The harmonic turns and piano configurations in La vie ant?rieure ??? the ???former life??? ??? seem almost exuberantly lyrical. At the beginning the archaic sounds and words of the male choir conjure up a dream world that is soon flooded with the power of the waves and the rich polyphonic harmony of the choir and the piano. With the outcry ???C???est l? que j???ai v?cu!??? [I have lived there] which expresses the fervent yearning to return to a past life the collective desperately reinforces the longing for the past. Once more the women???s choir conjures up this lost paradise in an undulating soft sound before the desolate sadness is pierced by the power of the music of the piano postlude creating a moment that is completely in the present.