PreMusic
Presentation of the Music Interventions
PreMusic is a study (GRAMFC-INSERM, MIS-UPJV, CNRS, Bourgogne University, Hamilton University) that investigates the impact of musically oriented interventions on auditory rhythm processing in the course of early development of preterm infants in the NICU, from the third trimester of gestation (28 weeks gestaionnal age) into the first year of life (18 months of corrected age).
In this study, the premature infants included in the Music Intervention (MI) group, born at 28-34 wGA receive 5 passive listening sessions of calm music per week and 3 live music therapy session per week until the equivalent age of term (38-40 wGA).
PreMusic has developped sets of musical pieces that babies are exposed to during their stay at the hospital coming from classical music, french songs, as well as popular/folk or jazz repertoire but also from the traditional nursery rhymes from around the world. This selection was carried out within the PreMusic consortium to meet musical criteria suitable for the development of prematurely born babies (Haslbeck, F., Nöcker-Ribaupierre, M., Zimmer, M.L., Schrage-Leitner, L., & Lodde, V., 2018).
Considering evidence for infants’ preference for vocal music, we have included instrumental sounds that resemble the acoustic characteristics of the human voice (e.g., cello, flute), in addition to humming sounds and instruments that are currently used in NICU interventions (sanza, ocean disc, ukulele and steel tongue drum).
In total, more than 40 songs were recorded in a home studio with musicians, between November and Decembre 2023. An environmental sound reminiscent of intrauterine sounds recorded with real instruments (Ocean drum, Rain stick, Wood Chime) introduces each stimulus session and aims to introduce the baby to upcoming auditory stimulation in a soothing way.
While preserving a quality performance, each musician was encouraged to play as gently as possible, for instance, by limiting volume nuances, minimizing attack peaks, and maintaining a regular and stable velocity. These characteristics have also been treated after recording during the compilation, editing and mixing phase.
The main concern of this realization, during the whole process, has been to minimize changes for the well-being and an optimal physiological and behavioral stability of the infant during the session in order to provide the child and their parents (when they are present) with the most soothing, relaxing, and harmonious experience possible.
[1] Haslbeck, F., Nöcker-Ribaupierre, M., Zimmer, M.L., Schrage-Leitner, L., & Lodde, V. (2018) Framework for Music Therapy in Neonatal care, Music & Medicine, Volume 10, Issue 4, p 213-223
Stimulus PreMusic "Iranian Song"
Guitars
Marco Papazian is a guitarist. He’s well known for his talent to play rhythmic guitars. For several years, he has been playing with different artists, among others, Bernard Lavillier, Renaud or Julien Clerc and performed in many tours and studio albums. More recently, he’s composing and playing music for documentaries for TV. He has also played the guitars on the last three albums of Stéphanie. He performed eleven songs for PreMusic.
"Movie Song"
Celtic Harp and Double bass
Freddie and Jérôme Goffette-Pinot are married in real life. She is an air traffic controller; he is an engineer and a teacher in electronics. They are both passionate about music. Freddie plays the Celtic harp and Jérôme the double bass and bass. He is also competent as a sound engineer. They always play with a professional approach regarding their musical level and the quality of their involvement in the different projects they are invested in, notably “Deskomp”, their group of Breton music, or the albums that they recorded with Stéphanie. They generously accepted to open and share their home and home studio to record the acoustic instruments, and to perform more than ten songs for PreMusic. Jerôme also helped a lot with the sound recording, mixing and mastering process.
"Traditionnal Christmas Song"
Violon and Cello
Alexandra and Felix Delcroix are mother and son. She is a violinist, and he is a cellist. They are playing both at a professional level. Alexandra is from Romania. She started the violin when she was 6 years old. She has been playing for years in different orchestras. She’s also completing a degree in Art Therapy at INECAT. In octobre 2023, juste before recording, she followed the continuing professional training that Stéphanie was proposing on the topic of music therapy with the premature infants and their parents. Felix teaches the cello and is playing with different groups. He’s still completing music degrees at La Sorbonne. They performed seven songs for PreMusic.
"Arabic Lullabye"
Voices, piano, keyboards, sanza, steel tongue drum
Stéphanie Lefebvre is a music therapist, singer, song writter and musician. Since 2007, she has worked with the premature infants and their parents in the NICU. In 2023, she joined the team members of PreMusic and worked on the realization of the passive listening music interventions in partnership with the lab in MIS (Amiens, UPJV). She composed the musical arrangements, conducted the recording sessions with the musicians. She also performed the piano, keybords (pads, electric piano, melodic percussions, organ flute), sanza steel tongue drum and lead and backing vocals parts of the songs.
"Classical Lullabye"
Irish Flute
David Sérandour learnt to play the flute at Saint-Brieuc’s music school. He plays the Irish wooden flute in the Breton band “Deskomp”. He accepted with great pleasure to join the project for which he recorded five songs.
"French Lullabye"
Voices and backing vocals
Aline Maubon and Cyril Bès de Berc were excited to participate in the project as singers. They recorded lead and backing vocals in two songs each.