Born in Paris, Robert Darcy (1910-1967) became a Belgian citizen in 1949. He was a cellist and a composer. Initially he studied at the Conservatory of Lyon and obtained a First Prize for cello-playing, afterwards he studied composition with Bousquet at the Conservatory of Roubaix and with Vidal and Monteux at the Conservatory of Paris. He was professor at the Conservatories of Paris and Auteuil. As a cellist he was a member of the National Orchestra of Belgium. He received several prizes for composition : in Brussels (1936), in Liege (1939) and in Geneva. In 1965 he received the Queen Elisabeth Prize for Composition. As a composer, Robert Darcy had a predilection for neo-classicism. His musical style evolved from polytonality into free atonality, using a clear, elegant and sometimes extremely complex language.