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Despite her chronic illness, the French composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was able to overcome great obstacles and to achieve an unusual degree of both artistic success and public acclaim during her very short lifetime. This phenomenon is the more remarkable in that her chosen field is one in which, even today, women find it difficult to be evaluated solely on artistic merits. At the age of nineteen she was the first woman to win the prestigious Premier Grand Prix de Rome in composition, an award carrying with it extended residence at the famous Villa Medici in Rome. Even before this recognition was accorded her, some of her compositions had been performed by outstanding artists of the day and had received critical praise. This first full-length study of the life and works of Lili Boulanger is based almost entirely on sources that have hitherto been unavailable, such as family photographs, records, and documents in the possession of her only surviving relative, the eminent music pedagogue Mlle Nadia Boulanger, as well as on personal reminiscences both of Nadia Boulanger and of friends of the Boulanger family. Further information was secured from newly discovered library and archival sources in addition to the young composer's personal memorabilia, correspondence, and manuscript scores, which have never before been made available for study. In order to describe accurately the ambience of the places visited by Lili Boulanger during her life, the author not only undertook the necessary archival research, but also personally retraced the travels of the composer through six European countries, using the same means of transportation that the young composer had used. Born into a family with a long tradition of artistic accomplishment, surrounded during her twenty-four years by a devoted family and friends, Lili Boulanger became a creative, productive human being. The best of her works--especially those she wrote after winning the Prix de Rome in 1913--display firmness, delicacy, strength, and mastery of compositional technique. Lili Boulanger's musical style ranges from impressionism, to a Wagnerian vocabulary, to post-impressionism and growing chromaticism in her last compositions. As Debussy observed, her music "undulates with grace." The author's analysis of the 91 musical examples from the oeuvre of Lili Boulanger, and the 53 illustrations, many drawn from among old family photographs and other privately held manuscript sources, provide two of the many highlights of this superior biography.
Pioneers in their fields and two of the best-known women in music in the twentieth century, Nadia and Lili Boulanger have previously been considered in isolation from one another. Yet, as Caroline Potter's new book demonstrates, their careers were closely linked during Lili Boulanger's short life (1893-1918) and there are several intriguing connections between their musical works. This biography also provides the first full analysis of the Boulanger sisters' musical styles, placing them within the context of French musical history. Their lives are also a case study in the issues of gender which surround music making even to the present day. Despite an unusually privileged upbringing, Nadia and Lili Boulanger exemplify the struggle women experienced when attempting to enter the professional music world. Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia gained second place in 1908. Yet in spite of this initial success, Nadia Boulanger was to give up composing in her thirties and devoted the remainder of her long life to teaching. Her pupils included several of the great composers of the century, including Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter. This book, focusing on their musical careers, is essential reading for anyone interested in French music of the twentieth century.
With a life that spanned nearly a century, at her death Nadia Boulanger was still director of the American School of Music at Fontainebleau, which she helped found after World War I. Enormously influential, she taught many distinguished performers and composers and helped American music gain worldwide recognition. This first full biography of Boulanger is a rich portrait of an important woman of our time. Photos.
The strange fate of Boulanger and Pugno's La ville morte /Alexandra Laederich --Serious ambitions : Nadia Boulanger and the composition of La ville morte /Jeanice Brooks, Kimberly Francis --From the trenches : extracts from the final issue of the Paris Conservatory Gazette /translated by Anna Lehman --From technique to musique : the institutional pedagogy of Nadia Boulanger /Marie Duchêne-Thégarid --Nadia Boulanger's 1935 Carte du tendre --36 rue Ballu : a multifaceted place /Cédric Segond-Genovesi --"What an arrival!" : Nadia Boulanger's New world (1925) --Modern French music : translating Fauré in America, 1925-1945 /Jeanice Brooks --For Nadia Boulanger : five poems by May Sarton --Friend and force : Nadia Boulanger's presence in Polish musical culture /Andrea F. Bohlman, J. Mackenzie Pierce --"What awaits them now?" : a letter to Paris /Zygmunt Mycielski --A letter from Professor Nadia Boulanger /translated by J. Mackenzie Pierce --The Beethoven lectures for the Longy School /translated by Miranda Stewart --Boulanger and atonality : a reconsideration /Kimberly Francis --Why music? Aesthetics, religion, and the ruptures of modernity in the life and work of Nadia Boulanger /Leon Botstein.
