A visit with Darius Milhaud

Publication date 1958 (sound quality of the music is poor but the voices are good and it's a unique document)
Language English
A Visit With Darius Milhaud
Summary
Presents unique glimpses of the personal and professional life of one of the greatest composers of our time, from Milhaud's boyhood in Aix - en - Provence, to his life and work since his early successes. Shows him with former student Dave Brubeck in an informal jazz session at his home and watches Milhaud compose a sonatina for violin and cello. Highlights of his sonatinas and operas.

[@gardengit]

Unbelievable documentation from another world… a normal world.

[@bc4315]

Milhaud, a true microtonal pioneer. Thanks for posting!

[@Forestier1]

😂

[@stuartkaufman4387]

What a gem of a documentary! The astonishing range of Milhaud's compositions still engage us nearly fifty years since his death. We only wish that his music was performed more often on American stages.

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Yes, but that is true for more composers I think.

[@Mimi12350]

Oh un interview de Darius MILHAUD 🤩🤩🤍🤍🤍

[@1lavrentiberia]

The man is amazing..his wife is reading poetry to him....he just continues composing...without being distracted...he even composes in the car! waiting for his wife to return from the shop....some concentration! chapeau!

[@johnrandolph6121]

Wow, he has nice vibrato on his piano.

[@markokassenaar4387]

This way, I can actually feel drunk without having to drink (and no hangover!) 😉

[@dexblue]

A priceless gift from the near past. Unpretentious, warm, full of the love of music for its own sake! Thank you for posting this mini-doc ...

[@maestroclassico5801]

In the scene around 27:00 he's talking to fellow composers from Les Six. Poulenc is very recognizable. Poulenc (in a mix of French and English) mentions working on a large work....he almost surely means the Opera " THE DIALOGUE OF THE CARMELITES" premiered on 1957..one of his most famous works! I believe the other 2 are Auric, and Honegger. Honegger would've died very soon after this in November 1955. Milhaud 's wife Madeline, already looking very middle aged here, lived until 2008 aged 106!!!

[@catchoupiote]

it is indeed the Dialogue, Poulenc mentions it a few seconds after the passage you mention. I don't recognise Honegger in this reunion.There's Poulenc and Henri Sauguet.

[@maestroclassico5801]

@@catchoupiote Thank You.. Sauget....though not in Les Six, I do enjoy his Music....truly most French composers from this period I enjoy. Even those who came a bit later like Jean Francaix. I can't explain why they were all so good at writing for Woodwinds.

[@MrBones130]

after his 1917-1918 visit to Brazil, among the works he composed was Corcovado my take ... two minutes of soaring beauty

[@justinscaife530]

Pretty much. That whole piece is beautiful

[@Mezzotenor]

Yeah, the pitch waivers during the music, but the spoken parts are incredibly interesting. Many thanks for posting this gem!

[@rodterrell304]

Great Video, I can't believe its been here for 4 Years and I'm just finding it today. I enjoy his music. I practiced his Rag Caprice for Piano long ago.

[@leslieackerman4189]

Fascinating! At that time, many famous composers etc were still alive (Auric, Poulenc!) Pity for those of us who don't understand French. Yes, the music sounds distorted, but voices are fine. Wife Madeleine's devotion to her husband was incredible. Copyright shows 1955.

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Perhaps every good composer needs a devoted partner.

[@arandomguyontheinternet3500]

one problem.... Madeleine was also his cousin

[@Kiki-vt3sr]

Thanks a lot

[@licoricestic]

wow even footage of les six. Thank you!

[@lokmanmerican6889]

This is truly a jewel of a video.

[@murphman7448]

A very interesting documentary about the composer's life. Thanks for taking the time to share this.

[@jerkerjohansson3642]

Thanks for sharing this film! Absolutely fantastic!

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Glad you like it :-)

[@lika332]

This is an incredible find.

[@DavidMiller-bp7et]

Very enjoyable; a unique document indeed. Thank you for sharing it. Puts the lie to the idea that such musical geniuses are somehow outrageous, bohemian outliers. Love this.

[@srothbardt]

This is a great source of important material. Thank you for saving it!

[@dr.frick4552]

What a charming and kind individual. 🙌🏻😎

[@robertwalker2052]

He was a continuous presence at the music tent in Aspen Colorado where he lived from 1965 to his death in 1974, unfortunately in a wheelchair because of arthritis.

[@patrickcollins9091]

what a gem, better than can be imagined

[@khalilkafrouni]

Such an amazing video! Thank you for sharing.

[@NothingFunnyAboutTheseCarpets]

This is amazing!!!! Thank you so much

[@KKIcons]

I love this narrator. Reminds me of the CBC Glenn Gould: On the Record, Off the Record, and In the USSR documentaries.

[@udomatthiasdrums5322]

still love it!!

[@ikmarchini]

I wonder if there is a computer program that could straighten out and make constant the pitchs as the various film speeds do not?

[@mrswag535]

idk of any specifically but yes, that can be done

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

I have a video editor, but since it’s a long video, it takes a lot of conversion capacity from a PC. And to avoid my PC to crash, I posted it like this some years ago. I know a pity the music howls, but the voices are ok.

