Georges Auric
Encyclopedia
Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lodève
, Hérault
. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade
, and under the composer Vincent d'Indy
at the Schola Cantorum
. Before he turned 20 he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several ballet
s and stage productions.
As a young student of at the Paris Conservatory in 1920, and, considered avant-garde
, Auric became part of Satie
and Cocteau's
famous group, Les six
, and was friends with the artist Jean Hugo
. His participation led to writing settings of poetry and other texts as songs and musicals. In 1921, Cocteau asked him to write the music for his ballet, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
. He found himself short of time, so he asked his fellow composers of Les six to contribute some music. All except Louis Durey
agreed. 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 Jeanne
, a collaboration between ten French composers. In 1952 he participated in yet another collaboration, the set of orchestral variations La guirlande de Campra
.
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 parade
, notably The Song from Moulin Rouge
.
Especially notable among his film music is the lavishly impressionistic score that he wrote for Jean Cocteau
's Beauty and the Beast
(1946); other films include Passport to Pimlico
(1948), Silent Dust
(1949), The Lavender Hill Mob
(1951), Moulin Rouge
(1952), The Titfield Thunderbolt
(1953), Roman Holiday
(1953), The Wages of Fear (1953), The Divided Heart
(1954), Lola Montes
(1955), Rififi
(1956), The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1956), Bonjour Tristesse
(1958), The Night Heaven Fell
(1958), Goodbye Again
(1961), and Therese and Isabelle (1968).
In 1960 he was a member of the jury at the 10th Berlin International Film Festival
.
In 1962 he gave up writing for motion pictures when he became director of the Opéra National de Paris and then chairman of SACEM
, the French Performing Rights Society. Auric continued to write classical chamber music, especially for winds, right up to his death.
Auric died in Paris and was interred at Montparnasse Cemetery
.
Lodève
Lodève is a commune in the Hérault département in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:...
, Hérault
Hérault
Hérault 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...
. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Georges Caussade
Georges Caussade
Georges Caussade was a French composer, music theorist, and music educator. Born in Port Louis, Mauritius, he joined the faculty of the Conservatoire de Paris in 1905 as a teacher of counterpoint. He began teaching fugue at the school as well in 1921; a position his wife, composer Simone...
, and under the composer Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy
Vincent d'Indy was a French composer and teacher.-Life:Paul Marie Théodore Vincent d'Indy was born in Paris into an aristocratic family of royalist and Catholic persuasion. He had piano lessons from an early age from his paternal grandmother, who passed him on to Antoine François Marmontel and...
at the Schola Cantorum
Schola Cantorum
The Schola Cantorum de Paris 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 ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
s and stage productions.
As a young student of at the Paris Conservatory in 1920, and, considered avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-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 Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
and Cocteau's
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
famous group, Les six
Les Six
Les six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet in an article titled "" 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 impressionist music.-Members:Formally, the Groupe des...
, and was friends with the artist Jean Hugo
Jean Hugo
Victor Jean 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. In 1921, Cocteau asked him to write the music for his ballet, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel
Les mariés de la tour Eiffel is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by Irène Lagut, costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les six – Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Darius Milhaud, Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre. The score calls for two...
. He found himself short of time, so he asked his fellow composers of Les six to contribute some music. All except Louis Durey
Louis Durey
-Life:Louis Durey was born in Paris, the son of a local businessman. It was not until he was nineteen years old that he chose to pursue a musical career after hearing a performance of a Claude Debussy work. As a composer he was primarily self-taught. From the beginning, choral music was of great...
agreed. 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 Jeanne
L'Éventail de Jeanne
L'éventail de Jeanne is a children's ballet choreographed in 1927 by Alice Bourgat and Yvonne Franck.The music is a collaborative work by ten French composers, each of whom contributed a stylised dance in classic form:...
