Georges Auric (15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in
LodèveLodève is a commune in the Hérault département in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:...
,
HéraultHérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Languedoc....
,
Languedoc-RoussillonLanguedoc-Roussillon is one of the 26 regions of France. It comprises five departments, and borders the other French regions of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Rhône-Alpes, Auvergne, Midi-Pyrénées on the one side, and Spain, Andorra and the Mediterranean sea on the other side.Llívia is a town of...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and under the composer
Vincent D'IndyPaul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:D'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age but, to please his family, studied law. However, he decided to be a musician...
at the
Schola CantorumLa Schola Cantorum is a private music school in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera...
. Before he turned 20 he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several
balletBallet is a formalized type of performance dance, which originated in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century French courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form...
s and stage productions.
As a young student of at the Paris Conservatory in 1920, and, considered
avant-gardeAvant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, Auric became part of
SatieÉric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
and
Cocteau’sJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker...
famous group,
Les SixLes Six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1923 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled ‘Les cinq Russes, les six Français et M. Satie’ to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against the musical style of Richard Wagner and...
, and was friends with the artist
Jean HugoJean Hugo is a South African professional golfer.Hugo matriculated at Paul Roos Gymnasium in Stellenbosch, South Africa in 1994 and graduated three years later with a BA Degree from the University of Stellenbosch prior to becoming a professional golfer...
. His participation led to writing settings of poetry and other texts as songs and musicals. During this time, he wrote his one act opera
Sous le masque (1927). (An earlier opera,
La Reine de coeur (1919), is lost.) It was also in 1927 that he contributed the
Rondeau for the children's ballet
L'Éventail de JeanneL'Éventail de Jeanne is a children's ballet choreographed in 1927 by Alice Bourgat and Yvonne Franck.The music was by ten French composers, each of whom contributed a stylised dance in classic form:*Maurice Ravel...
, a collaboration between ten French composers.
When Jean Cocteau started making motion pictures, at the beginning of the 1930s Auric began writing film scores. He wrote soundtracks for a number of French and British films, and his success led to writing the music for Hollywood movies, too. Several times, Auric’s work made it onto the
hit paradeThe hit parade is a list of tunes—songs and instrumentals—that are most popular at any given time. The term originated in the 1930s; Billboard magazine published its first music hit parade on January 4, 1936...
, notably
The Song from Moulin Rouge"The Song from Moulin Rouge" is a popular song that first appeared in the 1952 film Moulin Rouge....
.
Especially notable among his film music is the lavishly impressionistic score that he wrote for
Jean CocteauJean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager, playwright, artist and filmmaker...
's
Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont's fairy tale. Directed by French poet/filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette Day as Belle and Jean Marais as both Avenant and The Beast. The plot revolves around Belle's father who...
(1946); other films include
Passport To PimlicoPassport to Pimlico is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios. Margaret Rutherford, Stanley Holloway and Hermione Baddeley star under the direction of Henry Cornelius....
(1948),
The Lavender Hill MobThe Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T.E.B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton and starring Alec Guinness, Stanley Holloway and Sid James as gold bullion thieves...
(1951),
Moulin Rouge (1952),
The Titfield ThunderboltThe Titfield Thunderbolt is a 1953 British comedy film about a group of villagers trying to prevent British Railways from closing the fictional Titfield branch line. The film was written by T.E.B...
(1953),
Roman Holiday (1953),
Le Salaire de la Peur (1953),
Lola MontesLola Montes may refer to:* Lola Montez, the stage name of Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert , the Irish-born Spanish dancer and courtesan* Lola Montès , feature film based on the life story of the above...
(1955),
RififiRififi is a 1955 French crime film adaptation of Auguste le Breton's novel of the same name. Directed by American filmmaker Jules Dassin, the film stars Jean Servais as the aging gangster Tony le Stéphanois, Carl Möhner as Jo le Suédois, Robert Manuel as Mario Farrati and Jules Dassin as César le...
(1956),
Notre-Dame de Paris (1956),
Bonjour TristesseBonjour Tristesse is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only eighteen, it was an overnight sensation...
(1958),
The Night Heaven FellThe Night Heaven Fell is a 1958 French-Italian film directed by Roger Vadim. Vadim had already acquired international fame with his daring debut And God Created Woman...
(1958),
Goodbye AgainGoodbye Again may refer to:Film:* Goodbye Again , a 1933 film directed by Michael Curtiz with Warren William and Joan Blondell...
(1961), and
Therese and Isabelle (1968).
In 1962 he gave up writing for motion pictures when he became director of the
Opéra National de ParisOpéra National de Paris is the leading opera company of France. It stages performances at the Opéra Bastille and Opéra Garnier in Paris.Other opera houses in Paris are the Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra-Comique and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.-History:...
and then chairman of
SACEMSociété des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique is a French professional association collecting payments of artists’ rights and distributing the rights to the original songwriters, composers and music publishers.-History:...
, the French Performing Rights Society. Auric continued to write classical chamber music, especially for winds, right up to his death.
Auric was interred at
Montparnasse CemeteryMontparnasse Cemetery is a famous cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the city's 14th arrondissement.Created from three farms in 1824, the cemetery at Montparnasse was originally known as Le Cimetière du Sud. Cemeteries had been banned from Paris since the closure, owing to...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
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