Georges Auric was a 20th-century French composer. He became one of “Les Six” in the 1920s and subsequently produced works in various fields, from piano pieces and chamber music to ballet and film scores. He was also an active critic and, after World War II, held important posts in French music administration. In his youth, he associated with figures such as Cocteau and Satie, and later, as director of the Opéra, he oversaw the theater's premiere of Berg's Wozzeck. Throughout his approximately 70 years of musical activity, he remained a pivotal figure in 20th-century French music.

Early Life and Education

Georges Auric was born on February 15, 1899, in Lodève, located in Languedoc, Southern France. Soon after, he moved with his parents to Montpellier, where he began playing the violin at the suggestion of his amateur musician mother. He quickly switched to piano, studying with Louis Combes at the Montpellier Conservatory. During this period, Auric became acquainted with the music of Debussy, Ravel, and Stravinsky, and explored various trends in French poetry in Combes' study.

This precocious boy, well-versed in both music and literature, met Déodat de Séverac and Florent Schmitt through Combes. Through the mediation of Léon Vallas, editor of a music magazine, he published an article discussing Satie's music. He is said to have begun composing around 1913, when he entered the Paris Conservatoire, but these early studies, numbering over 300, appear to have been destroyed by his own hand.

Paris and the Rise of a Multifaceted Career

At the Paris Conservatoire, he enrolled in Georges Caussade's counterpoint class, where he met Honegger, Milhaud, and Tailleferre. However, he left the Conservatoire the following year to study with Vincent d'Indy at the Schola Cantorum. In 1914, his works were publicly performed for the first time, thanks to the recommendation of Albert Roussel. The fact that the music of a teenager in his mid-teens was supported by prominent composers in their 40s and 50s clearly indicates the high expectations for his future as a standard-bearer for the younger generation. It was also around this time that the foundation for Auric's multifaceted activities, such as criticism and film score composition, was laid. His interactions with leading cultural figures of 1920s Paris—including Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Satie in music; Cocteau, Apollinaire, Radiguet, and Breton in literature; and Braque and Picasso in painting—made Auric's career fruitful. In 1924, his ballet score Les Fâcheux (The Bores), based on Molière's comedy-ballet, premiered with Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. He wrote one more score for the Ballets Russes in both 1925 and 1926. Ballet subsequently became an important genre for Auric, and he provided music for companies such as Ida Rubinstein's ballet company, the Ballets des Champs-Élysées, and the Paris Opéra Ballet. In October 1930, he married the Russian-born painter Hélène Vilter (known as Nora) (1903–1982).

The Piano Sonata and Shifting Focus

The Piano Sonata, composed in 1930–1931, is often positioned as a turning point in Auric's career. Critical reactions were polarized, ranging from accusations of lacking the lightness of his ballet music to praise for its remarkable technical sophistication, but overall, the assessment was generally harsh. Antoine Goléa, a critic who later wrote a book about Auric, speculated that the unfavorable reception of the Piano Sonata might have led Auric to concentrate on film music. However, some researchers argue that such a shift in emphasis merely attests to his faithful response to the demand arising from the burgeoning film industry, and that he continued to compose concert works, such as the Woodwind Trio (1938).

Philosophy on Music and Public Engagement

Auric did not establish a hierarchy between music for the concert hall and music for media such as ballet, theater, and film. Rather, he seemed to believe that it was important to bring music to the ears of many people. In the 1930s, with the establishment of the Popular Front government in France and its emphasis on popularizing music among the general public, he undertook arrangements of folk songs. From a similar perspective, he also emphasized the role of radio in the dissemination of music. His concert works mostly consisted of excerpts from ballet scores, songs, piano pieces, and chamber music; he did not compose symphonies, tone poems, or operas. While this genre tendency is also observed among “Les Six” and related composers, in Auric's case, it was based on his interest in the public issue of promoting musical culture. His activities in criticism and administration, fields distinct from composition, were underpinned by the same conviction as his creative work.

Film Music and Other Works

Auric composed for approximately 130 films, including many works that are significant in film history and achieved popular success (Note 1). Auric began writing film scores shortly after the advent of talkies, and his career, which began with collaborations with Cocteau, gradually attracted the attention of Anglo-American film companies. In addition, he wrote for over 30 theatrical productions between 1921 and 1961.

Criticism and Administrative Roles

As a critic, he contributed to La Nouvelle Revue Française, a leading French literary magazine founded by André Gide, and La Revue Musicale, a major French music magazine, as well as Les Nouvelles Littéraires and popular newspapers such as Marianne and Paris-Soir.

In 1954, he succeeded Arthur Honegger as president of SACEM (Société des Auteurs, Compositeurs et Éditeurs de Musique), a position he held, with several interruptions, until 1978, becoming honorary president in 1979. In 1962, he was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts (Institut de France) and appointed director of the RTLN (Réunion des Théâtres Lyriques Nationaux), becoming director of the Opéra and the Opéra-Comique. In 1971, he served as a jury member for the Cannes International Film Festival. He passed away at his home in Paris on July 23, 1983, at the age of 84.

Conclusion

Like Satie and Poulenc, who reacted against the “masters” of French music—Fauré, Debussy, and Ravel—Auric was not a composer who inherited French academism. Nevertheless, after the war, he received public recognition and honors for his diverse achievements. This was likely because he never lost his creative approach of generating works through interaction with artists from various fields.