Creative Person; 26; Darius Milhaud. Part 1: A Recollection of the Twenties

. . . . . . The creative person has a special gift, is private vision of the world. The artist through words, images, music, ideas touches our view of the twentieth century.

If you can reach my age, then you have a lot of marvelous things that haven't. And in my particular case, it has lost a long time, because as I am born in 1892, the celebrations of my 70th anniversary began in 1962, because it was the year of my anniversary. But as I am born in September, I will be still 70 until September 16th. Then for two years, there were lots of concerts, lots of... In spite of his long illness due to arthritis, Darius Mio has remained exceptionally active as a composer, teacher, and conductor. The Mio Festival at Mills College in California in 1963 was a testament to the composers enduring vitality. Hello to the Stomain, Babus and the Aotie.

One of the more prolific composers, of the twentieth century, Darius Mio has been writing music for more than 55 years. He was very much a part of that vital and exciting period in Paris in the early 1920s. The period sparked by such figures as the writer Jean-Cartot and composers, such as Eric Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, and by members of a group known as The Six. George O'Rique, Louis D'Orais, Arthur Haneger, Francis Poulanc, Germain, Tala Ferra, and Darius Mio. One of the evenings at the Mio Festival was devoted to an evocation in the 1920s

and was introduced by the composer and his wife, Madeleine. Now we're going to make a little trip back in the past. That means the 1920s. I always absolutely few years when I hear people speaking of the 20s as the selectmenters, because it was the most exciting period that I had had the joy of living through. It was just after the First World War and everything seemed possible, because we all had great hope that the war ended forever. There was a period of joy, of really it was peace coming. And during all the experiences that we did at this time, the jazz appeared coming from America and had a very shaking influence.

Then everybody was very much intrigued by all the rhythms and the new timbers that came to Europe from Broadway or from Harlem. And a lot of musicians were interested by handling all those possibilities. Travinsky made his wonderful right time for eleven instruments. And I had always the idea to try to take the jazz out of the dancing hall to bring it in the concert hall, which later I did with the Cressimo di Mon, but to try a little experience, I wrote a Shimi, which wrote the dance rather al-Amard in the 20s. And it's not clearly a Shimi like the Shimiz that you could hear this time. It is perhaps I would say the same difference that you have between a photograph and a portrait bay by a contemporary painter.

It's the photograph, it is not the photograph of a Shimi. It is the portrait of a Shimi. And for that, as in the jazz bands of these times, there were always a little song, which was hand by one of the musicians. Rokuk to wrote a little poem to add in this little Shimi, which is very dadaist-minded, and which also made the piece more a portrait of Shimi. That I insist a little bit on that, but I think I wanted to do it. And then we made a rough translation of this poem that Marlaine is going to read you. Well, you all know what Cabellum means, I suppose.

Soft candy or soft caramel. Take a young girl, fill her up with ice and gin, shake it up to make an android gin, and send her back to her family. Alum, alum, operator, don't disconnect me. Don't connect me. Don't connect me. Oh, how sad it is to be the king of animals. Oh, love is the greatest of all pain. Take a young girl, put on her lips a dash of bitter, and shake it all, and send her back to her family. I know a man who was so unhappy in love that he played shoppers' noctunes on the drum. Alum, alum, operator, don't disconnect me.

I was speaking to take a young girl, fill her up with ice and gin. Don't you think that art is a little... Shake it up to make an android gin and send her back to her family. When sent to the child, wash your hands, one doesn't say wash your teeth. Cabellum, alum. Now, my wife told you that caramel move means a soft caramel, but also it is related to the folklore of the theater. Because in 1920, we didn't have those little chocolate ice cream called Eskimo Classic, and during the intermissions, we could hear all the ashes saying,

and now, caramel move. Thank you. Thank you. Mayo, probably, was the first classical composer to use the jazz idiom,

and I don't think it's ever been used better since. I'm referring to a creation of the world than he used it. Dave Brubak, the jazz composer and piano, is a former student of meos. But he seemed to use it just at the correct time in his own development in the development of jazz, and the way it could be a new fresh spirit in classical music. Brubak, the jazz music. Brubak, the jazz music.

