Les Six

Les Six is a name, inspired by The Five, given in 1920 by critic Henri Collet to a group of six composers working in Montparnasse whose music is often seen as a reaction against Wagnerism and Impressionism.

Les Six

According to Milhaud:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

" 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 the same! Auric and Poulenc followed ideas of Cocteau, Honegger followed German Romanticism, and myself, Mediterranean lyricism! (Ivry 1996)"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

But that is only one reading of how the Groupe des Six originated: other authors, like Ornella Volta, would stress the manoeuverings of Jean Cocteau to become the leader of an avant-garde group devoted to music, like the cubist and surrealist groups had sprang in visual arts and literature shortly before, with Picasso, Apollinaire and Breton 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 ticked it off.

Related Topics:
Ornella Volta - Jean Cocteau - Avant-garde - Cubist - Surrealist - Visual arts - Literature - Picasso - Apollinaire - Breton - Le Coq et l'Arlequin

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After World War I, Jean Cocteau and Les Six began to frequent Le Boeuf sur le Toit (The Ox on the Roof), which was named after a work by Milhaud. On the 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 Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev, Pablo Picasso, filmmaker René Clair, singer Jane Bathori, and Maurice Chevalier.

Related Topics:
World War I - Le Boeuf sur le Toit - George Gershwin - Vincent Youmans - Serge Diaghilev - Pablo Picasso - René Clair - Jane Bathori - Maurice Chevalier

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Following examples like the Parade production, the group members would embark on a few collaborative projects, but after all, also because many of these collaborative projects failed for several reasons, the Groupe des Six composers proved to be a rather individualistic set, divergent in style, in the vein of what Milhaud describes above. One of the most successful of the collaborative projects, which was also the last one Satie was involved in, the Relâche/Entr'acte production, had only a limited Groupe des Six input.

Related Topics:
Parade - Relâche - Entr'acte

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The next decades the group would grow ever more disparate, some of its former members eventually losing all contact.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~