From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Louis Durey
(born
Paris
,
27 May
1888
; died
Saint-Tropez
,
France
,
3 July
1979
) was a
French
composer. He was the oldest, but probably the least well-known of the six composers who are called
Les Six
.
Louis Durey was the son of a businessman. He had no idea that he wanted to be a composer until he heard the
opera
Pelleas et Melisande
by
Claude Debussy
. He was then already 19 years old. He taught himself how to compose.
Durey became a member of the group called Les Six in
1920
. However, he did not take part in the music they wrote together in
1921
called
Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel
. This made
Jean Cocteau
very annoyed.
Durey became interested in left-wing
politics
and later joined the
Communist Party
. During the years of the
Nazi
occupation of
World War II
, he worked with the
French Resistance
and wrote
anti-Fascist
songs. After the war he had strong Communist ideas. This made it difficult for him to be successful in the world of music.
In 1950 he got the job of
music critic
for a communist
newspaper
in Paris.
He wrote a lot of music during his life, but there were many years when he wrote nothing. He composed
songs
,
chamber music
and
choral
works.
Louis Durey died at
Saint-Tropez
,
Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur
,
France
.