Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as The Group of Six—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century, his compositions make extensive use of polytonality. Milhaud is considered one of the key modernist composers. Milhaud was born in the son of Sophie and Gabriel Milhaud, his father was from a Jewish family from Aix-en-Provence, his mother from a Sephardi Jewish family from Italy. Milhaud began as a violinist turning to composition instead. Milhaud studied in Paris at the Paris Conservatory where he met his fellow group members Arthur Honegger and Germaine Tailleferre, he studied composition under harmony and counterpoint with André Gedalge. He studied with Vincent d'Indy. From 1917 to 1919, he served as secretary to Paul Claudel, the eminent poet and dramatist, the French ambassador to Brazil, with whom Milhaud collaborated for many years, setting music for many of Claudel's poems and plays. While in Brazil, they collaborated on a ballet, son désir.
On his return to France, Milhaud composed works influenced by the Brazilian popular music he had heard, including compositions of Brazilian pianist and composer Ernesto Nazareth. Le bœuf sur le toit includes melodies by Nazareth and other popular Brazilian composers of the time, evokes the sounds of Carnaval. Among the melodies is, in fact, a Carnaval tune by the name of "The Bull on the Roof", he produced Saudades do Brasil, a suite of twelve dances evoking twelve neighborhoods in Rio. Shortly after the original piano version appeared, he orchestrated the suite. On a trip to the United States in 1922, Darius Milhaud heard "authentic" jazz for the first time, on the streets of Harlem, which left a great impact on his musical outlook; the following year, he completed his composition La création du monde, using ideas and idioms from jazz, cast as a ballet in six continuous dance scenes. In 1925, Milhaud married Madeleine, an actress and reciter. In 1930 she gave birth to a son, the painter and sculptor Daniel Milhaud, the couple's only child.
The invasion of France by Nazi Germany forced the Milhauds to leave France in 1940 and emigrate to the United States. He secured a teaching post at Mills College in Oakland, where he composed the opera Bolivar and collaborated with Henri Temianka and the Paganini Quartet. In an extraordinary concert there in 1949, the Budapest Quartet performed the composer's 14th String Quartet, followed by the Paganini Quartet's performance of his 15th; the following year, these same pieces were performed at the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado, by the Paganini and Juilliard String Quartets. Jazz pianist Dave Brubeck became one of Milhaud's most famous students when Brubeck furthered his music studies at Mills College in the late 1940s. In a February 2010 interview with JazzWax, Brubeck said he attended Mills, a women's college to study with Milhaud, saying, "Milhaud was an enormously gifted classical composer and teacher who loved jazz and incorporated it into his work. My older brother Howard was his assistant and had taken all of his classes."
Brubeck named his first son Darius. In 1947 Milhaud was among the founders of the Music Academy of the West summer conservatory, where popular songwriter Burt Bacharach was among his students. Milhaud "Don't be afraid of writing something people can remember and whistle. Don't feel discomfited by a melody."From 1947 to 1971, he taught alternate years at Mills and the Paris Conservatoire, until poor health, which caused him to use a wheelchair during his years, compelled him to retire. He taught on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, he died in Geneva at the age of 81, he was buried in the Saint-Pierre Cemetery in Aix-en-Provence. Darius Milhaud was prolific and composed for a wide range of genres, his opus list ended at 443. Milhaud was an rapid creator, for whom the art of writing music seemed as natural as breathing, his most popular works include Le bœuf sur le toit, La création du monde and Saudades do Brasil. His autobiography is titled Notes sans musique revised as Ma vie heureuse.
There is a Darius Milhaud Collection at Mills College in California. There is another Darius Milhaud Collection at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts in New York City; the Western Jewish History Center, of the Judah L. Magnes Museum, in Berkeley, California has librettos for Milhaud's opera, David, as well as a program for its American premiere, in Los Angeles, at the Hollywood Bowl, photocopies of newspaper coverage in the B'nai B'rith Messenger of Los Angeles, of this event; the Beloved Vagabond L'Inhumaine Land Without Bread Madame Bovary The Beloved Vagabond The Citadel of Silence (
The Latrobe Athletic Association was a professional football team located in Latrobe, from 1895 until 1909. A member of the unofficial Western Pennsylvania Professional Football Circuit, the team is best known for being the first football club to play a full season while composed of professional players. In 1895, team's quarterback, John Brallier became the first football player to turn professional, by accepting $10 and expenses to play for Latrobe against the Jeannette Athletic Club. In 1895 the local Latrobe YMCA organized a local football team and announced that the team play a formal schedule. With the decision, Russell Aukerman, an instructor at the club and a former halfback at Gettysburg College, was named as a player-coach. Meanwhile, David Berry, an editor-publisher of a local newspaper, the Latrobe Clipper, was chosen as the team's manager. Harry Ryan, a former tackle from West Virginia University, was elected as the team's captain; the team began to conduct daily practices in early August.
