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La berceuse est un genre musical faisant généralement partie de la tradition orale. Elle est le plus souvent comprise dans une interaction composée d'au moins deux personnes. L'une des interactions la plus courante fait référence à la dyade mère/enfant (même s'ils en existe davantage), les hommes participant rarement au bercement de l'enfant. Ce genre musical permet d'instaurer une réelle relation intime entre la mère et l'enfant, transmettant ainsi des émotions (l'amour -maternel le plus souvent- tristesse, colère) des sons, intonations etc. favorisant l'apprentissage de la langue et dans des cas moins fréquents; des souvenirs, recommandations, histoire propre à la culture locale.
Musicalement la berceuse est interprétée a cappella (lorsqu'elle est chantée) ou peut être instrumentale. Les caractéristiques rythmiques et mélodiques varient d'une berceuse à une autre; toutefois il existe certains éléments musicaux pouvant être communs à la majorité des berceuses. La berceuse peut se définir comme étant une "chanson ou rythme cadencé que l'on chante pour endormir les enfants"
A lullaby, or cradle song, is a soothing song or piece of music that is usually played for (or sung to) children (for adults see music and sleep). The purposes of lullabies vary. In some societies they are used to pass down cultural knowledge or tradition. In addition, lullabies are often used for the developing of communication skills, indication of emotional intent, maintenance of infants' undivided attention, modulation of infants' arousal, and regulation of behavior. Perhaps one of the most important uses of lullabies is as a sleep aid for infants.[2] As a result, the music is often simple and repetitive. Lullabies can be found in many countries, and have existed since ancient times.
Lullabies tend to share exaggerated melodic tendencies, including simple pitch contours, large pitch ranges, and generally higher pitch. These clarify and convey heightened emotions, usually of love or affection. When there is harmony, infants almost always prefer consonant intervals over dissonant intervals. Furthermore, if there is a sequence of dissonant intervals in a song, an infant will usually lose interest and it becomes very difficult to regain its attention. To reflect this, most lullabies contain primarily consonant intervals. Tonally, most lullabies are simple, often merely alternating tonic and dominant harmonies.
In addition to pitch tendencies, lullabies share several structural similarities. The most frequent tendencies are intermittent repetitions and long pauses between sections. This dilutes the rate of material and appeals to infants' slower capacity for processing music.
Rhythmically, there are shared patterns. Lullabies are usually in triple meter or 6/8 time, giving them a "characteristic swinging or rocking motion." This mimics the movement a baby experiences in the womb as a mother moves. In addition, infants' preference for rhythm shares a strong connection with what they hear when they are bounced, and even their own body movements. The tempos of lullabies tend to be generally slow, and the utterances are short. Again, this aids in the infant's processing of the song.
Lullabies almost never have instrumental accompaniments. Infants have shown a strong preference for unaccompanied lullabies over accompanied lullabies. Again, this appeals to infants' more limited ability to process information.
Lullabies are often used for their soothing nature, even for non-infants. One study found lullabies to be the most successful type of music or sound for relieving stress and improving the overall psychological health of pregnant women.
These characteristics tend to be consistent across cultures. It was found that adults of various cultural backgrounds could recognize and identify lullabies without knowing the cultural context of the song. Infants have shown a strong preferences for songs with these qualities.
Additional research by Jayne M. Standley has demonstrated that the physiological responses of prematurely delivered infants undergoing intensive care can be regulated by listening to gentle lullabies through headphones. In addition to slowing heart and respiration rates, lullabies have been associated with increased oxygen saturation levels and the possible prevention of potentially life-threatening episodes of apnea and bradycardia. Gentle music can also provide stimulation for premature infants to behave in ways that boost their development and keep them alive. Lullabies can serve as a low-risk source of stimulation and reinforcement for increasing nipple sucking (feeding) rates, providing infants with the nutrition they require for growth and development. Lullabies are thus associated with encouraging the rapid development of the neurological system and with a shorter length of hospitalization.
More recent research has shown that lullabies sung live can have beneficial effects on physiological functioning and development in premature infants. The live element of a slow, repetitive entrained rhythm can regulate sucking behavior. Infants have a natural tendency to entrain to the sounds that surround them. Beat perception begins during fetal development in the womb and infants are born with an innate musical preference. The element of live breathing sounds can regulate infant heart rate, quiet-alert states, and sleep. Live lullabies can also enhance parent-child bonding, thus decreasing parental stress associated with the intensive care. In short, live lullabies sung by music therapists induce relaxation, rest, comfort, and optimal growth and development.
