Les Six

Les Six was a group of six French composers associated with a modernist reaction against impressionism and German Romanticism. Their shared identity grew from Parisian collaborations and publicity, not a unified compositional style.

Darius Milhaud: French composer whose prolific output ranges from chamber music and opera to jazz-influenced works. His broad style and international career show how little the group imposed a single musical voice.
Le Coq et l'Arlequin: Jean Cocteau’s 1918 essay advocating clarity, brevity, and modern French art against Wagnerian excess. Its polemic supplied ideas often used to explain the group’s anti-Romantic image.
L'Album des Six: A 1920 piano collection containing one short piece by each member of Les Six. The collection made their joint authorship concrete while preserving each composer’s individual contribution.
Richard Wagner: German composer whose music dramas and chromatic harmony reshaped nineteenth-century opera. Cocteau’s anti-Wagnerian rhetoric made Wagner a symbolic target for the group’s French modernism.
Francis Poulenc: French composer known for sharply contrasting wit, lyricism, and religious expression. His career became one of the most prominent public legacies associated with Les Six.
Concerts des Six: A series of Paris concerts in 1920 and 1921 presenting works by the six composers. The concerts turned a journalistic grouping into a visible performance collaboration.
Les Mariés de la tour Eiffel: A 1921 theatrical work with a scenario by Jean Cocteau and music by five members of Les Six. Its collaborative construction tested the group’s shared identity in a single stage work.
Claude Debussy: French composer whose innovative harmony and orchestration became central to musical impressionism. Debussy represented the recent French modernism from which Les Six sought public distinction.
Arthur Honegger: Swiss-born composer who worked in France and wrote symphonies, chamber music, and dramatic works. His more austere, architectonic music demonstrates the range within the group.
Henri Collet: French music critic who coined the name Les Six in 1920. His articles gave the composers a collective label that outlasted their initial collaboration.

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