François de Roubaix (; 3 April 1939,

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; 'Neuilly-on-Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is an urban Communes of France, commune in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department just west of Paris in France. Immediately adjacent to the city, north of the ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

– 22 November 1975,

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

) was a French

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composer. In a decade, he created a musical style with new sounds, until his death in 1975.

Biography

Roubaix did not receive any formal education in music, but began studying jazz on his own at age 15, forming a band and learning

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

as an

autodidact Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning, self-study and self-teaching) is the practice of education without the guidance of schoolmasters (i.e., teachers, professors, institutions). Overview Autodi ...

. His father, the Oscar-winning filmmaker , who was a producer of the short film, " An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and the creator of educational films, offered to let François compose scores for the latter. François' first film score was for a 1961 film by Robert Enrico; through the late 1960s and early 1970s he scored films for Enrico, Jose Giovanni,

Jean-Pierre Melville Jean-Pierre Grumbach (20 October 1917 – 2 August 1973), known professionally as Jean-Pierre Melville (), was a French filmmaker. Considered a spiritual godfather of the French New Wave, he was one of the first fully-independent French filmmake ...

, Jean-Pierre Mocky, and

Yves Boisset Yves Félix Claude Boisset (14 March 1939 – 31 March 2025) was a French film director and screenwriter. Early life Boisset was born 14 March 1939, in Paris, France. He studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC). ...

. Notable in his style is his use of folk elements, as well as

electronic musical instrument An electronic musical instrument or electrophone is a musical instrument that produces sound using electronics, electronic circuitry. Such an instrument sounds by outputting an electrical, electronic or digital audio signal that ultimately is ...

s such as

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s and early

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s. He is thus seen as a precursor of French electronic music. Roubaix had a home studio where he would

overdub Overdubbing (also known as layering) is a technique used in audio recording in which audio tracks that have been pre-recorded are then played back and monitored, while simultaneously recording new, doubled, or augmented tracks onto one or more a ...

parts until he was satisfied with the result. He died in 1975 in a diving accident. In 1976, his score for ''Le Vieux Fusil'' was awarded a

César Award Cesar or César may refer to: Arts and entertainment * César (film), ''César'' (film), a 1936 French romantic drama * César (film), ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt Places * Cesar, Portugal * Cesar Department, Colombia * Cesar R ...

Scores

* 1961 : '' Thaumeatopoea, la vie des chenilles processionnaires du pin et de leur extermination controlée'' by Robert Enrico * 1962 : '' Montagnes magiques'' by Robert Enrico * 1964 : '' Contre-point'' by Robert Enrico * 1964 : '' Strip-teaseuses ou ces femmes que l'on croit faciles'' by Jean-Claude Roy * 1965 : '' Théâtre de la jeunesse : La redevance du fantôme'' (TV) by Robert Enrico * 1965 : '' Les Survivants'' (TV series) by Dominique Genée * 1966 : '' Les Chats by Philippe Durand'' * 1966 : ''Elles'' by Alain Magrou * 1966 : '' Les Combinards'' by Jean-Claude Roy * 1966 : '' Les Grandes Gueules'' by Robert Enrico * 1967 : '' La loi du survivant'' by José Giovanni * 1967 : '' Les Poneyttes'' by Joel Lemoigne * 1967 : ''Contacts'' by Dolorès Grassian * 1967 : '' Des terrils et des Turcs'' by Jean-Michel Barjol * 1967 : '' Les aventuriers'' by Robert Enrico

Interested Parties Information IPI (Interested party information) is a unique identifying number assigned by the CISAC database to each ''Interested Party'' in collective rights management. It is used worldwide by more than 120 countries and three million right holders. Two ...

reference * 1967 : '' Rue barrée (TV series) by René Versini'' * 1967 : '' La vie commence à minuit'' (TV series) by Yvan Jouannet * 1967 : '' Les Chevaliers du ciel'' or '' Les Aventures de Michel Tanguy -'' Les aventures de Tanguy et Laverdure ''(TV series) by François Villiers'' * 1967 : '' The Blonde from Peking'' by

Nicolas Gessner Nicolas Gessner (17 August 1931 – 22 August 2023) was a Hungarian-born filmmaker who mostly worked in France. Biography Nicolas Gessner was born in Budapest, Hungary on 17 August 1931. His films are often characterized by strange, quirky atmo ...

* 1967 : ''

Le Samouraï ''Le Samouraï'' (; ) is a 1967 neo-noir crime thriller film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville and starring Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and Cathy Rosier. A Franco-Italian production, it depicts the intersecting pa ...

