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25-476: The venue was occupied by the members of Les Six : ( Georges Auric , Louis Durey , Arthur Honegger , Darius Milhaud , Francis Poulenc and Germaine Tailleferre ). It also gave young painters the opportunity to exhibit their first works: Georges Braque , Juan Gris , Amedeo Modigliani , and Pablo Picasso . Some evenings also included declamations by fashionable poets, such as Jean Cocteau or Blaise Cendrars . The performances, called "Lyre et palettes" after

50-556: A concert performance of the third act of Guercoeur at Nancy in February 1908, would subsequently reconstruct from memory the orchestration of the acts that had been lost in the fire, and the Paris Opéra gave the work a belated world premiere in 1931. Magnard's primary musical influences were contemporary French composers, particularly César Franck . Although he devoted much of his compositional efforts towards opera, nowadays he

75-402: A group of composers around himself to be known as Les nouveaux jeunes , forerunners of Les Six . According to Milhaud: [Collet] chose six names absolutely arbitrarily, those of Auric, Durey, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and me simply because we knew each other and we were pals and appeared on the same musical programmes, no matter if our temperaments and personalities weren't at all

100-400: 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. In 1952, Auric, Honegger, Poulenc, Tailleferre and three other composers collaborated on an orchestral work called La Guirlande de Campra . In 1956, Auric, Milhaud, Poulenc and five other composers created an orchestral suite in honour of

125-455: Is more Franckian than Brucknerian. In his operas, Magnard used Richard Wagner 's leitmotiv technique. Magnard's whole musical output numbers a total of just 22 opus numbers. Along with the symphonies and operas are a handful of chamber works including a single string quartet , a quintet for piano and winds, a piano trio , a violin sonata (in G, opus 13), and a cello sonata (in A, opus 20). A few more were published posthumously, including

150-540: Is often seen as a neoclassic reaction against both the musical style of Richard Wagner and the Impressionist music of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel . The members were 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). In 1917, when many theatres and concert halls were closed because of World War I , Blaise Cendrars and

175-432: Is probably best known for his four symphonies, certain passages of which demonstrate a more Germanic influence. His use of fugue and incorporation of chorale , together with the grandeur of expression in his mature orchestral works, have caused him to be called a "French Bruckner" . Although Bruckner used cyclical forms long before d'Indy "trademarked" the concept to César Franck 's name, Magnard's handling of cyclical form

200-516: 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 kicked it off. After World War I , 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

225-489: The Paris Conservatoire , where he studied counterpoint with Théodore Dubois and went to the classes of Jules Massenet . There he met Vincent d'Indy , with whom he studied fugue and orchestration for four years, writing his first two Symphonies under d'Indy's tutelage. Magnard dedicated his Symphony No. 1 to d'Indy; and the two men always respected each other, despite their marked political differences (Magnard

250-596: The Quatre poèmes en musique , four songs for baritone and piano. Albéric Magnard, La Musique de chambre , Timpani Records, 4 CDs (Oct. 2014) The four symphonies have been recorded by: The shorter orchestral works (Suite d'orchestre, op. 2, Chant funèbre, op. 9, Ouverture, op. 10, Hymne à la justice, op. 14, Hymne à Vénus, op. 17) are on Timpani 1C1171 (2010, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Mark Stringer) and on Naxos 8.574084 (2020, Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg, Fabrice Bollon). A complete recording of Guercœur

275-538: The Schola Cantorum (recently founded by d'Indy) and wrote his Symphony No. 3 in B-flat minor. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I , Magnard sent his wife and two daughters to a safe hiding place while he stayed behind to guard the estate of "Manoir de Fontaines" at Baron , Oise . When German soldiers trespassed on the property, Magnard fired at them, killing one soldier, and they fired back before setting

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300-689: The atmosphere was unbreathable because of smoke from the stove, but any high society of Paris, both the artists and the new music lovers, played elbows to be there. 48°50′29″N 2°19′44″E  /  48.8414°N 2.329°E  / 48.8414; 2.329 Les Six " Les Six " ( French: [le sis] ) is a name given to a group of six composers, five of them French and one Swiss, who lived and worked in Montparnasse . The name has its origins in two 1920 articles by critic Henri Collet in Comœdia (see Bibliography ). Their music

