Biografía

A Swiss national who spent most his life in France, Honegger composed music for French and British films. He also wrote five symphonies and a piece entitled "Pacific 231" (his most popular composition), a musical depiction of a heavy locomotive in motion.

In the 1920s Honegger was a member of "Les Six", a group of young composers who rebelled against Romanticism and Impressionism in French music. They were mentored by Erik Satie and promoted by Jean Cocteau.

In 1947, at the start of a planned US tour, Honegger suffered a near-fatal heart attack in Boston. He never fully recovered, and after 1953 was too ill to compose.

Honegger needed solitude to write music. For most of his marriage to Andrée Vaurabourg (29 years) they lived in separate apartments in Paris.

Born in France to Swiss parents, Honegger was offered a choice between French and Swiss citizenship when he turned 18 in 1910. He opted for Swiss. As a result he did his compulsory military service (1914-1915) with the neutral Swiss Army and was spared from the battlefields of World War I France.