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Nadia Boulanger

Juliette Nadia Boulanger (French: [ʒyljɛt nadja bulɑ̃ʒe] (listen); 16 September 1887 – 22 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.[1]

Nadia Boulanger
Boulanger in 1925
Background information
Birth nameJuliette Nadia Boulanger
Born16 September 1887
Paris, France
Died22 October 1979 (1979-10-23) (aged 92)
Paris, France
Occupation(s)Teacher and conductor

From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Conservatoire de Paris but, believing that she had no particular talent as a composer, she gave up writing music and became a teacher. In that capacity, she influenced generations of young composers, especially those from the United States and other English-speaking countries. Among her students were many important composers, soloists, arrangers, and conductors, including Grażyna Bacewicz, Burt Bacharach, Daniel Barenboim, Lennox Berkeley, İdil Biret, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, John Eliot Gardiner, Philip Glass, Roy Harris, Quincy Jones, Dinu Lipatti, Igor Markevitch, Astor Piazzolla, Virgil Thomson, and George Walker.[2]

Boulanger taught in the U.S. and England, working with music academies including the Juilliard School, the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Longy School, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, but her principal base for most of her life was her family's flat in Paris, where she taught for most of the seven decades from the start of her career until her death at the age of 92.

Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe, including the BBC Symphony, Boston Symphony, Hallé, and Philadelphia orchestras. She conducted several world premieres, including works by Copland and Stravinsky.

Biography

Early life and education

Nadia Boulanger was born in Paris on 16 September 1887, to French composer and pianist Ernest Boulanger (1815–1900) and his wife Raissa Myshetskaya (1856–1935), a Russian princess, who descended from St. Mikhail Tchernigovsky.[3]

Ernest Boulanger had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and, in 1835 at the age of 20, won the coveted Prix de Rome for composition. He wrote comic operas and incidental music for plays, but was most widely known for his choral music. He achieved distinction as a director of choral groups, teacher of voice, and a member of choral competition juries. After years of rejection, in 1872 he was appointed to the Paris Conservatoire as professor of singing.[4]

Raissa qualified as a home tutor (or governess) in 1873. According to Ernest, he and Raissa met in Russia in 1873, and she followed him back to Paris. She joined his voice class at the Conservatoire in 1876, and they were married in Russia in 1877.[4] Ernest and Raissa had a daughter, Ernestine Mina Juliette, who died as an infant[5] before Nadia was born on her father's 72nd birthday.

Through her early years, although both parents were very active musically, Nadia would get upset by hearing music and hide until it stopped.[6] In 1892, when Nadia was five, Raissa became pregnant again. During the pregnancy, Nadia's response to music changed drastically. "One day I heard a fire bell. Instead of crying out and hiding, I rushed to the piano and tried to reproduce the sounds. My parents were amazed."[7] After this, Boulanger paid great attention to the singing lessons her father gave, and began to study the rudiments of music.[8]

Her sister, named Marie-Juliette Olga but known as Lili Boulanger, was born in 1893, when Nadia was six. When Ernest brought Nadia home from their friends' house, before she was allowed to see her mother or Lili, he made her promise solemnly to be responsible for the new baby's welfare. He urged her to take part in her sister's care.[9]

From the age of seven, Nadia studied in preparation for her Conservatoire entrance exams, sitting in on their classes and having private lessons with its teachers. Lili often stayed in the room for these lessons, sitting quietly and listening.[10]

In 1896, the nine-year-old Nadia entered the Conservatoire. She studied there with Fauré and others.[11] She came in third in the 1897 solfège competition, and subsequently worked to win first prize in 1898. She took private lessons from Louis Vierne and Alexandre Guilmant. During this period, she also received religious instruction to become an observant Catholic, taking her First Communion on 4 May 1899. The Catholic religion remained important to her for the rest of her life.[12]

In 1900 her father Ernest died, and money became a problem for the family. Raissa had an extravagant lifestyle, and the royalties she received from performances of Ernest's music were insufficient to live on permanently. Nadia continued to work hard at the Conservatoire to become a teacher and be able to contribute to her family's support.[13]

In 1903, Nadia won the Conservatoire's first prize in harmony; she continued to study for years, although she had begun to earn money through organ and piano performances. She studied composition with Gabriel Fauré and, in the 1904 competitions, she came first in three categories: organ, accompagnement au piano and fugue (composition). At her accompagnement exam, Boulanger met Raoul Pugno,[14] a renowned French pianist, organist and composer, who subsequently took an interest in her career.[15]

In the autumn of 1904, Nadia began to teach from the family apartment, at 36 rue Ballu.[16] In addition to the private lessons she held there, Boulanger started holding a Wednesday afternoon group class in analysis and sightsinging. She continued these almost to her death. This class was followed by her famous "at homes", salons at which students could mingle with professional musicians and Boulanger's other friends from the arts, such as Igor Stravinsky, Paul Valéry, Fauré, and others.[16][17]