Since many of the players held jobs unrelated to football, those men working different shifts were accommodated with evening practices, when they could not attend regular sessions in the afternoon. The team's practices were held on a vacant Pennsylvania Railroad lot at the corner of Depot and Alexandria Streets, lit at night by a street light. Just before the start of the season, Latrobe's quarterback, Eddie Blair, found himself in a scheduling conflict. Blair, who played baseball in nearby Greensburg, discovered that the team's first football game against the Jeannette Athletic Club conflicted with a prior baseball commitment. Berry was now given the task for replacing Blair, for the game, he heard of a quarterback at Indiana Normal named John Brallier and contacted him at his home in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Berry offered Brallier expenses to play for Latrobe; however Brallier was reluctant to play since he would be playing for Washington & Jefferson College within just a few weeks. This led Berry to offer Brallier $10 to play for Latrobe against Jeannette, plus expenses, with the promise of several future games.
Brallier, accepted the offer and became the first player to admit to being paid to play football player. The quarterback practiced with the team. While Brallier was considered the first professional football player and deemed a national icon for many years, it wasn't until after his death in 1960 that evidence proved John Brallier was not in fact the first professional football player, but the first one to admit that he was being paid. William "Pudge" Heffelfinger of the Allegheny Athletic Association is now considered the first professional player; the first game of Latrobe's 1895 season was played on a Tuesday afternoon on September 3, 1895. Before the game, a parade formed on newly paved Ligonier Street; the parade was led by Billy Showalter’s Cornet Band, followed by both the Latrobe and Jeannette teams in full uniforms. The Latrobe team colors of Orange and Maroon were displayed in store windows and hotels, on street corner poles. Stores were closed, steel mines and coke works declared a half-holiday for the occasion.
The game began at 4:00 pm with Latrobe coming out as the victor over Jeannette. Latrobe's coach, Russell Auckerman, scored two touchdowns, while Brallier kicked two extra points for a final score of 12–0. After the initial game, Brallier played a second game with Latrobe, before traveling to Washington & Jefferson for college; the game was held on September 14, against a squad from Altoona and ended in a 7–0 Latrobe loss. While at Washington & Jefferson, Braillier became the college's varsity quarterback. Meanwhile, the 1895 Latrobe YMCA team ended up playing 11 games, for a record of 7–4 with two losses to their cross-county rivals, the Greensburg Athletic Association, single losses to Altoona and West Virginia University. Latrobe fielded a team for a second season in 1896. Many of the players on team had returned from the year before. Brallier served as the team's quarterback and coach; the team started off with wins against the Pittsburgh Imperials, the renamed Jeannette Indians and Western University of Pennsylvania before losing to the Greensburg Athletic Association, 10–4.
The team split a two-game series against West Virginia University and won against Indiana Normal, before once again losing to the Greensburg Athletic Association, 10–0, to finish with a 7–3 record. The 1897 Latrobe team was composed of professional players. Berry had signed a number of college players from east coast colleges, some as far west as Iowa, to the team. Meanwhile, Walter Okeson, a former All-American end from Lehigh University, was named as the team's coach. George Shelafo of the Carlisle Indian School, located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania joined Latrobe that season. Shelafo was set to play for the University of Chicago that fall before he was lured to Latrobe by Berry; the team began the season 7–0–1 with wins over Jeannette, Pittsburgh Emeralds, Pittsburgh College, Western University of Pennsylvania, a team from Youngstown, Ohio. After the team's game against Western University of Pennsylvania, Doggie Trenchard and Eddie Blair, the team's original quarterback, replaced by Brallier in 1895, joined the team.
The team remained undefeated before facing the Duquesne Athletic Club for a 12–6 loss at Exposition Park. However, the team did rebound to defeat the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, Youngstown in back-to-back games; the championship of western Pennsylvania was expected to be a battle between the Duquesne a
The 1996 Detroit Tigers had a record of 53–109 for what was, at the time, the most losses and worst winning percentage in team history -- both of which since been surpassed twice by the 2003 and 2019 teams. With a number of capable batters, the team scored a respectable 783 runs. However, the 1996 Tigers lacked pitching, allowing their opponents to score 1,103 runs and posting a team ERA of 6.38. No team in American League history and only one in major league history has given up more runs. No pitcher on the team had more than 7 wins. Of the 109 games the Tigers lost, 58 were by four or more runs, a record for the number of games lost by such a margin; the Tigers made more unwanted history when they were swept 12–0 by the Cleveland Indians in the regular season series, losing all twelve games played while being outscored, 79–28. The 1996 Tigers did not have a winning record against any AL opponent. Chad Curtis CF Bobby Higginson RF Travis Fryman 3B Cecil Fielder 1B Melvin Nieves LF Eddie Williams DH Mark Lewis 2B John Flaherty C Alan Trammell SS Felipe Lira SP March 22, 1996: Melvin Nieves was traded by the San Diego Padres with Raul Casanova and Richie Lewis to the Detroit Tigers for Sean Bergman, Todd Steverson, Cade Gaspar.
March 31, 1996: Curtis Pride was signed as a Free Agent with the Detroit Tigers. April 27, 1996: Joe Boever was selected off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates from the Detroit Tigers. July 31, 1996: Cecil Fielder was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the New York Yankees for Rubén Sierra and Matt Drews. July 31, 1996: Chad Curtis was traded by the Detroit Tigers to the Los Angeles Dodgers for John Cummings and Joey Eischen. August 6, 1996: Todd Van Poppel was selected off waivers by the Detroit Tigers from the Oakland Athletics. Note: Pos = Position. = Batting average. = Batting average.