Michel Michelet

Michel Michelet is a Russian-born American composer known for his prolific contributions to film scores in Hollywood, particularly during the golden age of film noir in the 1940s and 1950s.

Born Mikhail Isaakovich Levin on July 14, 1894, in Kyiv to a Jewish family in the Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), Michelet studied cello and composition in Leipzig with Julius Klengel and Max Reger, and later in Kyiv with Reinhold Glière. He graduated as a professor of music and taught at the Kyiv and Vienna Conservatories before relocating to Paris in 1924, where he adopted the professional name Michel Michelet and began composing for French films starting in 1929.

Michel Michelet was born Mikhail Isaakovich Levin on July 14, 1894, in Kyiv, Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine), into a Jewish family. His Jewish heritage, rooted in the Ashkenazi traditions of his native city, profoundly shaped aspects of his musical expression from early on.

This influence is evident in his incorporation of Hebrew prayer melodies into compositions, such as the 1923 Elegie, Op. 4, which draws directly from a traditional Ashkenazi melody in the Jewish Sabbath morning liturgy—specifically the setting of Psalm 145, with the text “I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever.” Originally composed for string orchestra and later arranged for piano quintet, the work reflects his dual Russian-Jewish musical heritage within a modern idiom and stands as one of the notable Jewish piano quintets of the twentieth century.

As a young composer, he produced his early classical work Elegie, Op. 4 in 1923, originally scored for string orchestra and based on an Ashkenazi Hebrew prayer melody from Psalm 145; he later arranged it for piano and string quartet. This piece reflects his Jewish heritage. It was published by the Jibneh music house in Jerusalem and Berlin.