Tradition and Style in the Works of Darius Milhaud 1912-1939 by Barbara Kelly

Review by: Anthony Gritten

Tempo, Vol. 58, No. 227 (Jan., 2004), pp. 45-47
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3878679 .
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Schtitz and J.S.Bach. As for the remaining har-
monic devices, the Accordstournantand Accorddu
Total chromatique were both developed since
Technique whereas the Accords ai renversements
transposesand the Accordsai resonancecontract&e
derive from elements discussed in it. In fact, in the
case of the latter two, Messiaen is distinctly selec-
tive in his '6tymologie', omitting to mention
some of the earlier guises of these chords. It is
invaluable, nonetheless, to have these chords laid
out systematically together with some explana-
tion of how they work, even if, in the case of the
Accordstournant, this resembles instructions for
flat pack furniture in the way Messiaen jumps a
dozen or so steps to reach the final product.
If this all sounds like it has the potential to be
rather dry and abstruse, it is worth underlining the
fact that the bulk of TomeVIIin terms of words is
taken up with Messiaen'sprovocative,wide-ranging
essays on colour, harmony and melody. In the case
of the latter, he gives a whistle-stop tour of the
world's folk musics, individual aspects of which
might fall far short of current ethnomusicological
enquiry, but which underlines yet again the vast
reach of Messiaen's musical knowledge. There are
some gems amongst the set-piece analyses, of
which the most valuable is the selective examina-
tion of La Transfiguration,and it is clear, too, that
Messiaen continued to explore, expand and to reap-
praise his musical language throughout his long
career. A touching instance is his self-revelation
regarding a favoured passage from the
Commendatore scene of Don Giovanni.This is not
only a favouritework, but was the first of the operas
that he got to know by playing through vocal scores
as a young boy. It is not especially surprising,then,
that this passage is identified as an influence on two
of his most characteristic sonorities. However, as
Messiaen muses wryly, it was more than 35 years
later that he spotted the affinity with his Accordsd
rdsonance contract&e and over 60 years afterhe firstfell
in love with Don Giovannithat he noticed a similar
' Milhaud's choices of instrumentation, while
relationship with the Accords renversements trans-
poses.It is this fresh-facedeagerness both to discover
new experiences, and to look anew upon the famil-
iar,that marked Messiaen out as a great pedagogue.
The TraitW is permeated by this refusal to become
jaded. Yes, there are disappointing omissions, and
inevitable longeurs, but it is not only packed with
information, ideas and insight, but also with uplift-
ing, heart on sleeve enthusiasm. As with his music,
Messiaen is not afraid of giving his thoughts on
major topics. Agree with him or not, as with his
music, it is only the most cynical and world-weary
who will not be swept along by his passion.
ChristopherDingle
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BOOK REVIEWS 45
BarbaraKelly.Tradition
andStylein theWorksof Darius
Milhaud1912-1939.Ashgate,?49.50(hardback).
This engrossing new study comes hard on the
heels of Roger Nichols's The Harlequin Years:
Music in Paris 1917-1929 and complements
Deborah Mawer's more analytically detailed
Darius Milhaud:Modalityand Structurein Music of
the 1920s. The fruit of a tremendous labour of
love, including extensive archival work both sides
of both the Atlantic and the English Channel,
numerous conversations with the composer's
widow, and, not least, historiographical work in
and around the roots, origins, trajectories, and
receptions of the confusingly named group Les
Six, Tradition and Style in the Works of Darius
Milhaud1912-1939is an important contribution to
the field of French music studies.
The seven chapters subdivide quite naturally
into three parts. Chapters 1 and 2 maintain a
broadly historical focus, considering French musi-
cal and cultural politics in the period, first from an
all-encompassing perspective and then from the
vista provided through Milhaud's own writings on
tradition and identity (including several formative
unpublished essays). Chapters 3, 4, and 5 consider
Milhaud's music. The remit of chapter 3 is the
friendship and collaboration between Milhaud
and Paul Claudel, which resulted in such major
works as Agamemnon, Les Chotphores, Les
Eumenides,and ChristopheColomb;chapter 4 treats
the three underrated operas-minute; and chapter
5, on Milhaud's vocal music, brings Claudel into
comparison with Gide, raises the issue of
Milhaud's settings of languages other than
French, and offers an interesting interpretation of
the genesis of his song-cycle Alissa and compari-
son of its two versions of 1913 and 1931. Chapters
6 and 7 return to music-critical issues: chapter 6
enters the skirmish concerning polytonality, use-
fully augmenting the debate with reference to
chapter 7 returns to the issues of chapter 2, broad-
ening out the panorama to consider Milhaud's
relation to the past both in the larger context of
the composer's own self-professed combination
of Romantic and Classical leanings and in the
more politically charged post-war context of the
1920s. This last chapter also details some new dis-
coveries made by Kelly concerning the
18th-century sources for Milhaud's L'Apotheosede
Molibreand Suite d'apris Corrette(pp. 180 8&186)-
his Pulcinellas.
One of the important themes to emerge from
the first two chapters in particular is that of the
specific tradition Milhaud and Les Six sought to
46 TEMPO

