouping their pulses into groups of 3+3+3+3+4

The total of sixteen pulses corresponds with what?

The four bars of the score

What is the score itself notated in? 

2/2

Most performers put emphasis on what?

The quarter note pluses in every bar rather than the two half notes

What large scale sections in the first tableau divided into?

A-B-C

Where is a fugue incorporated?

Section A

What instrument launches the fugue subject?

The string bass

The fugue subject is filled with what?

Neighboring tones and syncopation

What is the first instrument to imitate the subject?

The trombone

The trombones imitation is followed by what?

The saxophone

The saxophone is followed by what?

The trumpet

Each instrument moves on to play what?

A countersubject

What does the subsequent instrument perform?

The subject

How do the featured instruments create the effect of blues harmony?

They intermix notes from major and minor parallel scales

How many measure is the fugue subject comprised of?

5 measures

The 5 measure fugue subject creates what?

A polyrhythmic tension against the four measure pattern of the ostinato

The successive entrances of the subject move through a series of what?

A circle of fifths key change (E-A-D)

The circle of fifths key change E-A-D is the same harmonic motion that what uses?

Sweet Georgia Brown

What is the first tableau’s second section labeled?

B

Section B is signaled by what?

A prominent woodblock

Section B features what?

Bitonal layering

What clef does the right hand play?

Treble

What clef does the left hand play?

Bass-clef

The right hand is in what key?

D major

The left hand plays in what key?

C major

How does Milhaud produce a new polymetric section

By juxtaposing a six-pulse ostinato against an ostinato of four pulses

The B section proceeds through the circle of fifths in what direction?

Clockwise (F-C-G-D)

The end of the B section is indicated by what?

Increasingly audible trombone glissandos

What does the final section (C) employ less of?

Polyphony

Section C expands what theme from the Overture?

The riff-like second theme

The harmony in the C section makes use of what mode?

Phrygian mode

The Phrygian mode was used during what ages?

The Middle Ages

What years were the Middle Ages?

800-1400

Phrygian mode was used before the adoption of what?

Common-practice harmony

How can a Phrygian scale be generated?

By playing the white keys of a piano from E to E

Phrygian mode produces what whole and half step pattern?

H-W-W-W-H-W-

What pitch does Milhaud start the Phrygian mode with?

The C pitch

The halfstep between which notes in the Phrygian mode are particularly distinctive

The first and second notes

The distinctive half step is first heard where?

In the pianos right hand moving from C - D♭

The third section brings back what?

The fugue subject

How does the third section bring back the fugue subject?

With polytonal layers of D major against C major

The third sections adds more of what?

Instruments plus a crescendo

The crescendo plus more instruments does what?

Produces an increasingly busy heterophonic texture

What announces the arrival of Tableau II

A sudden pianissimo and a downward scale in the high woodwinds