Darius Milhaud - La Creation Du Monde (1923) Part 1

My 2nd jazz inspired posting. Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) conducting a small orchestra performing his La Creation Du Monde (Ballet Negre) for Columbia in 1932. During a visit to New York in 1922, Milhaud went "slumming" in Harlem and was fascinated with the music he was hearing. He went anywhere and everywhere to hear the music and bought a bunch of records to take back to France. The following year he composed this piece. Jazz influenced many subsequent works by this prolific 20th century French composer.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Milhaud
• 1920's
• jazz

[Lactoris1]

Does anyone have information on the instrumentation and on Harlem or African melodies or rhythms used? What was the group of Harlem musicians Milhaud heard? Is there any analysis of the polytonality or polyrhythms used here? Is there any record who the instrumentalists were? I suppose there are some saxophones of one sort or another. I guess it was standard to end on the dominant chord, without resolution to the tonic.

[merrihew]

The standard story is that he went to New York in 1922, toured the Harlem nightspots, bought a bunch of "jazz" records and then wrote this piece in 1923I've read quite a bit about him but never came across the details you seek. There is a Wikipedia entry for this.

[kspm01]

A masterpiece, which I'm so glad to hear a version directed by the composer. Thanks a lot for sharing!

[merrihew]

I've always loved this and having it conducted by the composer ads to the recording.

[DonPMitchell]

Thanks. One of my favorite pieces, and fun to hear the composer's own direction of it.

[metallicpumpkin]

@Lactoris1 I've seen a score for this piece and yes, the saxophone is a prominent instrument of the work. If you want more information head to a library of a college/university that you know specialises in music and do a search, they will have scores, books, journals and online databases which could help you. If you can find the score and can read music you can analyse it for yourself. Where I live you can browse university libraries without needing to be a member, hope it's the same for you. :)

[carmonasax]

se nota que es el maestro mule el q interpresta el solo de saxofon, por su inovador vibrato ! muy buena grabacion!

[Lactoris1]

Thank you, Mr(?) Merrihew

[Edside0]

True, sometimes it isn't the best, although with EQ and other treatments, the quality usually can really improve. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't saying that your transfer isn't good, it's just that the Analog to Digital conversion is really delicate, and a good equipment to do that can easily cost more than 1200$. Imagine trying to take 48000 or 96000 pictures per second, then turn them into 0 and 1 in real time and still get a nice representation of the real thing. Thanks for posting the video!

[merrihew]

It has been reissued on CD. Less noise but cuts in the high frequencies. I played it without any "doctoring" using a 3.5 mil truncated elliptical stylus.

[Edside0]

@politosmiles Maybe the recording is on CD somewhere. The only thing I can say is that a better transfer can be made, with all respects to merrihew, and thanks for his efforts. It's a really interesting piece of history, sounds even better than some modern performances of it. Re-mastering could also improve the sound. Just the view of an audio engineer ;)

[politosmiles]

Great! This is fantastic! PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE can you re-post this with a better sound? I know it's from a record but do you know a direct way to have a better sound? Maybe I'm wrong, but I suspect the transfer sound could be improved. Or does anyone have the same version but better recorded?

Or does anyone have another great version? If so, please post! Thank you all!!!