SIX, LES

(French; " The Six ")

Group of young French composers in the 1920s.

Named by the critic Henri Collet (1885–1951), the group was made up of Arthur Honegger , Darius Milhaud , Francis Poulenc , Georges Auric (1899–1983), Louis Durey (1888–1979), and Germaine Tailleferre (1892–1983). Their music represents a strong reaction against German Romanticism, as well as against the lush style sometimes termed Impressionism, exemplified by the work of Claude Debussy . Most of Les Six were inspired by the iconoclastic music of Erik Satie , and they benefited from the promotion of Jean Cocteau . They were only active as a group for a few years.