Strongly influenced by Debussy's opera "Pelléas et Mélisande", Louis Durey joined Les Six (with Poulenc, Milhaud, Auric, Honegger and Tailleferre), the six young French composers under the influence of Satie and Cocteau, but abandoned them after a year to allow increasing scope for his political affiliations.

Durey wrote a Concertino for piano, wind instruments, double bass and timpani, a Mouvement symphonique for piano and strings and a string Sinfonietta, as well as a Fantaisie concertante for cello, among other relatively large scale compositions.

His chamber music includes a flute sonatina, a string trio and Les soirées de Vallère for wind quintet, in addition to his three string quartets.

Durey's political affiliations are clear from his setting of two poems by Ho Chi Minh and the choral La longue marche, with words by Mao Tse Tung.

There are notable settings of poems by Apollinaire, Eluard and Cocteau, among the first Le bestiaire (The Bestiary) and, with words by Cocteau, Le printemps au fond de la mer.