Versatile Composer whose works included art song, solo piano, chamber, oratorio, choral, opera, ballet, and orchestral. He wrote "Le bestiaire, ou Le cortège d'Orphée" in 1917 as a cycle of melodies based on poems by Guillaume Apollinaire.
He was primarily self-taught. He received formal training from Composer Charles Koechlin in 1921.
He became a member of Les Six, a club comprised of young French and French-Swiss composers.
His father was a Director of a chemical corporation, while his mother was an amateur Pianist.
He first came to the attention of Russian Composer Igor Stravinsky, who played a role in getting his 1917 composition "Rapsodie Nègre" published in London.