Brubak, the jazz music. We're the leaders on the feet

We're the leaders in our philosophy Not true, they will fight cause I'll let them play We're the leaders in our philosophy Everyone in our, everyone in our, everyone in our We are the leaders in our soccer What were the critics reactions to your first jazz pieces? How would you know the normal one?

And that means that when the impression the model was performed, all the critics say that it was awful, that it was music for restaurant, etc. About 10 years later, they say that it was a masterpiece in my best work. Has this happened with other works of yours? All right. Yes, practically. I won't say all because now I am old and my music is mostly accepted, but for a long, long time. It has been always the same story. That's why I was never impressed by what is said about my music. Music historians associate Darius Mio with a group called The Six. Mr. Mio, how did this group come into being? Well, after the first world war, the musicians of the same generation gave a few concerts to get up there. We never had the idea of counting ourselves.

And one day after a concert, a music critic wrote a article that was called The Five Sessions and The Six French, why did you pick up our six names? I think he only should know. Because on this program after this concert, there were seven or seven or eight composers involved, then we said, so high people, we are The Six, we are The Six. And then after that, all the concerts we organized were called the concert or the vocalists. And all of the composers derived from the same musical tradition? No, no, but all, because we are all very different. I am myself in the mediterranean tradition. Honeygare was more a Germanic tradition. Pudanak in a week coming from, I could call that, the full flow of Paris.

Now, in your autobiography, you speak of yourself as a mediterranean lyricist. Would you tell me something more about what that means? Well, it means that I think that the most important element in music is the melody. That it's always divided in melody, harmony, rhythm. Well, I think the three are extremely important with an emphasized put on the melody climb. Well, that is really the divided part of the so-called inspiration. You gave concerts together, did you see each other? No, a good only. Regularly. Yes. So we were informed about the contract together, and we took the habit to have dinner together every Saturday, not only in the musicians.

But we've cooked two. Sometimes, at the end, I'd like to come too much, but he came several times. Some hiders, like traditional day, but more on, and the poet, Hadi Gay, and some interpreters, like Pierre Verthon, and I said, may I. And sometimes, some painters, Picasso came once or twice, and if he too. How would you describe one of those evenings? Well, the general gathering was at my house, and after that, we went to a little festival, which was generally closed on Saturday, then they opened it for us, and they thought we were in a quiet place, you see. And after dinner, we came back home, or we went to the floor, the more marked way, if it was going on. All very often to the mid-on of circus, because we liked very much all the sketches

that Fraterini, very known, clowns, made, and we went nearly every Saturday where it made a little tour around, may not have been on or to the fair. And then we came back home, and we heard the new piece written during the week or the poems, or even sometimes a part of a book, which has been recently written by one of us, that kept us out of a very beautiful contact between this little cow, and well, the things of this sort never last, because life is wrapped ever thing, which means that we began all to travel and to have concerts and go to give concerts in foreign countries, and then finally we were not altogether, and finally it was a little bit like a family dinner, and that has its charm, but sometimes it seems a little boring too.

Then finally the Saturdays died by themselves. And then like Jean-Kapto, who was not part of the sixth, but part of the circle of friends that you're described. Yes, what role did he play? Well, because Kapto had published after the war, a book, the Kalkalahlaka, which has had all kinds of statements that the younger members of our work, Poulaak and Oric, had approved very much, and she has always been present to all our concerts, and we would say that he was the seventh of the group of six, like you'll say, that there is a fourth person in the Frimos Catillas. Among the many works prepared for presentation at the Mio Festival,

where Mio's one-act opera, Medea, with a libretto by Madeleine Mio, a ballet, a damn Mioir, based on a scenario by Jean-Gene, with music by Mio and choreography by Rebecca Fuller, and La Piège de Medes, described as, a one-act comedy by Erick Sati, with music by the same gentleman. Sati was one of the more enigmatic and controversial figures in French music, and Medleine Mio described some of the problems in producing his play. The first thing was, of course, to try to explain what very strange character Erick Sati was, and he said he was not a playwright, as you know. It was his only play, and was probably very much, it was based on his own character and his way of being, I must say, that man was gay, nice, and violent, and with no reasons, which was sometimes rather frightening.

