Georges Auric
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Georges Auric (February 15, 1899 – July 23, 1983) was a French composer. The many films that he scored included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), Passport To Pimlico (1948), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Le Salaire de la Peur (1953), Lola Montes (1955), Rififi (1956), Notre-Dame de Paris (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Goodbye Again (1961), and Therese and Isabelle (1968).
Biography
Born in Lodève, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and under the composer Vincent D'Indy at the Schola Cantorum. 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.
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 Song from Moulin Rouge.
The many films that he scored included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), Passport To Pimlico (1948), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Le Salaire de la Peur (1953), Lola Montes (1955), Rififi (1956), Notre-Dame de Paris (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Goodbye Again (1961), and Therese and Isabelle (1968).
In 1962 he gave up writing for motion pictures when he became director of the Opéra National de Paris and then chairman of SACEM, the French Performing Rights Society. Auric continued to write classical chamber music, especially for winds, right up to his death.
Auric was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.