construct,both individuallyand as a (not always was a temporary source of inspiration, and

very collective) group. This invention was as before Christmas1924Milhaudhad tired of the
muchthe intentionof LesSixthemselvesasit was work(p. 15).
a consequenceof journalism,both by generally Stravinsky'sstylisticshift with Mavrain 1922
supportive critics like Paul Collaer, Paul was embracedenthusiasticallyonly by Poulenc,
Landormy,and Henri Collet (who named the Milhaud,andAuric,who claimedthat it comple-
group in 1920),and by harshlycriticalcriticslike mented the ideas of Satie. In its wake there
Emile Vuillermoz- and the ever-contradictory emergeda changein LesSix'sgroupaesthetic,and
Cocteau,who, malgrelui, kept fallingsomewhere in that year an essay by Collet chronicledthe
in the middle. For Les Six, Stravinsky and group's apparent demise (p. 5 n 19). While
Debussy,not surprisingly,were, despitea certain Milhaudwould write in 1927of the 'decisiveand
amount of necessary admiration,forces to be positive influence' of Stravinsky'srecent works
resisted:Debussy,after all, had been canonized (quoted 18),he was uneasyin 1923at the 'terrible
through the symbolic coincidence of his death influenceof Stravinsky'(quoted 17).In the essay
andthe end of the war,andwas slightedin LeCoq 'The Evolution of Modern Music in Paris and
Ravel,too, was the sourceof ambiva- Vienna', originallygiven as a talk in Marchin
et l'Arlequin.
lence on the part of Les Six. Satie, however, Belgium(wheremanyof hisworksreceiveda bet-
adoptedfrom the verybeginningby Les Six after ter early reception than in France (p. 194)),
the scandalous premiere of Parade in 1917, Milhaud played up the polemical distinction
showeda possibleroute towardsthe 'more sober between the Satie-inspired Parisianmusicalscene
and clear expressionwith more sharplydefined and the Schoenberg-ledViennesemusic,in effect
lines andgreaterdirectness'(Roussel,quotedp. 3) providinga context for his importantarticleon
which they desired,and his preoccupationwith 'Polytonalit6et Atonalit'"publishedin La Revue
linearcounterpoint(in partdue to his trainingat Musicalein Februarythe sameyear.Giventhe un-
the Schola Cantorum)was an influentialsource Stravinskyianthought behind this article and
for Milhaud in particular,whose studies with given his recentmusicalexplorationsin counter-
AndreG6dalgewere importantfor his futureuse pointandhisemphaticuse of windinstrumentsin
of fugal techniques (p. 154). Milhaud himself the chambersymphonies of 1917-1922 (p. 77),
wrote that 'we were in such need of an art that one wonders what Milhaud really made of
was robust,wholesome and more contrapuntal Stravinsky'sOctet,which he heardat its firstper-
in expression, where feelings of the greatest formancein October,since his publishedreview
purity and tenderness could be conveyed with of the concert says little. PerhapsStravinskygot
simplicity'(unpublishedessayon Debussy,quoted wind of 'Polytonalit6et Atonalite',realizedthat
pp. 10,43, 190). he was in danger of appearingoutmoded, and
Anothersource of criticalfrictionwithin and decided to venture into print himself - cue the
around Les Six was the huge success of characteristically obtuse 'Some Thoughtson my
Honegger's Le Roi David in June 1921, success Octuor', which appearedthe followingJanuary.
whichwouldcome to Milhaudandthe othersa lit- LesSixaside,therearemanyinterestingobser-
tle later and which hence provoked a little vations in this book worth repeating. A few:
jealousy.Honeggerwas accused,bothby Cocteau having distinguished between harmonically-
'within' the group and by various critics, of basedand contrapuntally-based textures,Kellyis
betraying the cause of Les Six,and this was inter- not afraidto criticizeMilhaud for occasionalover-
pretedboth positivelyandnegativelyaccordingto crowding (pp. 67-8, 148-54, 192); not a new
the multipleagendasin the air.Infact,the finalrift point, but one that needs emphasizing- indeed,
in the troubledhistory of Les Six, earlyin 1924, it's a shame Kelly doesn't devote more space to
was the breakaway from the fatherfigure Satie thisissue, especiallysinceit overlapsin important
madeby PoulencandAuric(thoughnot Milhaud) ways with the issue of polytonalityandinsofaras
in the wake of their criticalsuccesses with Les the composer'sdevelopmentof polytonal tech-
BichesandLesFdcheux. niques may have been in part a response to
Chapter1 also makesspacefor a discussionof Claudel'sdramaturgicaldirectives(p. 71). More
Schoenberg'splace in (and perceivedthreat to) space, too, devoted to the precise nature of
Parisianculturalpolitics.Milhaud,who conduct- Koechlin'sinfluence on Milhaud,which, Kelly
ed the Frenchpremiere of PierrotLunaire,and claimsat one point,was asgreatas Stravinsky's (p.
through him Les Six, were frequentlyaccused 147), would be interesting. Her discussion of
of importing 'le mauvais international' Claudel'sideason music and Milhaud'scomposi-
gotlt
intoFrenchmusic(LouisVuilleminin 1923, quoted tional responses to them contains a wealth of
p. 11)andof unpatrioticsentiment.This,though, material,particularlywith regardto the pacingof

