Sébastien Tremblay

Berceuse

Berceuse is a work for clarinet and piano by Quebec composer Sébastien Tremblay, based on an excerpt from the book Berceuses by poet Émilie Turmel. This musical and poetic work, accompanied by a painting by artist Louis Tremblay, was commissioned by clarinetist Jean-Guy Boisvert, who will premiere it at ClarinetFest 2026, organized by the International Clarinet Association and taking place from July 7 to 11, 2026, at Songdo ConvensiA in Incheon, South Korea.

Written in a traditional tonal style, the piece first presents the theme in the clarinet. This theme, along with the subsequent thematic material, is continually echoed by the piano, so that each imitated fragment becomes the accompaniment to the next musical idea, and so on. Only at the very end do the two performers finally unite, bringing the work to a gentle close together.

I wanted the listener to clearly feel the tenderness of the grandmother holding her daughter in her arms, and for the reversed sequence at the end of the poem to be reflected through the changing roles of the two instruments. The triple meter, in turn, evokes the gentle rocking motion of the grandmother. In Tremblay’s painting, one can glimpse the light shining from the windows, one of which belongs to the child’s bedroom.