One of the few piano pieces by Teizō Matsumura, Deux Berceuses à la Grèce (Two berceuses to Greece) was commissioned by the Music School for Children of Tōhō Gakuen School of Music, which commissioned 24 composers for the Anthology of Contemporary Piano Pieces for Children. Matsumura’s piece was included in its second volume published by Shunjūsha in 1969, and premiered on July 16 in the same year by Mayumi Kato at the Iino Hall.

The first piece begins with a melody played lento, ‘extracted from the music of ancient Greece’, followed by a section ‘composed while dreaming of the afternoon in the Aegean Sea, which would be filled with sunshine.’ Then, another melody played moderato appears in the higher register, accompanied by arpeggios. As the melody is combined with chromatic movements, the music moves to A major. After the reprise of the first melody, the music develops as before, leading again to A major.

The second piece, inspired by the composition of the first, begins with figures evocative of ripples played by both hands, and accompanied by a long and simple melody. Yoshio Hachimura praised Deux Berceuses à la Grèce for its ‘mysterious and breathtaking beauty’ and the ‘ennui which evokes the Buddhist paradise.’ Later, Matsumura used this work as the main element of the music for the film “A Boy’s Summer in 1945” (directed by Kazuo Kuroki, 2003), whose music he composed.