"Les Six" () is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the Rive Gauche, left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montpar ...

. The name, inspired by

Mily Balakirev Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev (russian: Милий Алексеевич Балакирев,BGN/PCGN Romanization of Russian, transliteration of Russian: Miliy Alekseyevich Balakirev; ALA-LC system: ''Miliĭ Alekseevich Balakirev''; ISO 9 system: ''M ...

's '' The Five'', originates in two 1920 articles by critic

Henri Collet Henri Collet (; 5 November 1885 – 23 November 1951) was a French composer and music critic who lived in Paris. Biography Born in Paris, Collet first studied at the Conservatory of Music at Bordeaux before going to Madrid to study Spanish liter ...

in '' Comœdia'', (see

Bibliography Bibliography (from and ), as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology (from ). English author and bibliographer John Carter describes ''bibliography ...

). Their music is often seen as a neoclassic reaction against both the musical style of

Richard Wagner Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...

and the

impressionist music Impressionism in music was a movement among various composers in Western classical music (mainly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries) whose music focuses on mood and atmosphere, "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subjec ...

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most infl ...

and

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

. The members were

Georges Auric Georges Auric (; 15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, France. He was considered one of ''Les Six'', a group of artists informally associated with Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie. Before he turned 20 he ...

(1899–1983),

Louis Durey Louis Edmond Durey (; 27 May 18883 July 1979)Randel, Don Michael (1996)The Harvard biographical dictionary of music, p. 232. Harvard University Press. . was a French composer. Life Louis Durey was born in Paris, the son of a local businessman. It ...

(1888–1979),

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. A member of Les Six, his best known work is probably '' Antigone'', composed between 1924 and 1927 ...

(1892–1955),

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

(1892–1974),

Francis Poulenc Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (; 7 January 189930 January 1963) was a French composer and pianist. His compositions include songs, solo piano works, chamber music, choral pieces, operas, ballets, and orchestral concert music. Among the best-kn ...

(1899–1963), and

Germaine Tailleferre Germaine Tailleferre (; born Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse; 19 April 18927 November 1983) was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as '' Les Six''. Biography Marcelle Germaine Taillefesse was born at Sain ...

(1892–1983).

'

In 1917, when many theatres and concert halls were closed because of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Blaise Cendrars Frédéric-Louis Sauser (1 September 1887 – 21 January 1961), better known as Blaise Cendrars, was a Swiss-born novelist and poet who became a naturalized French citizen in 1916. He was a writer of considerable influence in the European mo ...

and the painter

Moïse Kisling Moïse Kisling (born Mojżesz Kisling; 22 January 1891 – 29 April 1953) was a Polish-born French painter. He moved to Paris in 1910 at the age of 19, and became a French citizen in 1915, after serving and being wounded with the French Foreign ...

decided to put on concerts at 6 , the studio of the painter Émile Lejeune (1885–1964). For the first of these events, the walls of the studio were decorated with canvases by

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is kn ...

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primar ...

, Léger, Modigliani, and others. Music by

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an un ...

, Honegger, Auric, and Durey was played. It was this concert that gave Satie the idea of assembling a group of composers around himself to be known as ', forerunners of .

Les Six

According to Milhaud: But, that is only one reading of how the Groupe des Six originated. Other authors, like

Ornella Volta Ornella Volta (1 January 1927 – 16 August 2020) was an Italian-born French musicologist, essayist, and translator. Biography A cinematographic journalist and writer, Ornella married her spouse, Pablo Volta in 1957, and the couple moved to Paris ...

, stressed the manoeuvrings of

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...

to become the leader of an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

group devoted to music, like the

cubist Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

and

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...

groups which had sprung up in

visual arts The visual arts are Art#Forms, genres, media, and styles, art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as ...

and

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...

shortly before, with

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...

Guillaume Apollinaire Guillaume Apollinaire) of the Wąż coat of arms. (; 26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) was a French French poetry, poet, playwright, short story writer, novelist, and art critic of Polish-Belarusian, Polish descent. Apollinaire is considered ...

