Darius Milhaud was living in Brazil when he completed Les Choéphores (The Libation Bearers) in 1916. This work forms the middle part of Milhaud's Orestian trilogy, written in collaboration with the poet Paul Claudel. Les Choéphores is set for vocal soloists, chorus, orchestra, and a battery of percussion instruments; it is divided into seven scenes: "Funeral Clamor" (Vocifération funébre), "Libation," "Incantation," "Omens" (Présages), "Exhortation," "Justice and Light" (La Justice et la Lumière), and "Conclusion." As is the case with Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust, the work is neither wholly opera nor cantata, but combines elements of both forms.

The work is dedicated to Charles Koechlin, and some of the orchestral writing recalls the latter's rich, otherworldly textures. Chords used in the "Incantation" also betray Debussy's influence, and Milhaud certainly could not have escaped the example of Richard Strauss' Elektra. However, Milhaud's conception is still highly original.

The instrumental content of Les Choéphores favors a nebulous and slightly tart polytonal combination of keys, sometimes resulting in orchestral tone clusters. His vocal writing for both chorus and soloists goes through long passages that are independent of the orchestral compliment, which provides an emotional backdrop for the action. Though Milhaud's harmonic language is sometimes impressionist-derived, his outlook is more expressionist and dramatic in style. The "Libation" section is scored for chorus alone, recalling the ghostly sound of Anton Webern's choral writing, the men supporting the women with wordless vowels.

The most unusual feature of Les Choéphores is in "Omens" (Presages), "Exhortation," and "Conclusion," where the orchestra is silent and the chorus is accompanied by percussion only. About this Milhaud wrote: "(These) scenes create a difficult problem for the composer; they are savage, cannibal as it were. The lyrical element in these scenes is not musical. How was I to set music to this hurricane? I finally decided to make use of a measured speech, divided into bars, and conducted as if it were sung." These parts feature a single chorus member, who recites the majority of the text as the rest of the chorus responds with syllables such as "ho" and "ha." A choral soloist with acting ability can make a lot of this part. The extensive use of percussion in this section pre-dates even Antheil's Ballet Mecanique by nearly a decade; Milhaud continued this practice into his ballet L'Homme et son Désir (1918).

The work was not heard until 1927, when Milhaud led the premiere of Les Choéphores at the Paris Opera. While not new, Les Choéphores was still considered shocking by the standards of its own era. A debate opened up in the Paris newspapers about the relative merits of Les Choéphores, with conservative critics rejecting it out of hand as the work of a madman. As time has moved forward, there are few doubts about the sincerity of Milhaud's vision, yet Les Choéphores is not often revived. Conductor Leonard Bernstein proved one of the few champions of this work.

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