, a collaboration between ten French composers. In 1952 he participated in yet another collaboration, the set of orchestral variations La guirlande de Campra
La guirlande de Campra
La guirlande de Campra is collaborative orchestral work written by seven French composers in 1952. It is in the form of variations or meditations on a theme from André Campra's 1717 opera Camille. It was later choreographed as a ballet....
.
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 parade
Hit parade
A hit parade is a ranked list of the most popular recordings at a given point in time, usually determined by sales and/or airplay. 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
"The Song from Moulin Rouge" is a popular song that first appeared in the 1952 film Moulin Rouge....
.
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published in 1757 as part of a fairy tale anthology . Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette...
(1946); other films include Passport to Pimlico
Passport to Pimlico
Passport to Pimlico is a 1949 British comedy film made by Ealing Studios and starred Stanley Holloway, Margaret Rutherford, and Hermione Baddeley. It was directed by Henry Cornelius....
(1948), Silent Dust
Silent Dust
Silent Dust is a 1949 British drama/thriller film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Nigel Patrick, Sally Gray, Stephen Murray and Beatrice Campbell. The screenplay was by Michael Pertwee, adapted from his own play The Paragon...
(1949), The Lavender Hill Mob
The Lavender Hill Mob
The Lavender Hill Mob is a 1951 comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T.E.B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass...
(1951), Moulin Rouge
Moulin Rouge (1952 film)
Moulin Rouge is a 1952 film directed by John Huston, produced by Sir John Woolf and James Woolf of Romulus Films and released by United Artists. The film is set in Paris in the late 19th century, following artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the city's bohemian sub-culture in and around the...
(1952), The Titfield Thunderbolt
The Titfield Thunderbolt
The 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
Roman Holiday
Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy directed and produced by William Wyler and starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. It was written by John Dighton and Dalton Trumbo, though with Trumbo on the Hollywood blacklist, he did not receive a credit; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him...
(1953), The Wages of Fear (1953), The Divided Heart
The Divided Heart
The Divided Heart is a black-and-white British film directed by Charles Crichton and released in 1954. The film is a drama, based on a true story and written by Jack Whittingham and Richard Hughes. It was produced by Michael Truman and edited by Peter Bezencenet, with cinematography by Otto Heller...
(1954), Lola Montes
Lola Montes
Lola 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), Rififi
Rififi
Rififi 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), The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956 film)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a 1956 French film version of Victor Hugo's novel of the same name, directed by Jean Delannoy and produced by Raymond Hakim and Robert Hakim. The film is the first version of the novel to be made in color.It stars Mexican actor Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo and Gina...
(1956), Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour Tristesse
Bonjour Tristesse is a novel by Françoise Sagan. Published in 1954, when the author was only 18, it was an overnight sensation...
(1958), The Night Heaven Fell
The Night Heaven Fell
The 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 Again
Goodbye Again (1961 film)
Goodbye Again, also known as Aimez-vous Brahms?, is a 1961 Franco-American romantic drama film directed by Anatole Litvak It was produced and from a screenplay by Samuel A. Taylor, based on the novel Aimez-Vous Brahms? by Françoise Sagan. The music score was by Georges Auric with additional music...
(1961), and Therese and Isabelle (1968).
In 1960 he was a member of the jury at the 10th Berlin International Film Festival
10th Berlin International Film Festival
The 10th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 24 June to 5 July 1960.-Jury:* Harold Lloyd * Georges Auric* Henry Reed* Sohrab Modi* Floris Luigi Ammannati* Hidemi Ima* Joaquín de Entrambasaguas* Frank Wisbar...
.
In 1962 he gave up writing for motion pictures when he became director of the Opéra National de Paris and then chairman of SACEM
Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique
Société 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 died in Paris and was interred at Montparnasse Cemetery
Montparnasse Cemetery
Montparnasse Cemetery is a cemetery in the Montparnasse quarter of Paris, part of the city's 14th arrondissement.-History: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...
.
External links
- Georges Auric at Find-A-Grave