George Migot

Georges Migot
(b Paris, 27 Feb 1891; d Levallois, nr Paris, 5 Jan 1976). French composer. His father was a pastor and doctor, and Migot’s concern for spiritual and humane values was instilled from his earliest years.

In 1909 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, studying composition with Widor, orchestration with d’Indy and music history with Emmanuel. Badly wounded at the outset of World War I, he resumed his studies after a long convalescence; he won three successive composition prizes (1918–20). In 1921 he won the Blumenthal Foundation Prize for French thought and art for a body of work that was already considerable and showed great originality. At the same time he was producing remarkable paintings (exhibitions of his work were held at the Georges Petit Gallery in 1917 and at the Marcel Bernheim Gallery in 1919); he also published a collection entitled Essais pour une esthétique générale (1920). The years 1920–39 were ones of constant struggle – in music, writings and discussion – against the neo-classical aesthetic which was dominating music in Paris. Always an independent, Migot took nothing from this or any other fashionable movement; instead he continued to pursue his own ideas, steadily adding to his monumental oeuvre. From 1949 to 1961 he was keeper of the Museum of Instruments at the Conservatoire. He was an Officer of the Légion d’Honneur.

His earliest works show a movement from harmonic writing to the linear style of such pieces as the Trio (1918–19) for violin, viola and piano. What distinguishes him from his contemporaries – Hindemith or Les Six, for example – is the uncompromisingly polyphonic manner which he progressively evolved. In his mature works, such as Requiem a cappella (1953), he achieved a line which is completely free from rigid metrical restriction and avoids any suggestion of definite tonality or modality. This melodic style is one of the most characteristic features of Migot’s music. His use of timbre is also highly individual, whether in the unusual combinations of his chamber music (e.g. the Quatuor for flute, violin, clarinet and harp and the Deux stèles for solo voice, harp, celesta, tam-tam, cymbal and double bass), the subtlety of his orchestral scoring (most notable in the three concertante suites, 1924–6) or the adventurous sonorities of his piano works (e.g. Le zodiaque).

The flowing quality of Migot’s music sets it in the tradition of Couperin, Rameau and Debussy. However, the visionary imagination displayed in such works as Le sermon sur la montagne, La passion and Saint Germain d’Auxerre is essentially original. Migot is set apart from other French composers of his generation by his impressive output of vocal works, which includes a large number of mélodies and over 70 choral works. The latter include six oratorios on the life of Christ, as well as other religious works (Le petit évangéliaire, De Christo etc.), some of which use his own texts based on the Gospels. His independent poetry, of which he published two volumes (1950–51), is concerned principally with spiritual themes. He insisted on a close spiritual link between text and music, scorning simplistic word-painting, but even in his secular and instrumental works the loftiness of thought is unmistakable.