, and

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

as their key representatives. The fact that Satie had abandoned the ''Nouveaux jeunes'' less than a year after starting the group, was the "gift from heaven" that made it all come true for Cocteau: his 1918 publication, ''Le Coq et l'Arlequin'', is said to have After

, Jean Cocteau and Les Six began to frequent a bar known as "La Gaya" which became '' Le Bœuf sur le Toit'' (The Ox on the Roof) when the establishment moved to larger quarters. As the famous ballet by Milhaud had been conceived at the old premises, the new bar took on the name of Milhaud's ballet. On the renamed bar's opening night, pianist Jean Wiéner played tunes by

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

and

Vincent Youmans Vincent Millie Youmans (September 27, 1898 – April 5, 1946) was an American Broadway composer and producer. A leading Broadway composer of his day, Youmans collaborated with virtually all the greatest lyricists on Broadway: Ira Gershwin, ...

while Cocteau and Milhaud played percussion. Among those in attendance were impresario

Serge Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

, artist

, filmmaker

René Clair René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...

, singer

Jane Bathori Jane Bathori (14 June 1877 – 25 January 1970) was a French mezzo-soprano. She was famous on the operatic stage and important in the development of contemporary French music. Life and career Born Jeanne-Marie Berthier, she originally studied ...

, and actor and singer

Maurice Chevalier Maurice Auguste Chevalier (; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor and entertainer. He is perhaps best known for his signature songs, including " Livin' In The Sunlight", "Valentine", " Louise", "Mimi", and "Thank Heav ...

. Another frequent guest was the young American composer

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassi ...

whose compositions were influenced by members of Les Six in subsequent years.

Collaborations

Although the group did not exist to work on compositions collaboratively, there were six occasions, spread over 36 years, on which at least some members of the group did work together on the same project. On only one of these occasions was the entire Groupe des Six involved; in some others, composers from outside the group also participated. Auric and Poulenc were involved in all six of these collaborations, Milhaud in five, Honegger and Tailleferre in three, but Durey in only one.

1920: ''L'Album des Six''

In 1920 the group published an album of piano pieces together, known as ''

L'Album des Six ''L'Album des Six'' (original title: "Album des 6") is a suite of six piano pieces published in 1920 by Eugène Demets, and written by the members of the group of French composers known as '' Les Six''. Background This publication occurred in t ...

''. This was the only work in which all six composers collaborated. # ''Prélude'' (1919) – Auric # ''Romance sans paroles'', Op. 21 (1919) – Durey # ''Sarabande'', H 26 (1920) – Honegger # ''Mazurka'' (1914) – Milhaud # ''Valse in C'', FP 17 (1919) – Poulenc # ''Pastorale, Enjoué'' (1919) – Tailleferre

1921: ''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel''

In 1921, five of the members jointly composed the music for Cocteau's ballet ''

Les mariés de la tour Eiffel ''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel'' (''The Wedding Party on the Eiffel Tower'') is a ballet to a libretto by Jean Cocteau, choreography by Jean Börlin, set by , costumes by Jean Hugo, and music by five members of Les Six: Georges Auric, Arth ...

'', which was produced by the

Ballets suédois Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

, the rival to the Ballet Russes. Cocteau had originally proposed the project to Auric, but as Auric did not finish rapidly enough to fit into the rehearsal schedule, he then divided the work up among the other members of Les Six. Durey, who was not in Paris at the time, chose not to participate. The première was the occasion of a public scandal rivalling that of ''

Le sacre du printemps , image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg , image_size = 350px , caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of ' , composer = Igor Stravinsky , based_on ...

'' in 1913. In spite of this, ''Les mariés de la tour Eiffel'' was in the repertoire of the Ballets suédois throughout the 1920s. # ''Overture'' (14 July) – Auric # ''Marche nuptiale'' – Milhaud # ''Discours du General'' (Polka) – Poulenc # ''La Baigneuse de Trouville'' – Poulenc # ''La Fugue du Massacre'' – Milhaud # ''La Valse des Depeches'' – Tailleferre # ''Marche funèbre'' – Honegger # ''Quadrille'' – Tailleferre # ''Ritournelles'' – Auric # ''Sortie de la Noce'' – Milhaud

1927: ''L'éventail de Jeanne''

In 1927, Auric, Milhaud and Poulenc, along with seven other composers who were not part of Les Six, jointly composed the children's ballet ''

L'éventail de Jeanne ''L'éventail de Jeanne'' (''Jean's Fan'') 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: # ...

