Paul Moriah: biography, best works, interesting facts, listen

Paul Moriah

Many people know about the orchestra of Paul Moria, his music was played on television, in movies, on records. But few people thought that they were copies of foreign records without respecting copyright. However, the arranger himself did not make official complaints about this. Paul Mauriat considered himself a happy man who did what he loved, and obviously had an amazing breadth of his soul. His performances in the Soviet Union were sold out, the maestro was pleased with the warm welcome of the public and spoke of his love for Russia.

A brief biography of Paul Moriah and many interesting facts about the musician can be found on our page.

short biography

Paul was born in Marseilles on March 4, 1925, and he retained his attachment to the Mediterranean for life. The conductor repeatedly mentioned his father, who was his first music teacher, in an interview. He often spoke of him as a musician, although his father was an amateur and earned his family as a postal employee. Moriah regretted that his father did not live to see his worldwide success.

The boy's talent was discovered early; at the age of three, Paul could independently pick up a melody on the piano that sounded on the radio. This determined the future career of the pianist. As Moriah himself said, in France it is important to say that you studied at the conservatory. He studied at the Conservatory of Marseille, graduated with honors and became a professional musician.

It should be noted that Moria is generally spoken of as a conductor of an orchestra performing light pop music, or an arranger of twentieth-century hits. However, Moriah is a real classical pianist who played and loved works. Baha, Vivaldi, StravinskyBrahms Chopin and others great composers. He highly appreciated classical music played by symphony orchestras. And sometimes I chose classics for my team. However, he believed that everyone should do their own thing.

Conquer Paris did not work right away. Paul Mauriat was always creative in his work and wanted to choose works for his own performance. However, in his younger years, playing the piano in various orchestras, performing in variety shows and dance halls, was his main occupation. The orchestra created by him at the age of 17 Moria considered it a modest experiment. The first move to the capital in 1951, Moria estimated as unsuccessful. Then Paris seemed to him not too humane and tough, like all big cities. The musician missed the sea.

Before the ensemble, known to all as the Paul Mauriat Orchestra, appeared in 1965, the maestro made many arrangements for French singers. First of all, for Charles Aznavour. Remembering the work with the singer, Moriah said that the big work on the arrangement entrusted to him began with the fact that Aznavour played several melodies composed by him in a row. The processing turned out brilliantly for Paul, no wonder more than 120 songs of the great French chansonnier were recognized in his arrangement. Another important creative stage is cooperation with Mireille Mathieu. Paul Mauriat was her accompanist and director, wrote for her about fifty songs from 1969 to 1972.

In the political sphere, Paul Moriah always kept his left-wing convictions, voting in elections for the French Communist Party. For the French, his generation is not such a rarity. Honestly making money is not at all an easy job, he saw in his music a democratic and international context. He even composed a kind of October Revolution anthem "Quand fera-t-il jour, camarade". It was performed by Mireille Mathieu and the Alexandrov Academic Ensemble of Song and Dance of the Soviet Army. By the way, this group really liked the French musician.

What was the orchestra of Paul Mauriat that became so popular? It was about 40-50 musicians of different nationalities, they participated in the studio recordings of hits, processed by the conductor. The arranger himself emphasized - this is not a permanent team that works with a strictly defined staff of performers. The same musicians could play in different orchestras of the time. But for the next recording of melodies, they selected specific guitarists, violinists, and pianists. And other people could go on tour. Moreover, Moriah argued that there was no point in repeating studio recordings at concerts: they could not be reproduced perfectly. Before the public, the orchestra played completely different works.

Both recordings and concerts were popular. Moriah toured around the world. In 1978, Moria flew to Moscow from Japan. By the way, the listeners of this country are very fond of the French conductor and his orchestra. Here he had a record attendance concerts.

Moriah expressed his views on the promotion of pop music performed by French orchestras in the United States and other countries. He believed that in this matter, the most important component is the commercialization of the musical sphere. He noted that the promotion of singers and ensembles within the country was difficult due to the active introduction of a foreign English-language product.

Personal life

Externally, Paul Maurias greatly impressed his fans. Slender, tanned, elegant, smiling, he seemed to radiate happiness and confidence. Although the work was strict and uncompromising. And I didn’t like to listen to the already released records of my orchestra, considering that there is no limit to perfection, we must look for a new interesting sound. Moriah’s modesty was not at all ostentatious; he was convinced that in order to do quality work you should avoid dizziness from success.

On the character of Moria says the fact that his wife Irene, he lived all his life. Having met in youth, in 1952, the couple never parted - until the death of Moriah in 2006. Irene accompanied him during the tour, for the sake of him left his job as a school teacher. Interestingly, Paul believed: different views on life only helped their marital happiness. However, the spouse treated the creativity of Moria with admiration. And even found that he has a beautiful voice. That is why the maestro did not consider it possible to demonstrate his new work in the first place to his wife: he did not hope for an impartial evaluation.

