Born in 1925 in the small town of Roubaix, France, Delerue began to play the clarinet in a local fanfare in his few spare time. Despite having to leave school and work in a factory very early to bring in some money at home, he managed to take formal music lessons which gained him a professional status. The piano became quickly his favorite instrument. Fate did the rest. When an accident caused him a spinal deformity, the youngster decided to concentrate all his energies on music.
After a long convalescence, Delerue worked hard to catch up lost time and gain as much personal culture as he could. He had the opportunity to study under the direction of the clever Darius Milhaud who encouraged him to widen his musical horizons. There were other avenues for him besides the concert hall, just as creative and more in demand. Milhaud made his student realize that he was gifted for incidental composition.
Excellent pianist and orchestrator, Delerue became the conductor of the prestigious French state television. He had already written the music for many stage plays (especially with the notorious Jean Vilar), Sons et lumières shows and short feature films when the New Wave asserted itself in France in the late fifties. Ambitious young intellectual directors like Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Jacques Demy and Claude Chabrol were seeking new talents for their cinematographic output. They would choose to work with Georges Delerue, Maurice Jarre, Michel Legrand and Pierre Jansen instead of the veterans named Georges Auric, Maurice Thiriet, Georges Van Parys and all the other good old-timers associated with the artistic Establishment.
During his 42 year career the man put his talents to the service of nearly 200 feature movies, 125 short ones, 70 TV films and 35 TV serials with a constant humility. According to many testimonies he would do and redo some cues to fit the new editing of a sequence without any protestation.He insisted to be allowed to orchestrate and conduct himself in order to polish every detail. Constraints inherent with scoring movies in short delays seemed to stimulate rather than discourage him. This can hardly be understood by many people, especially amateurs of the classical repertoire who believe a composer can only give his best when he writes a concert piece in a complete freedom. As for some other giants in this field, stories in pictures proved to be a powerful motor of inspiration for Georges Delerue and necessity always remained the mother of invention.
When a heart attack struck him in 1992 at the age of 67, just after the recording of the last cue for the soundtrack to a drama significantly titled Rich in Love, the world of film music lost one of its best romantic composers and one of the most distinguished representatives of the French New Wave. Georges Delerue was extraordinarily gifted for melody and at creating surrounding overtones which encapsulated the spirit of the movies for which he collaborated, enhancing them often beyond the expectations of their directors. Everyone liked to work with him because of his keen intelligence, sensibility and true kindness.
Web: http://www.vif.com/users/disqcine/Delerue/TheNewWave.html

(1925-1992)
Compositore e direttore d'orchestra francese nato a Roubaix. Allievo di D.Milhaud, si è dedicato in particolare alla musica da film, collaborando con i registi più famosi del '900.