Elsa Barraine
Elsa Jacqueline Barraine was a composer of French music in the time after the neoclassicist movement of Les Six, Ravel, and Stravinsky. Despite being considered “one of the outstanding French composers of the mid-20th century,” Barraine's music is seldom performed today. She won the Prix de Rome in 1929 for La vierge guerrière, a sacred trilogy named for Joan of Arc, and was the fourth woman ever to receive that prestigious award.
Biography
Born in Paris to Alfred Barraine, the principal cellist of the Orchestre de l’Opéra, and Mme. Barraine, Elsa Barraine began studying piano at a young age. She attended the Conservatoire de Paris and studied composition with Paul Dukas, whose impressive list of students includes Yvonne Desportes, Maurice Duruflé, Claude Arrieu, and Olivier Messiaen. Barraine and Messiaen were good friends throughout their lives and kept in frequent contact. A talented pupil, Barraine won First Prize in harmony at the Conservatoire at age fifteen and then in fugue and accompaniment when she was seventeen. In 1929 she won the Prix de Rome for her cantata La vierge guerrière, making her the fourth female winner since the competition began in 1803. Her piece Harald Harfagard, symphonic variations based on the poetry of Heinrich Heine, was the first composition of Barraine's to gain public recognition. This was her first work of many to take inspiration from literature, such as the later Avis and L’homme sur terre, both based on Paul Éluard texts.Barraine worked at the French National Radio from 1936 to 1940 as a pianist, sound recordist, and the head of singing, then after World War II as a sound mixer. During the war, Barraine was heavily involved in the French Resistance and was a member of the Front National des Musiciens. Between 1944 and 1947 she held the position of Recording Director at the well-established record label Le Chant du Monde. In 1953 Barraine was appointed to the faculty at the Paris Conservatoire, where she taught analysis and sight-reading until 1972. It was then that the Ministry of Culture named her Director of Music, giving her charge of all French national lyric theaters.
She died in 1999 in Strasbourg.
Compositional style
According to James Briscoe in his New Historical Anthology of Music by Women, “The music of Elsa Barraine wins over its listeners by a contrapuntal independence of line, virtuosity, and expressive intensity through motivic and rhythmic drive.” It should also be noted that through her time studying with Dukas and the musical influence of Debussy, Barraine developed a keen and effective sense of instrumental timbre and color. She embraced classic forms while making them her own, and used an entirely tonal harmonic language with one notable exception. Her chamber work Musique rituelle for organ, gongs, and xylorimba features serialism and is inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead.The authors of The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers observe the following:
In all of Elsa Barraine's works there is an ardent focus on the human condition. Like her contemporaries who formed La Jeune France, André Jolivet, Olivier Messiaen, Daniel-Lesur, and Yves Baudrier, she strove to reintroduce humanism to composition, an art becoming increasingly more abstract. While some of her pieces address specific social and political issues, others explore a particular emotion or psychological state. Examples of the former include Claudine à l’école, her ballet based on a book by Colette which explores women's sexuality, and her anti-fascist symphonic poem Pogromes. An example of the latter is Barraine's programmatic woodwind quintet Ouvrage de Dame. The quintet has eight movements, the Theme and seven Variations which are named after fictional women with different personality types. She makes clear the differences in temperament of the seven women with her talent for characterization and skillful use of timbre. Once again in the words of James Briscoe, “Her contribution to music is significant, and Elsa Barraine is a major force awaiting full discovery by performers and critics.”
List of compositions
Opera, ballet and stage music- Le Roi bossu, comic opera in one act •
- Le mur, ballet •
- Incidental music for Mégarée by Maurice Druon, a play in 3 actes, Bruxelles •
- Printemps de la liberté, incidental music •
- La chanson du mal-aimé, ballet in 11 tableaux and a prologue on a libretto by Jean-Jacques Etchevery •
- Claudine à l'ecole, ballet •
- Symphony no.1 •
- Harald Hafagard, symphonic variations after Heinrich Heine •
- Pogromes. Ouverture. Illustration Symphonique d'après André Spire •
- Symphony no.2, "Voïna" •
- Suite Astrologique for small orchestra •
- Variations on 'Le Fleuve rouge, symphonic poem
- Hommage à Prokofiev, for orchestra •
- 3 Ridicules, for orchestra •
- Les jongleurs, for orchestra •
- Les tziganes, for orchestra •
- Fantaisie concertante for piano and orchestra •
- Hommage à Prokofiev for harpsichord and orchestra •
- Musique funèbre pour la Mise au tombeau du Titien for piano and orchestra •
- Atmosphere for oboe and 10 strings •
- Héraclès à Delphes, cantata
- La Vierge guerrière • profane cantata for solo voice, choir and orchestra
- Melodies •
- Il y a quelqu'un d'autre je pense, for voice and piano •
- Je ne réclamais rien de toi pour chant et piano, for voice and piano on a poem by Rabindranat Tagore, translated by André Gide • 1931
- Je suis ici pour te chanter des chansons, for voice and piano on a poem by Rabindranat Tagore, translated by André Gide • 1931
- 3 Chansons Hebraiques •
- Chants Juifs •
- Avis, for choir and orchestra to the memory of Georges Dudach on a text by Paul Éluard •,
- Poesie Ininterrompue, cantata for 2 voices and orchestra •
- L'homme sur Terre, for choir and orchestra •
- La nativité, sur un poème de L. Masson, for solo voices, choir and orchestra •
- Les Cinq plaies, cantata on a text by Michel Manoll •
- Cantate du vendredi saint •
- Les paysans, cantata on a poeme by André Frénaud for 2 voices and orchestra •
- Christine, for solo voice, choir and orchestra •
- De premier mai en premier mai, for 4 voices and choir •
- Wind quintet •
- Pièce en quintette, for piano quintet •
- Élégie et ronde, for flute and piano •
- Crépuscules, for French horn and piano •
- Ouvrage de Dame, chamber music with diverse instruments •
- Improvisation, for saxophone and piano •
- Variations, for percussion and piano •
- Suite Juive, for violin and piano •
- Fanfare de Printemps, for cornet and piano •
- Andante & Allegro, for saxhorn in Bb and piano •
- Musique Rituelle, trio for organ, gong, tam tam and xylorimba •
- 2 Preludes and fugues, for organ •
- Prelude for piano, character piece •
- Hommage à Paul Dukas for piano •
- Marche du printemps sans amour for piano •
- La boite de Pandore for piano •
- Fantaisie, for harpsichord, character piece •
- Chien de paille, for tuba •
- Cantique du Vendredi Saint • • Hymns
- Au coeur de l'orage •
- White Paws •
- Je sème à tout vent •
- Le coeur d'amour épris du roi René •
- L'amour d'une femme •
- Le sabotier du Val de Loire •
- Ars •
Social and political issues