Elsa Jacqueline Barraine (1910-1999) was a French composer. She studied under Paul Dukas, and is mainly known as the fourth woman to win the Prix de Rome – which she was awarded in 1929, at age 19, for her La vierge guerrière trilogy. A political activist, she joined the French Resistance during the war and co-founded the Front national des musiciens. Barraine developed a very personal style, rejecting both interwar neoclassical conventionalism and serialism. Due to her humanitarian and social interests, her music often echoes political and social events of her era. She also used her music to explore her Jewish spiritual and cultural identity, most notably through Deux préludes et fugues pour orgue and Trois chansons hébraïques pour enfants.

– Frédérick Duhautpas –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]