Music and big bellies | The Press

At the time of recording a first solo album, I was pregnant with my daughter, at the beginning of the third trimester. Overflowing, crisp, concentrated energy: my producer was surprised… and happy.

Catherine Perrin
special cooperation

The following week, the midwife was less happy to tell me that the baby had not grown since my last visit. I slowed down a bit, my daughter was born 10 days late; at almost four kilos, she had regained the energy that I had borrowed from her. I dedicated this first album to him.

Had he, in return, brought him a musical opening in utero ? She has an excellent ear, she could have advanced in music, but did not make this choice, beyond a few years of piano.

What I have since learned is that these pieces repeated a hundred times before and during the recording, when I played them again after her birth, my daughter could detect a false note in them, if I had the misfortune to play one.

No, I’m not crazy, and no, my baby was not a genius: it was science that demonstrated, a few years ago, that all babies have this skill.

Unlike sight, hearing develops quite early in the womb. During the last trimester of pregnancy, although the music is attenuated by the liquid environment, it already activates certain specialized networks in the brain of the fetus: a “pre-wiring” intended to organize sounds and rhythms^⁠1.

In Italy, babies were tested, regularly exposing them to melodies, before and after birth. When a known melody is altered, we can see the baby’s brain react, by observing it on the scanner. We are talking about a baby of a few weeks here!

This prewiring will be activated in response to the ambient musical culture: in our country, it is the Western scale (do-re-mi-fa-sol…), but elsewhere it will be a pentatonic scale (the equivalent of black keys of the piano), or even a scale comprising micro-intervals (an interval smaller than a semitone, which our western ear will be able to hear as a note that “falsifies” slightly).

In the same way, the baby’s brain will learn to synchronize with simple and repetitive rhythms: it will be able to anticipate them, and even react to a lack of time!

The key is the simplicity and the repetitive aspect of the musical structures: Brother Jacquesan Italian lullaby, or a melody played on an African balafon will more easily create a musical imprint than a piece by Frank Zappa, for example.

Yes, Mozart’s music can qualify, simply because it is built on fairly simple codes. But forget the famous “Mozart effect”, popularized in the 1990s: Mozart will not make your child smarter, this assumption has long been deflated.

The most effective transmission agent is pleasure, felt and shared. If you listen to Mozart with pleasure at the end of pregnancy, if you expose your baby to this music after birth, you will contribute to the development of musical connections in his brain. But it’s also true for Bach, or for Celine Dion.

So, future mothers with big bellies, sing, listen to the music you like, even better: listen to it in concert.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, Les Petits Violons present their free annual concert on Sunday^⁠2.

In the first part, the violinist Marie-Claire Cousineau, daughter of the founder Jean Cousineau and current director of the school, will lead a group of advanced students, supported by some high level professionals.

Then, for about twenty children barely over 5 years old, it will be their first concert experience. Surrounded by the most advanced, they will experience an unforgettable sound immersion. Their very simple little pieces will suddenly be magnified by the orchestra that surrounds them.

“They are serious, but their eyes shine. It’s often a turning point for them, an experience that makes them want to continue working. Marie-Claire is aware of the effort and commitment required, both for the child and for his parents. The school of Petits Violons takes children at 5 years old, so that progress leads to gratification more quickly. “They are assessed on admission, but in general motor skills, coordination and concentration are better developed from the age of 5. »

I ask her if she had the impression of transmitting the music to her two boys… even before they were born. “I was preparing for our end-of-season concert, at the end of each of my pregnancies. In any case, the parts of my father’s method were already well assimilated: they had no trouble learning them! »

His sons are now 9 and 12, and will both perform at the concert on Sunday.

The rest is up to them.

^⁠1 The researcher Isabelle Peretz has popularized this phenomenon very well in her essay entitled learn musicpublished by Odile Jacob in 2018. She lists the relevant studies, a list still up to date, she assured me recently.

^⁠2 A voluntary contribution is welcome to support the mission of Les Petits Violons. Seats are assigned. Tickets must therefore be purchased by phone, online or at the Center Pierre-Péladeau box office.