Georges Auric

Georges Auric (February 15, 1899 - July 23, 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. Before he turned 20 he had orchestrated and written incidental music for several ballets 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. His participation led to writing settings of poetry and other texts as songs and musicals.

The other members of "Les Six" were:

• Louis Durey - (1888-1979)
• Arthur Honegger - (1892-1955)
• Darius Milhaud - (1892-1974)
• Francis Poulenc - (1899-1963)
• Germaine Tailleferre - (1892-1983) (the only female in the group)

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 Theme from Moulin Rouge".

Films he scored included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), The Wages of Fear (1955), Rififi (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), and Therese and Isabelle (1968).

In 1962 he gave up writing for motion pictures when he accepted to become director of the Paris Opera and then chairman of SACEM the French Music Copyright Society.

Georges Auric was interred in the Cimetiere de Montparnasse, Paris.