Today’s date in 1910 marks the birthday in Paris of a French composer you perhaps have never heard of, but Elsa Barraine is well-deserving of your attention.

Barraine’s father was a cellist at the Paris Opera, and as a teen Elsa attended the Paris Conservatory, studying composition with Paul Dukas. Olivier Messiaen was her classmate and remained a life-long friend. Barraine won several prizes for her compositions, including the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1929 when she was just 19.
She worked at the French National Radio from 1936 to 1940. During World War II, Barraine was heavily involved in the French Resistance, and from 1944 to 1947 was the Recording Director of the French record label Le Chant du Monde. In 1953 she joined the faculty at the Paris Conservatoire, where she taught until 1972, the year the French Ministry of Culture named her Director of Music. She died in 1999.

Elsa Barraine’s catalog of works includes a variety of vocal and instrumental works, an opera, ballets, and two symphonies, but her music is seldom performed today. We’re sampling one of her chamber works, a piece for French horn and piano entitled Crépuscules, or Twilights.

Elsa Barraine (1910-1999): Crépuscules Lin Foulk Baird, fh; Martha Fischer, p. Centaur CRC-3857