Elsa Barraine

Widely recognized in the period before World War II, composer Elsa Barraine is being slowly rediscovered as works by women receive new examination. Unlike some female composers of the early 20th century, she wrote large orchestral and choral works, including two symphonies and various tone poems, in addition to songs and chamber music. Barraine was also noted as an educator and a recording engineer. Recordings of her work have been rare, but the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln and conductor Elena Schwarz released an album of her orchestral pieces, including both symphonies, in 2025. Barraine was born in Paris on February 13, 1910. Her father was principal cellist at the Paris Opéra, and she was given piano lessons when she was young. Barraine attended the Conservatoire de Paris and studied with Paul Dukas. Among her classmates was Olivier Messiaen, and the two became good friends. In 1929, she won the Prix de Rome for a cantata, La vierge guerrière, about Joan of Arc; she was the fourth woman to win the award since its founding in 1803. Her symphonic variations, Harald Harfagard (inspired by the poetry of Heinrich Heine), was composed in 1930 and enjoyed some success. Barraine's Symphony No. 1 followed in 1931. Several of her works, including the orchestral overture Pogromes (1933) and the Symphony No. 2 ("Voïna," from 1938), reflect the gathering of tensions in Europe in the 1930s. Although she was not a member of Les Six, the group of French neoclassic composers, her music shared traits with theirs. Before and after World War II, Barraine worked for French radio as a pianist, choral director, and sound engineer. During the war, she served in the French Resistance fighting Nazi rule, was arrested by the Germans but later released, and used the names Madame Cathérine and Cathérine Bonnard for a time. After the Germans were expelled, she was the recording director of the label Le Chant du Monde. In 1953, Barraine began teaching analysis and sight-reading at the Conservatoire de Paris. Later in life, she served as director of music for France's national theaters. She continued to compose music, often in a larger scale. She wrote a harpsichord concerto called Hommage à Prokofiev in 1953. Some of her works had feminist and other social themes; the symphonic poem Song-Koï Variations sur le Fleuve Rouge protested France's colonial occupation of Vietnam. Her large compositional output extended into the late '70s. Few of her works have been recorded, but the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln released an album containing her two symphonies and Pogromes on the CPO label in 2025. ~ James Manheim, Rovi