''. # ''Fanfare'' –

# ''Marche'' –

Pierre-Octave Ferroud Pierre-Octave Calixte Ferroud (6 January 1900 – 17 August 1936)K.S. (2003). was a French composer of classical music. Life Ferroud was born in Chasselay, Rhône, near Lyon. He went to Lyon, to Strasbourg (for military service from 1920-2) w ...

# ''Valse'' –

Jacques Ibert Jacques François Antoine Marie Ibert (15 August 1890 – 5 February 1962) was a French composer of classical music. Having studied music from an early age, he studied at the Paris Conservatoire and won its top prize, the Prix de Rome at his firs ...

# ''Canarie'' –

Alexis Roland-Manuel Alexis Roland-Manuel (22 March 18911 November 1966) was a French composer and critic, remembered mainly for his criticism. Biography He was born Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy in Paris, to a family of Belgian and Jewish origins. He studied composi ...

# ''Bourrée'' –

Marcel Delannoy Marcel-François-Georges Delannoy (9 July 1898 – 14 September 1962) was a French composer and critic.Hoérrée A. Marcel Delannoy. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. He wrote operas, ballets, orchest ...

# ''Sarabande'' –

Albert Roussel Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His ...

# ''Polka'' – Milhaud # ''Pastourelle'' – Poulenc # ''Rondeau'' – Auric # Finale: ''Kermesse-Valse'' –

Florent Schmitt Florent Schmitt (; 28 September 187017 August 1958) was a French composer. He was part of the group known as Les Apaches. His most famous pieces are ''La tragédie de Salome'' and ''Psaume XLVII'' ( Psalm 47). He has been described as "one of th ...

1949: ''Mouvements du coeur''

In 1949, Auric, Milhaud and Poulenc, along with three other composers, jointly wrote ''Mouvements du coeur: Un hommage à la mémoire de

Frédéric Chopin Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...

, 1849–1949'', a suite of songs for baritone or bass and piano on words of Louise Lévêque de Vilmorin in commemoration of the centenary of the death of Frédéric Chopin. # ''Prélude'' –

Henri Sauguet Henri-Pierre Sauguet-Poupard (18 May 1901 – 22 June 1989) was a French composer. Born in Bordeaux, he adopted his mother's maiden name as part of his professional pseudonym. His output includes operas, ballets, four symphonies (1945, 1949 ...

# ''Mazurka'' – Poulenc # ''Valse'' – Auric # ''Scherzo impromptu'' –

Jean Françaix Jean René Désiré Françaix (; 23 May 1912, in Le Mans – 25 September 1997, in Paris) was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator, known for his prolific output and vibrant style. Life Françaix's natural gifts were encoura ...

# ''Étude'' – Léo Preger # ''Ballade nocturne'' – Milhaud # ''Postlude: Polonaise'' –

1952: ''La guirlande de Campra''

In 1952, Auric, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and three other composers collaborated on an orchestral work called '' La guirlande de Campra''. # ''Toccata'' – Honegger # ''Sarabande et farandole'' –

Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur Daniel Jean-Yves Lesur (19 November 1908 – 2 July 2002) was a French organist and composer. He was the son of the composer Alice Lesur. Biography Born in Paris, he entered the Conservatoire de Paris at age 11, studying solfège with Emile Sch ...

# ''Canarie'' –

# ''Sarabande'' – Tailleferre # ''Matelote provençale'' – Poulenc # ''Variation'' –

# ''Écossaise'' – Auric

1956: ''Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long''

In 1956, Auric, Milhaud, Poulenc and five other composers created an orchestral suite in honour of the pianist

Marguerite Long Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long (13 November 1874 – 13 February 1966) was a French pianist, pedagogue, lecturer, and an ambassador of French music. Life Early life: 1874–1900 Marguerite Long was born to Pierre Long and Anne Marie Antoin ...

