Arthur Honegger

Oscar-Arthur Honegger was born in France on 10 March 1892, though Swiss by nationality, and settled in Paris for most of his working life. He joined Les Six, the group of composers pushing back against Romanticism in the 1920s. His output ranged widely: Pacific 231, a kinetic orchestral piece evoking a locomotive, became one of his signatures, while the oratorio Le Roi David established his command of large-scale sacred drama. But it was Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher — a staged oratorio on Joan of Arc — that became his most universally popular work. He died in Paris on 27 November 1955.