Durey, Louis

(Edmond), French composer; b. Paris, May 27, 1888; d. St. Tropez, July 3, 1979. Durey studied with Leon Saint-Requier from 1910 to 1914. The oldest member of LES SIX, he wrote the least music.

Durey's music was radically altered in 1936 when he joined the French Communist Party. During the German occupation of France, he was active in the Resistance, for which he wrote anti-Fascist songs. In 1948 he was elected vice-president of the Association Française des Musiciens Progressives. In 1950 he became the music critic of the Paris Communist newspaper L'Humanité. In 1961 he received the Grand Prix de la Musique Française.