Moriah loved life in all its best manifestations. The world is full of beautiful music, you have to listen to it, he said. His hobbies were very diverse. He was always attracted by swimming, tennis, playing chess, reading. There was not much time left for the hobby, considering that during the tours that lasted for half a year, he willingly studied local sights, music, talked to the press and colleagues.

Interesting Facts

• The popularity of the Paul Moriah orchestra in Russia during the Soviet era, and throughout the entire Soviet Union, was very great. Many melodies, truly international, naturally intertwined in the lives of people of the 60s, 70s, 80s. On Soviet television, the screensavers of several popular programs were accompanied by the music of the Paul Mauriad Orchestra. Nobody was embarrassed that in films foreign music was used even without specifying in the credits the name of the work and its performers.

• International success to Paul Maurias came from record companies, mainly Philips. In the 1960s, pop orchestras were very popular; they played music from movies, hits in their own rendition and recorded them in the studio. Moriah was familiar with all the teams. Sometimes they played the same songs with different interpretations.
• The number of recordings that Paul Maurias made is amazing. For his generation - an undoubted record: he recorded hundreds of songs (according to some calculations, one and a half thousand). Records sold millions of copies
• About forty to fifty people played in the orchestra - that number took part in the recording. About thirty went on tour at the same time. The orchestra was international: Moriah spoke to him in English, and his colleagues translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.
• Paul Mauriat's tour of the world brought him new material for creativity. To overcome cultural barriers, to get a new musical experience - such was the maestro's credo. In Brazil, Mexico, Russia - everywhere he found performers and composers whose music was interesting and close to him.
• Moriah admitted that he likes Russia, the white nights of Leningrad. He considered the Russian people very musical. He called his disc dedicated to Russian music "Eternal Russia". By the way, he made the first treatment of the Russian song for Aznavour. Another song related to Russian music is the processing of Sergei Nikitin’s song To the Music of Vivaldi.
• In Russia, Moria toured not only in the northern capital, but also in Moscow and Kazan.
• Moriah was recognized internationally. He received gold discs in different countries of the world. The Ministry of Culture of the French Republic has repeatedly awarded him prestigious awards and titles.

• About fifty tunes Paul Moriah took for the arrangement annually. And it was not only melodies from movies. He played the classics - Chopin, Brahms. The main principle of selection of music from Moria was one - to play only what they like. It took him from one to four days to create one composition.
• Interestingly, Paul Mauriat, a musician, whose arrangements were constantly in demand on TV channels in various countries, criticized the low-end television production in France. He did not participate in those shows that he considered populist and tasteless.
• The orchestra, created by Moria, continued to tour with other conductors - musicians, who for many years worked with the maestro. The style of the game has changed, as demonstrated by several international tours. But the orchestra, leading its history from the former, created by Moria collective, in a number of countries enjoys the same success.

The best works

It is very difficult to choose the best compositions of Paul Moria. For two reasons. First, he made arrangements for the hits of other authors: there were so many of them that it was difficult to choose one over another. Secondly, the songs that Moriah himself wrote may not be as well known as the smash hits he has handled. However, you can use the simplest and most reliable criterion: those compositions that the conductor himself considered to be key in his career are worthy of mention.

Can not be said about "Love is blue "which gained fame in all countries. Paul Moria himself believed that the success of this composition in the US was a complete surprise to him. Moreover, in France it was not so well known.

"Love is Blue" (listen)

Unforgettable "Cherbourg Umbrellas" must be included in this list for several reasons. And first of all, because Michel Legrand Paul Mauriat called his favorite composer. "He is the music itself," said the conductor.

"Cherbourg Umbrellas" (listen)

For Charles Aznavour many compositions were made, but it was absolutely certain that Paul Mauriat spoke about the arrangement of the song. "Bohemia"how about merit.

Shlager Paul Moriah "Mon Credo ", performed by Mireille Mathieu, sold large quantities. Their joint work lasted five years, during which time the best songs for Mathieu were written.

"Mon Credo" (listen)

And, perhaps, one of the screensavers to TV shows, which so conquered the Soviet audience. The wonderful program "In the world of animals" began with expressive dances of cranes and other beauty of the wild nature under the composition "Lark". It was originally part of the Catholic Christmas Choir of the Argentinean composer Ariel Romires. Thanks to Paul Moria, this music entered the European charts and for decades has been decorating the Soviet television screen weekly.

"Lark" (listen)

Movie music

Paul Mauriat played music from many famous films - "The Godfather", "Love Story", "Cherbourg Umbrellas". The list is too large. The composer himself is considered to be the co-author of the music of two French comedies: with Raymond Lefebre he composed the music for the films The Gendarme of Saint-Tropez and The Gendarme in New York.

The ministry of music, as understood by Paul Mauriat, he fully realized. The desire for an independent choice of compositions for performance led him to lead his own orchestra, where the maestro's opinion was decisive, despite certain dictates of the record company. The conductor highly appreciated the sincere love of people all over the world for the works he performs.