The “French Six,” as they were named by music critic Henri Collet in 1920, were a loosely linked group of six young composers who had all been students at the Paris Conservatory. They were Arthur Honegger, Darius MILHAUD, and Georges Auric who had met as students, and later joined by Louis Durey, Germaine Tailleferre, and Francis POULENC. Their spiritual leader was Erik SATIE, and they were dedicated to producing a new style of music in reaction to the epic works of Wagner and other late Romantic composers. Collectively they were enthusiastic about modernism, simplicity, and elegance, although each had an individual style.
Under the influence of the poet Jean Cocteau, who was a fierce chauvinist, and wanted French music free from the taints of foreign influences, the young composers sought to be the enfants terribles of the musical world. Their works were to be short and straightforward to reflect the era of the machine and the age of jazz. Inspiration, for some of the composers, came from jazz bands, music halls and the circus.
Les Six held concerts to promote their own works and also collaborated on other projects. The Album des Six was a collection of piano pieces written by members of the group. In 1921, all but Durey wrote dance music for a ballet-cum-play, written by Jean Cocteau, called Les maries de la tour Eiffel. This consisted of a near-Surrealist mime about a wedding interrupted by an ostrich-pursuing hunter, a bather, a cyclist, and a lion. In the years following this concert, however, the six composers began to follow increasingly divergent musical paths, and by the mid-1920s, there was little cohesion remaining in the group.
Francis Poulenc is perhaps the best-remembered of the group. His early pieces displayed a sardonic musical wit, and the influence of jazz is heard in his 1922 Sonata for clarinet and bassoon. He wrote many pieces of chamber music, piano music, orchestral music, and music for the stage and for films. His best-known work is the ballet music for Les biches (1924). Other well-known works include the Concerto in G for organ, strings, and tympani (1941), the opera Dialogues des Carmelites (1953–56), and his sextet for piano and wind (1932). Darius Milhaud wrote operas, ballets, symphonies, concertos, chamber music (including 15 string quartets), songs, and piano works. His best-known pieces are the jazzy ballet Creation of the World (1923) and the suite Scaramouche (1937), for two pianos. Arthur Honegger (1892–1955) was a Swiss who had studied at the Paris Conservatory and been grouped with the others as the French Six. In fact he had little sympathy with the music of Satie, who was so admired by the rest of the group. When discussing his opera Antigone (1927)—which had a text by Jean Cocteau—Honegger said his aim was “as an honest workman to produce an honest piece of work.” He wrote operas, cantatas, choral works, symphonies, concertos, numerous chamber works and scores for radio and films. Honegger’s best-known composition is the dramatic oratorio King David (1921).
Georges Auric (1899–1983) is best remembered as a composer of scores for films, such as Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast (1946) and Orpheus (1949). Louis Durey (1888–1979) and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983) are the least-known of Les Six. In addition to writing piano pieces, songs, chamber music, and works for chorus and orchestra, Durey became music critic of VHumanite in 1950. Germaine Tailleferre’s work includes several chamber pieces for mixed ensembles, songs, and piano pieces.
Richard Trombley
SEE ALSO:
BALLET AND MODERN DANCE MUSIC; CHAMBER MUSIC; OPERA; ORCHESTRAL MUSIC.
FURTHER READING
Halbreich, Harry, trans. Roger Nichols. Arthur Honegger
(Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1998);
Hill, Edward Burlingame. Modern French Music
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1970);
Shapiro, Robert. Germaine Tailleferre: A Biobibliography
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994).
SUGGESTED LISTENING
Auric: Orpheus; Honegger: Symphony No. 2;
Milhaud: Creation of the World;
Poulenc: Sextet for piano and woodwind quintet.