Genius 176

[zumbehl]

I can't seem to break-thru on this puzzle. Need a help for: 28a *dog stray-feel terrible about it(11). I have ????l?????e.

[JJ109]

I haven't solved any of the special clues as I dont understand what is required.....but the letters I have are
_ _ _ _ L _ F _ R _ E
Hope that may help

[aelmpvw]

tailleferre fits

[sedge47]

Tailleferre - TAIL (dog) + ERR (stray) inside anagram of FEEL
The answer is the name of a female French composer - I don't understand why the answer is what it is.

[Captain2]

See what you mean JJ :)))

https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2018/feb/05/genius-crossword-no-176

[Captain2]

Sorry meant to put, if you click on the red 'to open here' under the grid you will get the clues

[JJ109]

Not only that Captain but somehow I managed to submit with only half the crossword completed - so I gave up and will start again next month.

[shaneystar2]

I'm not breaking it this month either zumbehl.
Composers are in there somewhere as apart from the answer just given there is Poulenc and Auric at 18a and 27a.

[zumbehl]

Thank you JJ109 and Aelmpvw. I will assume the theme for this puzzle is French composers. After Googling Tailleferre I got the answer to 21D. Thanks to both for this break-thru.

[JJ109]

Many thanks to everyone also - with this extra info, I now understood what you needed to do, and have now finished it

[alfrede]

French composers are the theme. aelpvw and sedge47 gives an example. shaneystar2 gives two others: auric and poulenc.

What's the connection? Look up a group of 6 musicians in Wikipedia!