Jean-Yves Daniel-Lesur, composer

Born: November 19, 1908, in Paris

Died: July 2, 2002, in Paris

Studied composition with: the organist-mystic Charles Tournemire

Co-founded: the group La Jeune France in 1936 with fellow composers Olivier Messiaen, André Jolivet, and Yves Beaudrier, who were attempting to re-establish a more human and less abstract form of composition

Other accomplishments: professor of counterpoint at the Schola Cantorum; director of the Opéra National de Paris from 1971-1973; administrator for Radio France, the Orchestre de Paris, the Paris Conservatoire; in 1973 appointed Inspector General for Music at the Ministry of Cultural Affairs

Le cantique des cantiques: his best-known work