, called ''

Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long ''Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long'' (Variations on the name Marguerite Long) is a collaborative orchestral suite written by eight French composers in 1956, in honour of the pianist Marguerite Long. It was first performed on 4 June 1956 by ...

'' # ''Hymne solennel'' –

# ''Variations en forme de Berceuse pour Marguerite Long'' –

# ''La Couronne de Marguerites'' ("The Crown of Daisies"), ''Valse en forme de rondo'' – Milhaud # ''Nocturne'' –

Jean Rivier Alexis Fernand Félix Jean Rivier (21 July 1896 – 6 November 1987) was a French composer of classical music in the neoclassical style. The son of Henri Rivier, a co-inventor of Armenian paper, he composed over two hundred works, including m ...

# ''Sérénades'' –

Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...

# ''Intermezzo'' –

# ''Bucolique'', FP. 160Carl B. Schmidt, The Music of Francis Poulenc (1899-1963): A Catalogue
Retrieved 17 May 2016 – Poulenc # ''ML (Allegro: Finale)'' – Auric

Selected music by individual members of Les Six

*''Salade'' by Milhaud; premiered 1924 in a production of Count Etienne de Beaumont *''La nouvelle Cythère'' by Tailleferre; written in 1929 for the Ballets Russes and unproduced because of

Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pat ...

's sudden death *''Cinq bagatelles'' by Auric *''

Les biches ''Les biches'' () ("The Hinds" or "The Does", or "The Darlings") is a one-act ballet to music by Francis Poulenc, choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska and premiered by the Ballets Russes on 6 January 1924 at the Salle Garnier in Monte Carlo. Nij ...

'', ballet (1922/23) by Poulenc *''Le Bal Masqué'', cantate profane sur des poèmes de Max Jacob (Baritone, ensemble) (1932) by Poulenc *''Scaramouche'' by Milhaud *'' Le bœuf sur le toit'' by Milhaud *Sonate pour violon seul by Honegger *'' Danse de la chèvre (Dance of the Goat)'' for solo flute by Honegger * Sonate champêtre for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano by Tailleferre

Bibliography

: ''Le Coq et l'Arelquin: Notes autour de la musique'' (Paris: Éditions de la Sirène, 1918). *

: "La Musique chez soi (XII): Un livre de Rimsky et un livre de Cocteau – Les Cinq russes, les Six français, et Erik Satie", in: ''Comœdia'', 16 January 1920, p. 2. * Henri Collet: "La Musique chez soi (XIII): "Les 'Six' français – Darius Milhaud, Louis Durey, Georges Auric, Arthur Honegger, Francis Poulenc et Germaine Tailleferre", in: ''Comœdia'', 23 January 1920, p. 2. * Fondation Erik Satie (ed.): ''Le Groupe des Six et ses amis: 70e anniversaire'' (Paris: Placard, 1990), . *

: ''Satie/Cocteau. Les Malentendus d'une entente'' (Bègles: Le Castor Astral, 1993), . *

Benjamin Ivry Benjamin Ivry is an American writer on the arts, broadcaster and translator. Ivry is author of biographies of Francis Poulenc, Arthur Rimbaud, and Maurice Ravel, as well as a poetry collection, ''Paradise for the Portuguese Queen''. The latter co ...

: ''Francis Poulenc'' (London: Phaidon Press, 1996), . * Roger Nichols: ''The Harlequin Years: Music in Paris 1917–1929'' (London: Thames & Hudson, 2002), . * Robert Shapiro: ''Les Six: The French Composers and their Mentors Jean Cocteau and Erik Satie'' (London/Chicago: Peter Owen, 2011), . * Jane F. Fulcher: ''The Composer as Intellectual. Music and Ideology in France, 1914–1940'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). *

Barbara L. Kelly Barbara Lucy Kelly (born 2 June 1966) is a musicologist specialising in 19th- and early 20th-century French music, an area in which she is widely regarded as a leading authority. She has dual UK and Irish citizenship. A professor and director of ...

: ''Music and Ultra-Modernism in France, a Fragile Consensus, 1913–1939'' (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2013).

References

External links

''Les Six'', Satie, and Cocteau – by Stéphane Villemin

Le Groupe des Six - Une évocation par diverses personnalités
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Six, Les

'