King René’s Chimney-Place?! That is, indeed, the literal translation of La Cheminée du Roi René, the work by French composer Darius Milhaud (1892-1974). And thereby hangs a somewhat long short story.
In 1939, Raymond Bernard made a three-part film titled Cavalcade d’amour, which lightheartedly dealt with love in 1430, 1830, and 1930. Three composers were asked to write music for it, choosing between them which century each would prefer to depict. Milhaud chose the first period, set in the Middle Ages. (The other two composers were Arthur Honegger and Roger Désormière.) Shortly after writing his score, Milhaud extracted a suite from it, scored for wind quintet, and that is the music we hear today.
In the 15th Century the most famous of the so-called “Troubadour Courts” (also known as “The Courts of Love”) was that of Rene d’Anjou, Count of Provence, so well-loved he was known as King René. His court – renowned for chivalry and poetry - was at Aix-en-Provence (where Milhaud was born, by the way), and a short distance away was a natural shelter where René and his courtiers could relax in the open air. The place exists today, and is a popular picnic spot. The local name for the place is still “La Cheminée du Roi René.”
Milhaud’s suite consists of seven movements (today we shall hear the first six of them; each depicts an imaginary event during King René’s journeys to La Cheminée. The first three have self-explanatory titles: Cortège (Procession); Aubade (Morning Song); and Jongleurs (Jugglers). The remaining movements are: La Malousinglade (the name of the surrounding district, which, literally, means “The Badly-Arranged”); Joutes sur l’Arc (Jousts on the Arc – Arc being a small river nearby); and Chasse à Valabre (Hunting at Valabre. Valabre is a small castle in the area).
Milhaud was a truly prolific composer, with more than 400 works to his credit. His orchestral music includes twelve symphonies and a variety of concertos (some of which reflect the influence of his native Provence), as well as operas, ballets, incidental music for the theater, and film and radio scores. He contributed a great deal to the realm of French song, both in choral works and solo repertoire, and there are 18 string quartets within his extensive chamber music output
Milhaud had many contacts in French literary and artistic circles, and from 1916 to 1918 he lived in Brazil, working as a secretary to the diplomat-poet Paul Claudel, who had been appointed ambassador to that country. (Brazilian influence may be heard in several of Milhaud’s more popular works.) Back in Paris, Milhaud was active in the circle of poet-novelist-dramatist-critic-artist Jean Cocteau, and was a member of the group of French composers known as “Les Six”, who were influenced by Cocteau’s artistic ideals and Erik Satie’s emphasis on simplicity. (The other five composers were Georges Auric, Louis Durey, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc, and Germaine Tailleferre.) Milhaud spent the years of World War II in the United States, where he taught at Mills College, and he combined that position with a similar one at the Paris Conservatory until his retirement in 1971.
Milhaud once told Aaron Copland, “I have no esthetic rules, or philosophy, or theories. I love to write music. I always do it with pleasure, otherwise I just do not write it.”
Paquito D’Rivera’s original compositions often reveal his widespread and eclectic musical interests, ranging from Afro-Cuban rhythms and melodies – including influences encountered in his extensive travels – and back to his classical origins.
In regard to the music we hear today, the program opener, Wapango, is an Afro-Mexican dance, with a syncopated bass line.
The suite Aires Tropicales was composed in seven movements, four of which will be performed today. Alborada (again, the Spanish word for a morning song) - a slow introductory section - leads directly into Son (“sound,” literally), incorporating Latin melodies, again with a syncopated bass line. Vals Venezolano is a lively waltz, and is a tribute to the Venezualan guitarist-composer Antonio Lauro. Contradanza is an upbeat Cuban dance, written in honor of that country’s composer Ernesto Lecuona.
Cuban-born, New York-based, Grammy Award-winning saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer Paquito D‘Rivera (b. 1948) has balanced a career in Latin jazz with commissions as a classical composer and appearances with symphony orchestras. The National Endowment for the Arts website states, “he has become the consummate multinational ambassador, creating and promoting a cross-culture of music that moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and Mozart.”
D’Rivera was a child prodigy, tutored initially by his classical saxophonist-conductor father Tito, and playing well enough in one year to be paid as a musician. In 1960 he began study at the Havana Conservatory, and in his teens created various original and ground-breaking musical ensembles. He founded, and for two years directed, the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, while playing clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He also was a co-founder and director of Irakere, an innovative ensemble which mixed jazz, rock, classical, and traditional Cuban music not heard before. They toured extensively throughout America and Europe.
Earlier this year, D’Rivera was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, and was named the 2007-8 Composer-in-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Commissions have come from a number of places, including the group Opus 21, the Turtle Island and Ying String Quartets, the National Symphony Orchestra (Washington, D.C.), the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Library of Congress. He has recorded more than thirty solo albums in jazz, bebop, and Latin music, and has performed with many symphony orchestras in the Americas and in Europe. He has created, championed, and promoted many types of classical compositions, including three chamber music works which have been recorded in concert with ‘cellist Yo-Yo Ma in Carnegie Hall in 2003.
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