'' by

* 1967 : '' Diaboliquement vôtre'' by

Julien Duvivier Julien Duvivier (; 8 October 1896 – 29 October 1967) was a French film director and screenwriter. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930–1960. Amongst his most original films, chiefly notable are ''La Bandera (film), La Bandera'', ...

* 1968 : '' Le Paradis terrestre'' (TV series) * 1968 : '' Tante Zita'' by Robert Enrico * 1968 : ' by José Giovanni * 1968 : '' Les Teenagers'' by Pierre Roustang * 1968 : '' Les Secrets de la Mer Rouge'' (TV series) by Pierre Lary * 1968 : '' Adieu l'ami'' by

Jean Herman Jean Vautrin (; 17 May 1933 – 16 June 2015), real name Jean Herman, was a French writer, filmmaker and film critic. Life and career After studying literature at Auxerre, he took first place in the Institut des hautes études cinématographiq ...

* 1968 : '' Ho!'' by Robert Enrico * 1968 : '' La Grande Lessive'' by Jean-Pierre Mocky * 1968 : '' Le Témoin'' by Anne Walter * 1969 : '' Pépin la bulle'' (TV series) by Italo Bettiol, Stefano Lonati * 1969 : '' Les Oiseaux sauvages'' (TV series) * 1969 : ''

Jeff Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes ...

'' by

* 1969 : '' 48 heures d'amour'' by Cécil Saint-Laurent * 1969 : '' Que ferait donc Faber ?'' (TV series) by Dolorès Grassian * 1969 : ' by Jean-Pierre Desagnat * 1970 : '' Les Amis'' by

Gérard Blain Gérard Blain (23 October 1930 – 17 December 2000) was a French actor and film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while gui ...

* 1970 : '' Une infinie tendresse'' by Pierre Jallaud * 1970 : '' L'Étalon'' by Jean-Pierre Mocky * 1970 : '' Dernier domicile connu'' by José Giovanni * 1970 : '' Pour un sourire'' by François Dupont-Midy * 1970 : '' La Peau de Torpedo'' by

Jean Delannoy Jean Delannoy (; 12 January 1908 – 18 June 2008) was a French actor, film editor, screenwriter and film director. Biography Although Delannoy was born in a Paris suburb, his family was from Haute-Normandie in the north of France. He was a Pro ...

* 1970 : '' Teva : Opération Gauguin'' (TV series) by Adolphe Sylvain * 1970 : '' L'homme orchestre'' by

Serge Korber Serge Korber (1 February 1936 – 23 January 2022) was a French film director and screenwriter. He directed more than 40 films between 1962 and 2007. Successful as the director of comedies starring Louis de Funès in ''L'homme orchestre'' and '' ...

* 1970 : '' Les Novices'' by

Guy Casaril Guy Casaril (11 November 1933 – 3 May 1996) was a French film director, screenwriter and non-fiction writer. His first film, ''L'Astragale'', was a cinematic adaptation of an eponymous novel by Albertine Sarrazin. His biopic about Edith Piaf was ...

* 1971 : '' Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay'' by

Bruno Gantillon Bruno Gantillon (born 16 June 1944, in Annemasse), is a French film director and screenwriter. Filmography ;Assistant director * 1970: ''Cannabis'', directed by Pierre Koralnik ;Director * 1970: '' Un couple d'artistes'' * 1971: '' Morgane ...

* 1971 : '' Daughters of Darkness'' (''Les Lèvres rouges'') by

Harry Kümel Harry Kümel (born 27 January 1940) is a Belgian film director. His 1971 vampire feature ''Daughters of Darkness'' (''Les lèvres rouges''; French language, Fr, "The Red Lips"), starring Delphine Seyrig became a cult hit in Europe and the Unite ...

* 1971 : '' Où est donc passé Tom ?'' by José Giovanni * 1971 : '' Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément'' by Robert Enrico * 1971 : '' Boulevard du Rhum'' by Robert Enrico * 1972 : '' La Scoumoune'' by José Giovanni * 1974 : '' Chapi Chapo'' (TV series) * 1975 : '' Le Vieux Fusil'' by Robert Enrico

References

Roubaix Roubaix ( , ; ; ; ) is a city in northern France, located in the Lille metropolitan area on the Belgian border. It is a historically mono-industrial Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord Departments of France, depar ...

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roubaix, Francois De 1939 births 1975 deaths Musicians from Neuilly-sur-Seine French film score composers French male film score composers Accidental deaths in Spain Underwater diving deaths 20th-century French composers 20th-century French male musicians César Award winners