Auric studied counterpoint and fugue at the Paris Conservatoire and composition with d'Indy at The Schola Cantorum. A member of Les Six, a group of modern French composers who were against expressionism and impressionism and in favor of clear melodies form and texture, Auric composed ballets, film scores, instrumental and vocal works. His early work, influenced by Berg and Skryabin, was contrapuntally complex and atonal. He later experimented with serial thematic writing and the use of semitones in his work. One of his most noted ballets is Les Matelots, written in 1924. ~ Lynn Vought, Rovi