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 (1967) 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: Profoundly sensitive to the enormous upheavals of her time, Barraine was unable to dissociate her creative processes from her personal, humanist, political and social pre-occupations. 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 (1950), her ballet based on a book by Colette which explores women's sexuality, and her anti-fascist symphonic poem Pogromes (1933). An example of the latter is Barraine's programmatic woodwind quintet Ouvrage de Dame (1931 - Ed. A.J.Andraud, 1939). The quintet has eight movements, the Theme and seven Variations which are named after fictional women with different personality types ("Angélique ; Berthe, aux sonorités dures ; Irène, sinueuse ; Barbe, fugato burlesque ; Sarah ; Isabeau de Bavière, avec son chapeau conique et son voile flottant ; Léocadie, vieille fille sentimentale du temps jadis"). 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 Chamber music Quintet: piano-strings Quintet: winds • (1931) • chamber music for winds Musique Rituelle: organ-gongs-xylorimba • (1967) • Trio Variations: piano percussion • (1950) • Duo Suite Juive: violin-piano • (1951) • Duo Improvisation: saxophone-piano • (1947) • duo Ouvrage de Dame • (1937) • chamber music with diverse instruments