Nadia Boulanger - composer, critic, impresario and the most famous composition teacher of the twentieth century - was also a performer of international repute. Her concerts and recordings with her vocal ensemble introduced audiences on both sides of the Atlantic to unfamiliar historical works and new compositions. This book considers how gender shaped the possibilities that marked Boulanger's performing career, tracing her meteoric rise as a conductor in the 1930s to origins in the classroom and the salon. Brooks investigates Boulanger's promotion of structurally motivated performance styles, showing how her ideas on performance of historical repertory and new music relate to her teaching of music analysis and music history. The book explores the way in which Boulanger's musical practice relied upon her understanding of the historically transcendent masterwork, in which musical form and meaning are ideally joined, and shows how her ideas relate to broader currents in French aesthetics and culture.
The hidden history of the women who dared to write music in a man’s world. ‘Lucid, engaging and exuberant... [Sounds and Sweet Airs] is terrifically enjoyable and accessible, and leaves one hankering for a second volume.’ The Sunday Times Francesca Caccini. Barbara Strozzi. Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre. Marianna Martines. Fanny Hensel. Clara Schumann. Lili Boulanger. Elizabeth Maconchy. Since the birth of classical music, women who dared compose have faced a bitter struggle to be heard. In spite of this, female composers continued to create, inspire and challenge. Yet even today so much of their work languishes unheard. Anna Beer reveals the highs and lows experienced by eight composers across the centuries, from Renaissance Florence to twentieth-century London, restoring to their rightful place exceptional women whom history has forgotten.
The first collection ever of essays and reviews by the renowned pedagogue, composer, and conductor, providing fresh perspectives on her musical influence and impact. The impact of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) on twentieth-century music was vast: as composer, keyboard performer, conductor, impresario, and pedagogue. Her extensive musical networks included figures such as Fauré, Stravinsky, and Poulenc, and her advocacy helped establish the compositions of her sister Lili Boulanger. Few today realize, though, that Boulanger wrote numerous essays and reviews at various times in her career. These offer unparalleled insight into her thinking and illuminate aspects of musical culture in Europe and America from the rare point of view of an internationally prominent female artist. Nadia Boulanger: Thoughts on Music provides a translation and critical edition of selected writings chosen for their quality and interest. The previously published articles and essays have never been reissued since their original appearance; the remaining materials are presented to readers here for the first time. The volume renders all these materials widely available, providing an important new resource for teaching and scholarship on twentieth-century music as well as an engaging collection of musical essays for the general reader.
How does music reflect the key moments in our lives? How do we choose the works that inspire, delight, comfort or console? Fiona Maddocks selects 100 classical works from across nine centuries, arguing passionately, persuasively and at times obstinately for their inclusion, putting each work in its cultural and musical context, discussing omissions, suggesting alternatives and always putting the music first.
Nicholas Kenyon explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon at a moment when we can access all music—across time and cultures Immersed in music for much of his life as writer, broadcaster and concert presenter, former director of the BBC Proms, Nicholas Kenyon has long championed an astonishingly wide range of composers and performers. Now, as we think about culture in fresh ways, Kenyon revisits the stories that make up the classical tradition and foregrounds those which are too often overlooked. This inclusive, knowledgeable, and enthusiastic guide highlights the achievements of the women and men, amateurs and professionals, who bring music to life. Taking us from pianist Myra Hess’s performance in London during the Blitz, to John Adams’s composition of a piece for mourners after New York’s 9/11 attacks, to Italian opera singers singing from their balconies amidst the 2020 pandemic, Kenyon shows that no matter how great the crisis, music has the power to bring us together. His personal, celebratory account transforms our understanding of how classical music is made—and shows us why it is more relevant than ever.
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