So, French who played marvellously, that part, but in the beginning, I realized that there couldn't be one single actor who could come close from the character, if one hadn't explained a little, and how Sati was. Five and three, eleven. I put down four, and carry six, two and seven, eighteen. That's it. Damn! I'm losing sixty thousand, France. I can't understand it. Oh, I've got six. I'm winning. I'm winning two million. Mr. Mio was Fred Schuler consciously made up to look like Sati. I think so, and that has been already done once.

The first performance, so, here's the videos, was then in Paris once, and it is Pierre Bertain, who performed it, and he looked, perhaps, perhaps, less like Sati, but he spoke like him. And, for example, I'm using I must say. You might want my devotion to Sati, and I would have it to bring me here, to tell the media this play that I used, the little play that Sati wrote in 1913, and which is cut by few little musical interventions for the dawn of a stuffed monkey. What relation did Eric Sati play to this group?

Kind of a luck and bringing person. No friend. He always loved you, then. We were the young people at this time, then he went with us, and his sponsor does, and makes a presentation of our works. And we always include some of his works in our concerts, because we all love the old man. You had great admiration and love for him. Yes, he meant. Because he brought to the music, kind of, at the same time, Sarinite, and fantasy, which was terribly lacking, and it was a good example for us. Then also, he was a man of source trait without any kind of concessions, in that way of mind very much.

The names of two other composers come to mind here, WCE and Ravell. What was your relationship to these men? I have always had an enormous devotion for the VC. I love his music, and I have always loved it, and never liked to have a musical question of taste. I am allergic to Wavell, and he knew it very well, and he was a man so generous that we remain in very good terms, always, and more than that, when he was traveling, and he was into you about the so-called New Music, which means in the 20s, he very nicely always mentioned my name, as the composer he thought would be one of the important ones of the next generation, which was more than generous as he just knew that I dislike his word. The Mio Festival is subtitled,

an age of youth, and it seems evident that you yourself have maintained the most youthful attitude toward your life and work. That's the lesson of Satih, because Satih always was interested by youth, and once he told me that he was so would like so much to hear the music that the kids of a four-years-old would hide later. One of the concerts in the festival is titled, The Young Americans. Now, Mr. Mio, do you find any similarity between the spirit of these young composers of the 20s? No, because it's a different period. It's a different period, and the great difference is that after the first World War, there was this kind of optimism of which I referred the moment ago, and after the second war, there was a sentiment of anguish, of fear, of insecurity. During the three days of the Mio Festival,

five different works of the composer were performed, and opera, the ballet, the string quartet, the chime for jazz band, and singer, and a new work for seven instruments and speaking voice, the sweet de putre. The Mio catalog, this more than 400 works. Mio is one of those few composers who seem to be able to write for almost any medium. He's written string quartets, sonata's, symphonic suites, symphonies, chamber orchestra symphonies, opera's, ballet's, concerti, and scores for many motion pictures and for television. Mr. Mio, some people have suggested that you are almost too prolific as a composer. Do you have any comment to make on this? Yes, I don't think it's so much. I'm going to take a while because I am now going to begin my office 403, but I am 70 years old.

And you'll think that Mozart, Schubert, Madison, died before there were 40, and that there is more than 600 office from Mozart, for instance, than I looked like a laser boy. Which of your works do you like best? That's the next one, the next one. I forget my past works, very fast, and I think that's a very good thing. In this day, the mauve is for four to other. I've got this, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know,

you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, it's great through the This is N-E-T, the National Educational Television Network. This is N-E-T, the National Educational Television Network. This is N-E-T, the National Educational Television Network.