The Synthesis of Ballet and the Suite in the Music of Darius Milhaud
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Ballet is one of the leading genres in the music of the outstanding 20th century French composer Darius Milhaud.
The composer’s lasting interest in this genre could be explained by its special spectacular qualities, possibilities of
juxtaposing various characters within the framework of a single plot, the simplicity and clarity of form, the symbolic
nature of dance, which discloses the depth of semantic implications, combinations of classical traditions with new
radical ideas.
Stemming from the fact of the special role of synthesis of the arts in the 20th century and the organic use of the
synthesizing element in the music of Darius Milhaud, the author of the article asserts that one of the combinations
significant for the composer is the impact on Milhaud’s ballets of traits of the genre of the suite. The substantiation
of the composer’s attraction to this type of synthesis is based on historical suppositions of mutual influence of its
components – connections with the Italian masque comedy, as well as the fact that in the 16th century the term of
ballet presumed choreographic numbers set to the music of popular dances. The author highlights two ways of mutual
influence of the examined genres: saturation of the ballet performance with attributes of a suite, making it possible to
attribute the suite-like nature of the compositions and the direct “outgrowth” of the ballet into the suite, when one genre
becomes the cause for creating another one on its foundation. Research of these forms of synthetic unity carried out on
the basis of the one-act ballet “Le Boeuf sur le Toit” and the ballet suite “Les Reves de Jacob” has made it possible to
assert various levels of manifestation in the aforementioned ballets of such features of the suite genre as a reliance on
the dance genre foundation, numbered structure, the predominance of the principle of contrast, and the compositional
simplicity of the respective sections of the entire work.
Keywords: ballet, suite, synthesis of genres, Darius Milhaud, the French “Les Six,” “Le Boeuf sur le Toit,” “Les
Reves de Jacob.”
Article Details
Copyright
The rights on the results of intellectual activity and equated means of individualization are protected in accordance with Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The authorship, author's name, executor’s name, inviolability of the work and result of execution are protected by the rules of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation of the author or executor, regardless of providing legal protection of such results of intellectual activity at the time of their forming.
Copyright laws regulate the civil legal relations for using works of science, literature and art. Such relationships are formed as the result of the author’s writing his or her texts. In this case the author can rightfully claim copyright of the work.
The author has certain rights to reuse the work (see: “Ethical Aspects in Terms of Multifold Publications).
Licenses
All copyrights on the articles belong to their authors. The author transfers the rights on using the article the publisher.
PDF versions of scholarly articles of the journal PMN are published by using the license Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives cc by-nc-nd, allowing loading and distributing works on the assumption of indicating the authorship. The works may not be changed in any way or used for commercial interests.
Criteria for Authorship, Co-authorship
The term “author” refers to all persons (co-authors) who have made a substantial contribution to conducting the research and creation of the manuscript and responsible for its content. The person (author) who has submitted the manuscript to the editorial board shall bear responsibility for the complete list of the group of authors and the changes made to the manuscript in accordance with the results of the peer reviewing and editing.
1. Authorship is based on the following criteria:
1) The author made a substantial contribution to the research activity and development of concept, collected the data, made analysis and interpretation of the data.
2) The author carried out the writing of the text of draft articles and edited it attentively and substantially.
3) The author approved the final version of the article prior to its submission.
4) The author bears responsibility for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript.
2. The authors shall guarantee that the submitted manuscript is the original work.
3. Scholarly reviews for some issue or other should be objective, present material in a wide range and at the same time take into account the views of the author of the review.
4. The authorship of scholarly publications is obligated to reflect accurately the contribution of individuals to the research activity, with specific information about the authors.
5. The authors may not mislead the readers by publishing acknowledgements of gratitude to people who were not actually involved in writing the work. Other persons who made contribution to the work, but are nevertheless not the authors, may be listed in the rubric of “Acknowledgements,” with indications of the type and extent of their activities.
6. Authors are obligated to provide a description of their contribution to the publication.
7. The order of authorship must be a joint resolution of co-authors. The authors should be ready to explain the order of their enumeration and listing.
8. The authors shall be entirely responsible for the correct definition of authorship acting in accordance with the rules adopted in their institution.
9. Investigators must ensure that only those persons who meet the criteria for authorship (that made a significant contribution to the work), shall be considered the authors, and the researchers who do not merit authorship will be excluded from the list of authors.
References
2. Vyazovkina V. A. Problemy neoromantizma v zapadnoevropeyskom baletnom teatre 1900–1930-kh godov: evolyutsiya obraza geroya-tvortsa: dis. … kand. iskusstvovedeniya [Issues of Neo-Romanticism in Western European Ballet Theater from the 1900s to the 1930s: the Evolution of the Image of the Creator Hero: Thesis of Dissertation for the Degree of Candidate of Arts]. Moscow, 2014. 212 p.
3. Kobzeva M. S. Brazil’skaya tema v tvorchestve D. Miyo [The Brazilian Theme in the Works of Darius Milhaud]. Stat’i molodykh muzykovedov [Articles of Young Musicologists]. Edited by V. N. Demina. Rostov-on-Don, 2014, pp. 15–24.
4. Kokoreva L. M. Darius Miyo. Zhizn’ i tvorchestvo [Darius Milhaud. Life and Art]. Moscow: Sovetskiy kompozitor, 1986. 335 p.
5. Krasovskaya V. M. Balet [Ballet]. Muzykal’naya entsiklopediya [Musical Encyclopedia]. Edited by Yu. V. Keldysh. Volume 1. Moscow, 1973, col. 296.
6. Kenlyan S. Osobennosti tsikloobrazovaniya v zapadnoevropeyskoy instrumental’noy muzyke pervoy poloviny XX veka: dis. … kand. iskusstvovedeniya [The Special Features of Cycle Formation in Western Instrumental Music of the First Half of the 20th Century: Thesis of Dissertation for the Degree of Candidate of Arts]. St. Petersburg, 2011. 182 p.
7. Miyo D. Moya schastlivaya zhizn’ [Milhaud D. My Happy Life]. Moscow: Kompozitor, 1999. 395 p.
8. Pirozhkova Yu. S. Problema zhanrovo-stilevogo sinteza v baletakh D. Miyo i A. Petrova na temu sotvoreniya mira [The Problem of Genre and Stylistic Synthesis in the Ballets of Darius Milhaud and Andrei Petrov on the Subject of the Creation of the World]. Sovremennye aspekty khudozhestvennogo sinteza v muzykal’nom iskusstve: sb. st. [Contemporary Aspects of Artistic Synthesis in Music: a Compilation of Articles]. Rostov-on-Don, 2009, pp. 216–224.
9. Lynn R. B. Milhaud. The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors is the property of Fanfare. 2015. Mar- Apr. 2015, pp. 390–391.
10. Lynn R. B. Milhaud L’Orestie d’Eschyle. Ibid., pp. 393–395.
11. Mason D. Darius Milhaud’s spoken word recordings. Classical Recordings Quarterly. March 2011, Issue 64, pp. 20–23.
12. Matthew-Walker R. Darius Milhaud – Une Vie Heureuse Milhaud. Classical Recordings Quarterly. Summer 2014, pp. 92–93.
13. Snook P. A. Milhaud Le Train Bleu. The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors is the property of Fanfare. July-August 2013, pp. 446–447.
14. Solum J. Milhaud’s Sonatine for Flute and Piano: A Masterwork from the Jazz Age. Essay Flutist Quarterly. July 2013, pp. 26–29.