La création du monde, Op. 81

The ballet unfolds in one continuous span of about 16 to 18 minutes, played by a small jazz-inflected ensemble rather than a full orchestra. It opens with a slow, smoky introduction led by saxophone and low strings, setting a hushed, expectant mood before creation begins. A fugue follows, a passage where instruments enter one by one chasing the same melodic idea, giving the sense of the world's elements gradually assembling themselves. Listen for the prominent alto saxophone, which acts almost like a solo voice throughout, along with blue notes and syncopated rhythms borrowed directly from American jazz and blues Milhaud heard in Harlem. As the music builds, the tempo quickens into dance-like episodes with strutting, off-kilter rhythms depicting animals, plants, and finally man and woman coming to life. A lyrical, almost tender duet-like passage marks the creation of the first couple. The piece closes by circling back to the hushed atmosphere of the opening, now colored by everything that has happened in between, ending quietly rather than with a big finish.

Milhaud wrote La création du monde in 1923 after a trip to the United States, where he heard jazz played live in Harlem nightclubs and was struck by its rhythmic energy and instrumental color. He decided to fold that sound directly into a concert score rather than merely imitate it from a distance. The ballet sets an African creation myth, with a scenario and designs by Blaise Cendrars and Fernand Léger, choreography by Jean Börlin for the Ballets Suédois. It premiered in Paris in 1923 to a mixed reception, with some critics puzzled by jazz idioms placed inside a formal ballet score. Over time it came to be recognized, alongside Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, as one of the earliest and most successful fusions of jazz and classical concert music, and it remains one of Milhaud's most frequently performed works.