[@psijicassassin7166]

Milhaud should just record his music and play every ten seconds at different speeds so he would be light years ahead of the garbage made by Babbitt and Feldman.

[@orlandoscalia1164]

I like the piano wobble on every note haha

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

@@psijicassassin7166 Feldman was a fantastic composer.

[@KKIcons]

A dream brought me here. I am watching this while wondering if this was the composer who walked into a personally significant dream several years ago where I heard his music. Maybe I can find the music now.

[@Toscarpia]

Is there a way to have the same with the right pitch ? Who can enjoy such distorted music ? Thanks !

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

I takes a lot of work to adjust such a video. I don't have the proper tools for it. The beginning is the worst, but as a documentary I wanted to share it like it is.

[@thepianocornertpc]

Fantastic film. Pure nostalgia. People were so courteous in those days. Compared to the present day's " wassup my man..."..

[@thetoynbeeconvector]

Thank you.

[@KKIcons]

I wish I could hear the original score. It sounds like it would have been very dynamic. As it stands there are some microtonal and low fi gems.

[@Twentythousandlps]

Date is 1955 according to the credits at the end.

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Ok, thanks. I copied the date from the source.

[@jgesselberty]

Such a shame that the sound is so variable in pitch.

[@gregorycolodub485]

sound floats

[@catchoupiote]

Funny how is wife calls him "Milhaud" at 9:02

[@gomro]

I had a friend whose wife always referred to him by his last name. Who knows what that was all about. Maybe Milhaud's wife had the same idiosyncrasy.

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

As well as Brubeck his pupils included Burt Bacharach and Stockhausen.

[@robertwalker2052]

Bacharach and Stockhausen. Never before mentioned in the same sentence. Also, another colleague: Charles Jones, the Canadian -American composer who also taught in Aspen, Colorado.

[@finosuilleabhain7781]

@@robertwalker2052 Also Glass, Reich and Xenakis. Quite remarkable, really.

[@sitarnut]

The intro has some familiar Satie like chords.....

[@johnatwell2753]

Wow, Darius was doin' "X" in Provence? I'm gonna use the funky trailer from this movie to create some really weird music some day.

[@leslieackerman4189]

It’s Aix

[@KKIcons]

Looking forward to that. Maybe from that piano jazz improv part too. A commenter drew my attention to that part.

[@KKIcons]

@@leslieackerman4189 thanks, somehow I never knew how to pronounce that.

[@jeffdawson2786]

To me, he is just as important as Schoenberg and Stravinsky.

[@shawnzeppimiller]

Magnifique, even though the dialogue was heavily scripted. Hard to imagine Oakland and Santa Barbara used to look like that before they were despoiled. But more to the point, why does Brubeck's trumpet player think he can empty his spit valve on the Milhaud's floor @14:00?

[@TheCWMHALL]

Eric Satie's mother was English .

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Ok, now we know.

[@MeAndMichaelOeuo]

2:43

[@amiro47]

Which piece is heard at the very beginning, before we hear the master at the piano?

[@derrickcrane4290]

someone please answer this question

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

@@derrickcrane4290 Perhaps it's the violin and cellosonata written expressly for this film (as I read on the film).

[@johnlindstrom9994]

Where's Ron Crotty? Joe Dodge?

[@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575]

Perhaps only with Brubeck in formal sessions. This was informal :-p

[@johnlindstrom9994]

@@classicaljewels-m.l.cleyne5575 Desmond was also connected to the group, but never a student of Milhaud, I think.

[@LucasFigueiredoBR]

1:07 does anyone know what piece that is?

[@damianlegassick2489]

La Muse Menagere, 1st movement.

[@jbthepianist]

I was completely ignorant about the pronunciation of “Milhaud” until this video.

[@ondinehd6889]

Most French musicians actually don't pronounce it "Millaud" or Miyaud" though, most pronounce it "me-lo."

[@jbthepianist]

That was my point. I had no idea.

[@Twentythousandlps]

I must say I find this film somewhat unfortunate. To make it interesting to the great American public, they brought in Dave Brubeck rather than focus on a major 20th century composer, with forty-plus years of music to talk about. The middle brow thing of having culture but only in a diluted form. But thank you for the upload.

[@barney6888]

If my Austrian wife caught me composing while she ran around on errands she'd beat the you know what out of me and leave me to die in the forest.

[@steveschwartz8944]

The musical soundtrack is painful. Wow so huge it reminds me of a corduroy road.

[@LearnCompositionOnline]

where can you find such man as narrrators today?

[@hdesertrat]

10:38 did he send her in to Food Town for a six-pack?

[@gerstube1]

In French they call it 'les six royale'

[@hdesertrat]

@@gerstube1 I like that - and it is a happy coincidence as well.

[@user-vf5jy6bp6x]

ひどい調律 当時の演奏家はこれほどひどい調律で演奏していたのかな 当時の録音をリマスタリングすると、こうなるのか❓ 古楽よりも低い調律で、さらに狂っているのか

[@thefrankonion]

The sound is completely awful. This shouldn't be shown.

[@thepianocornertpc]

It's perfect. We love the retro-vintage sound.