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dramatic musical time and the role of rhythmic
elements (pp. 46-55). Kelly's exploration of the
operas-minute and their sketches is engaging, like
the works themselves, and she makes a persuasive
case for rethinking the importance of their com-
bining of a wealth of contemporary themes.
Thus, her conclusion reads:
The chamberoperas revealthe complexity of Milhaud's
relationshipto the culturalcentre, Paris,and to the pre-
occupations of his own time. Milhaud showed an
engagement with contemporary Parisian concerns,
which he superimposed on older, more timeless sub-
jects, such as those of Old Testament and Greek drama.
In terms of musicalstyle, he respondedto recent exper-
imentation with chamberforces, classicizingtendencies
and distancingtechniques. In his own way he dealt with
Stravinsky'simportant impact on his generation, find-
ing a solution that was more in keeping with his own
national tradition by drawing on nineteenth-century
operative genres and styles. At the same time he estab-
lished linksbetween his Provenlal andJewishroots, and
his chosen place of work, Paris (pp. 102-3).
This is a thoughtfully researched and clearly
written book, and the added bonus of so many
music examples is an incentive to read it. Tradition
and Stylein the Worksof Darius Milhaud 1912-1939
recommends itself.
Anthony Gritten
ArthurBliss:MusicandLiterature
edited by StewartR.
Craggs.Ashgate,?65.00.
MichaelTippett:MusicandLiterature
editedby Suzanne
Robinson.Ashgate,?45.00.
Someone once defined a symposium as a series of
unrelated snapshots taken with different makes of
camera by photographers of mixed ability.
Though the two volumes under review are part of
Ashgate's Musicand Literatureseries, this theme is
vague and tenuous, hardly more than a peg on
which to hang a collection of individual essays.
However fine they are, the chapters by Lewis
Foreman (on Bliss and Tippett at the BBC) and
Suzanne Cole (on Tippett at Morley College) have
only marginal links with 'Literature'.
Contributors include the well seasoned and the
new. Stewart R. Craggs has assembled a wide
range of experts for the Bliss volume, including
not only Foreman but Robert Meikle, Roderic
Dunnett and Stephen Lloyd, with the ubiquitous
John Amis (who knew and interviewed Bliss) sup-
plying a personal introduction. Dunnett is
particularly good on Bliss's collaborations with
J.B.Priestley (The Olympians) and Christopher
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BOOK REVIEWS 47
Hassall. The latter chapter is a fascinating study.
Hassall, though twenty years younger than Bliss,
was already a distinguished poet and experienced
librettist, having supplied book-and-lyrics not
only for Walton (Troilusand Cressida)but also Ivor
Novello (seven operettas, from GlamorousNights
to King'sRhapsody).The Bliss-Hassall partnership
was extremely fruitful: two stage-works - The
Lady of Shalott (1958) and Tobias and the Angel
(1959)- and two cantatas - The Beatitudes
(1961)and Maryof Magdala(1962). Dunnett's con-
cern with the texts as well as the music compares
well with Alan Cuckston's chapter on the songs,
where the poems are given short shrift, and more
than any other contribution helps justify the
book's subtitle.
The Bliss volume does at least limn a portrait of
the composer; the Tippett volume is a far less
rounded. After the editor's introductory chapter
on Tippett's reading, we have the composer him-
self on one of his favourite subjects - himself -
transcribed from a lecture he gave at the 1971 Bath
Festival, followed by chapters on such dauntingly
unattached and offbeat subjects as 'Idealism and
Ideology in Tippett's Writings', his early, unpub-
lished String Quartet, Tippett and the BBC, and
the impact of Tippett's music in Germany. All
rather esoteric and peripheral, more like a gather-
ing-together of conference papers than a book
with a clear theme and purpose. The most stimu-
lating contributions are those by Cole and
Foreman. Cole has researched the decade that
Tippett spent as director of music at Morley
College (1941-51) and includes a fascinating table
(6.1) of the concerts given there: pioneering pro-
grammes featuring music from Tallis, Monteverdi
and Purcell to Stravinsky, Frank Martin and
Matyas Seiber - but especially, of course, Purcell.
Foreman's chapter on Tippett and the BBC fol-
lows the composer's arduous struggle to get his
music accepted by the authorities - he eventually
found a champion in Leonard Isaacs - and traces
the background to the radio talks he gave for the
newly-created Third Programme. In those early
days, brow-height was of great importance and
Tippett, with his wide-ranging and eclectic read-
ing, was a 'natural'.
Both books are handsomely produced - 'print-
ed on acid free paper' - with musical examples,
illustrations and basic indices. (They are also well
padded with reference notes: one chapter in the
Tippett has 186 footnotes for 32pp of script). But
they are also handsomely priced. At ?65 for the
Bliss and ?45 for the Tippett, private purchasers
are not likely to be many: yet again, products for
the institutional library.
TrevorHold