This sheet music won the 2nd prize in composition competition for Tours’ Florilège Vocal, in 1982. It seems simple but Marie Noël’s manner of writing always has such an intense poetical expression. She composed “Le chant de nourrice” like a lullaby and this is also a moving ode to life and light. The melody represents this familiar and captivating voice by following all suggestions in the text. There’s firstly a swinging melody then it becomes darker to represent the depths of the earth where life emerges. Then the harmony rises, it becomes light and sunshine which wake the child up. The modal manner the piece is written represents contrasts and interplay of colors for the melody’s progression. Vocal lines are light and natural. Jean-Louis Gand was born in 1943 and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris with Alfred Desenclos, Jean-Claude Henry, Marcel Bitsch, Elsa Barraine and Tony Aubin. He won many prizes. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in classics. He is the head of Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Dijon. He composed many choral works based on sacred texts. His field of predilection is poetical and vocal expression and we feel it in many of his choral pieces, including several madrigals accompanied or not on the piano. There is also many unaccompanied songs. Jean-Louis Gand won several prizes in international choirs’ composition competition for Tours’ choirs and Arezzo’s choirs. Many of his works were recorded by Studio SM, Bayard Musique and others.
