Trois rag-caprices, Op. 78

Three piano pieces, Op. 78, composed 1922 in Paris. Among the earliest European concert works to assimilate jazz idioms directly — predating Gershwin, Ravel, and Hindemith in this regard. Milhaud had encountered African-American jazz in Harlem during a 1922 American tour, an experience he described as one of the most revelatory musical encounters of his life. The three rag-caprices apply the rhythmic energy and syncopated figuration of ragtime to the concentrated character-piece form, filtered through Milhaud's characteristic polytonality. Lively, irreverent, and technically demanding, they are among the most historically significant of his smaller piano works.