Composed by the 27-year-old Igor Markevitch when he was at the height of his creative powers, La Taille de l'Homme (The Measure of Man) is a virtuoso ensemble work which fully deserves to be in the repertoire despite its incomplete state (Part 2 was never written).

The libretto was written by C. F. Ramuz, author of text of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale. The score of this powerful evocation of life's stages linked to the passage of the seasons was long believed lost until it was discovered among the papers of Markevitch's teacher, Nadia Boulanger.