Georges Auric

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Georges Auric (February 15, 1899 – July 23, 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published. 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 Theme from Moulin Rouge".

Image:Auricgrave.jpgFilms he scored included Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (1946), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), Moulin Rouge (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), Le Salaire de la Peur (1955), Rififi (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), 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.

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