The Group of Six

The story of the Group of Six by François Hudry , illustrated by Claire Pareuil and accompanied by 2 compact discs.

The group of Six , also called Les Six , is a group of composers bringing together, between 1916 and 1923: Georges Auric (1899-1983), Louis Durey (1888-1979), Arthur Honegger (1892-1955), Darius Milhaud (1892 -1974), Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), and Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983).

They were very influenced by the ideas of Erik Satie and Jean Cocteau . Although they wrote collectively, each retained their personal style due to the very nature of the works.

All these differences, far from separating us, seem to me on the contrary to bring us closer together. Isn't variety the most beautiful thing in life and in art?

The story has been told often; it's an article by Henri Collet in the newspaper Comoedia of January 16, 1920 which overnight honored six young composers fresh from the Paris Conservatory. What remains of Group of Six Today ? The memory of a time when we gave importance to frivolity and where we knew how to have fun. But the rise of fascism and the rumors of war would give the world, and particularly for artists who are always the barometers of an era, a completely different resonance and the memory of the Six is ​​no more than that of a postcard. yellowed evoking the happy and utopian moments that France could experience at that time.