Many lullabies, regardless of the meaning of their words, possess a peaceful hypnotic quality. Others are mournful or dark, like a lament. The Gaelic lullaby "Ba, Ba, Mo Leanabh Beag" was written in 1848 during the potato famine, which caused much hardship in the Scottish Highlands. The song mentions, soft potatoes, the mother's situation, and her fears for her child. In the 1920s, poet Federico García Lorca studied Spanish lullabies and noted the "poetic character" and "depth of sadness" of many of them. Lorca's theory was that a large part of the function of the lullaby is to help a mother vocalize her worries and concerns. In short, they also serve as therapy for the mother.
Combined with lament, lullaby can have "restorative resounding" properties for hospice inpatients and their families. Lullabies typically soothe people through the awake/sleep transition, and similarly can soothe people through the life/death transition. Music therapists have called these tunes "lullaments", that which sustain the spirit, support psychological structure, and enable resilience during times of vulnerability to the effects of adversity. Lullaments are music-contextualized expressions of attachment and detachment, sadness/tears and happiness/laughter, privilege and loss, nurturance and grief, deterioration, stasis and moving forward.
In classical music
Chopin's "Berceuse" is a composition for solo piano. Other famous examples of the genre include Maurice Ravel's Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré for violin and piano; the Berceuse élégiaque by Ferruccio Busoni; the "Berceuse" from the opera Jocelyn by Benjamin Godard; the "Berceuse" by Igor Stravinsky which is featured in the Firebird ballet, and Lullaby for String Quartet by George Gershwin. The English composer Nicholas Maw's orchestral nocturne, The World in the Evening, is subtitled "lullaby for large orchestra". German composer's Paul Graener last movement of his suite From The Realm of Pan is entitled "Pan sings the world a lullaby".
- Berceuse pour deux notes qui cornent (for two notes which continue), for organ, JA 7, by Jehan Alain
- Wiegenlied (Brahms), a cradle song, is a berceuse; it is better known in English as Brahms's Lullaby
- Berceuse, by Frank Bridge, for cello and piano
- Compositions by Ferruccio Busoni
- Berceuse (in C major) Op. 2, for piano
- Berceuse (Lullaby), for piano
- Berceuse élégiaque
- Berceuse, for piano by Frédéric Chopin
- "Berceuse for the Infant Jesu" in A Little Suite for Christmas, by George Crumb
- Berceuse Heroique, for piano, by Claude Debussy
- Two compositions by Gabriel Fauré
- Berceuse, Op. 16.
- "Berceuse" section of Dolly Suite for Piano four-hands, Op. 56, No. 1, by Fauré. Sometimes transcribed for violin and piano: not to be confused with the Op. 16 work, above.
- Berceuse for an Unwanted Child (Reginald Foresythe) 1934
- Berceuse de Jocelyn, a lullaby from the opera "Jocelyn" by Benjamin Godard
- Berceuse de Jupiter, also known as the aria "Que Les Songes Heureux" from the opera "Philémon et Baucis", by Charles Gounod
- Grieg Lyric Pieces Op. 38 No. 1
- "Berceuse" from 114 Songs (1922) by Charles Ives
- Berceuse by Armas Järnefelt 1904
- "Berceuse" from 12 Transcendental Études by Sergei Lyapunov
- Berceuse sur le nom de Gabriel Fauré by Maurice Ravel for violin and piano
- One of the excerpts from The Firebird, a ballet by Igor Stravinsky
- Berceuse for Solo Piano in A flat Major, Op. 72, No. 2, by Tchaikovsky
- Berceuse (sur les paroles classiques), from 24 Pieces in Free Style, for organ, by Louis Vierne
- Berceuse for Mallory, a big band jazz composition by Steve Spiegl
- (Puériculture) Femme chargée de bercer un enfant.
cette succession de grands noms de duchesses, les gouvernantes et les sous-gouvernantes, les habilleuses, les berceuses, tout un monde de femmes qu'on se représente si élégamment délicates, si pleines de respectueuses attentions pour l'enfant qui leur est confié. - (G. Lenotre, Vieilles Maisons, Vieux Papiers, Paris : Perrin, 1910 & Éditions Taillandier, 2013, vol.2) - (Musique) Forme musicale instrumentale ou vocale destinée à endormir les enfants. Chanter une berceuse.