325-477: 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 and Vincent Youmans while Cocteau and Milhaud played percussion. Among those in attendance were impresario Serge Diaghilev , artist Pablo Picasso , filmmaker René Clair , singer Jane Bathori , and actor and singer Maurice Chevalier . Another frequent guest

350-451: 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. In 1920 the group published an album of piano pieces together, known as L'Album des Six . This was the only work in which all six composers collaborated. In 1921, five of the members jointly composed the music for Cocteau's ballet Les mariés de la tour Eiffel , which

375-430: The house on fire. It is believed that Magnard died in the fire, although his body could not be identified in the ruins. The fire destroyed all of Magnard's unpublished scores, including the orchestral score of his early opera Yolande , the orchestral score of Guercoeur (the piano reduction had been published, and the orchestral score of the second act was extant), and a more recent song cycle. Guy Ropartz , who had led

400-571: The name of a collective named "Société lyre et palettes" created in 1916, were financed by Pierre Bertin , Blaise Cendrars , and Félix Delgrange. They welcomed a diverse public, very chic and very bohemian, like the Montparnasse district at its peak. Delgrange had abandoned the cello to devote himself entirely to the cause of the nascent art. He also organized concerts in the Salle Huyghens. The benches without backs were uncomfortable,

425-595: The other hand had a deep-seated scorn for Satie , whom Auric, Milhaud and I adored. But, that is only one reading of how the Groupe des Six originated. Other authors, like Ornella Volta , stressed the manoeuvrings of Jean Cocteau to become the leader of an avant-garde group devoted to music, like the cubist and surrealist groups which had sprung up in visual arts and literature shortly before, with Pablo Picasso , Guillaume Apollinaire , and André Breton as their key representatives. The fact that Satie had abandoned

450-405: The painter Moïse Kisling decided to put on concerts at 6 rue Huyghens  [ fr ] , 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 , Matisse , Léger , Modigliani , and others. Music by Erik Satie , Honegger, Auric, and Durey was played. This concert gave Satie the idea of assembling

475-477: The pianist Marguerite Long , called Variations sur le nom de Marguerite Long Alb%C3%A9ric Magnard Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard ( French pronunciation: [lysjɛ̃ dəni ɡabʁijɛl albeʁik maɲaʁ] ; 9 June 1865 – 3 September 1914) was a French composer, somewhat influenced by César Franck and Vincent d'Indy . Magnard became a national hero in 1914 when he refused to surrender his property to German invaders and died defending it. Magnard

500-437: The same! Auric and Poulenc followed ideas of Cocteau, Honegger followed German Romanticism, and myself, Mediterranean lyricism! And according to Poulenc: The diversity of our music, of our tastes and distastes, precluded any common aesthetic. What could be more different than the music of Honegger and Auric? Milhaud admired Magnard , I did not; neither of us liked Florent Schmitt , whom Honegger respected; Arthur [Honegger] on

525-523: Was born in Paris, the son of Francis Magnard  [ fr ; da ; sv ] , a bestselling author and editor of Le Figaro . Albéric could have chosen to live the comfortable life that his family's wealth afforded him, but he disliked being called "fils du Figaro" and decided to make a career for himself in music, based entirely on his own talent and without any help from family connections. After military service and graduating from law school, he entered

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550-455: Was in the repertoire of the Ballets suédois throughout the 1920s. 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 . In 1949, Auric, Milhaud and Poulenc, along with three other composers, jointly wrote Mouvements du coeur: Un hommage à la mémoire de Frédéric Chopin , 1810–1849 ,

575-455: Was pro- Dreyfus ). Francis Magnard did what he could to support Albéric's career while trying to respect his son's wish to make it on his own. This included publicity in Le Figaro. With the death of his father in 1894, Albéric Magnard's grief was complicated by his simultaneous gratitude to and annoyance with his father. In 1896, Magnard married Julie Creton, became a counterpoint tutor at

600-604: Was produced by the Ballets suédois , the rival to the Ballets 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 in 1913. In spite of this, Les mariés de la tour Eiffel

625-449: Was the young American composer Virgil Thomson whose compositions in subsequent years were influenced by members of Les Six. 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

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