Professional life

After leaving the Conservatoire in 1904 and before her sister's untimely death in 1918, Boulanger was a keen composer, encouraged by both Pugno and Fauré. Caroline Potter, writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, says of Boulanger's music: "Her musical language is often highly chromatic (though always tonally based), and Debussy's influence is apparent."[15] Her goal was to win the First Grand Prix de Rome as her father had done, and she worked tirelessly towards it in addition to her increasing teaching and performing commitments. She first submitted work for judging in 1906, but failed to make it past the first round. In 1907 she progressed to the final round but again did not win.[18]

In late 1907 she was appointed to teach elementary piano and accompagnement au piano at the newly created Conservatoire Femina-Musica. She was also appointed as assistant to Henri Dallier, the professor of harmony at the Conservatoire.[19]

In the 1908 Prix de Rome competition, Boulanger caused a stir by submitting an instrumental fugue rather than the required vocal fugue.[15] The subject was taken up by the national and international newspapers, and was resolved only when the French Minister of Public Information decreed that Boulanger's work be judged on its musical merit alone. She won the Second Grand Prix for her cantata, La Sirène.[15][20]

In 1908, as well as performing piano duets in public concerts, Boulanger and Pugno collaborated on composing a song cycle, Les Heures claires, which was well-received enough to encourage them to continue working together.[21] Still hoping for a Grand Prix de Rome, Boulanger entered the 1909 competition but failed to win a place in the final round.[22] Later that year, her sister Lili, then sixteen, announced to the family her intention to become a composer and win the Prix de Rome herself.[23]

In 1910, Annette Dieudonné became a student of Boulanger's, continuing with her for the next fourteen years.[24] When her studies ended, she began teaching Boulanger's students the rudiments of music and solfège. She was Boulanger's close friend and assistant for the rest of her life.

Boulanger attended the premiere of Diaghilev's ballet The Firebird in Paris, with music by Stravinsky. She immediately recognised the young composer's genius and began a lifelong friendship with him.[25]

In April 1912, Nadia Boulanger made her debut as a conductor, leading the Société des Matinées Musicales orchestra. They performed her 1908 cantata La Sirène, two of her songs, and Pugno's Concertstück for piano and orchestra. The composer played as soloist.[26]

Lili Boulanger won the Prix de Rome in 1913, the first woman to do so.[27]

With the advent of war in Europe in 1914, public programs were reduced, and Boulanger had to put her performing and conducting on hold. She continued to teach privately and to assist Dallier at the Conservatoire. Nadia was drawn into Lili's expanding war work, and by the end of the year, the sisters had organised a sizable charity, the Comité Franco-Américain du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Déclamation. It supplied items such as food, clothing, money, and letters from home to soldiers who had been musicians before the war.[28]

Weakened by her work during the war, Lili began to suffer ill health. She died in March 1918.

Life after Lili's death, 1918–21

Nadia struggled with the death of her sister and according to Jeanice Brooks, "[t]he dichotomy between private grief and public strength was strongly characteristic of Boulanger's frame of mind in the immediate aftermath of World War I. Guilt at surviving her talented sibling seems to have led to determination to deserve Lili's death, which Nadia framed as redemptive sacrifice, by throwing herself into work and domestic responsibility: as Nadia wrote in her datebook in January 1919, 'I place this new year before you, my little beloved Lili–may it see me fulfill my duty towards you–so that it is less terrible for Mother and that I try to resemble you.'"[29]

In 1919, Boulanger performed in more than twenty concerts, often programming her own music and that of her sister.[30] Since the Conservatoire Femina-Musica had closed during the war, Alfred Cortot and Auguste Mangeot founded a new music school in Paris, which opened later that year as the École normale de musique de Paris. Boulanger was invited by Cortot to join the school, where she taught classes in harmony, counterpoint, musical analysis, organ and composition.[15]

Mangeot also asked Boulanger to contribute articles of music criticism to his paper Le Monde Musical, and she occasionally provided articles for this and other newspapers for the rest of her life, though she never felt at ease setting her opinions down for posterity in this way.[31]

In 1920, Boulanger began to compose again, writing a series of songs to words by Camille Mauclair. In 1921, she performed at two concerts in support of women's rights, both of which featured music by Lili.[32] However later in life she claimed never to have been involved with feminism, and that women should not have the right to vote as they "lacked the necessary political sophistication."[33]

American School at Fontainebleau, 1921–1935

 
Château de Fontainebleau

In the summer of 1921 the French Music School for Americans opened in Fontainebleau, with Boulanger listed on the programme as a professor of harmony.[34] Her close friend Isidor Philipp headed the piano departments of both the Paris Conservatory and the new Fontainebleau School and was an important draw for American students. She inaugurated the custom, which would continue for the rest of her life, of inviting the best students to her summer residence at Gargenville one weekend for lunch and dinner. Among the students attending the first year at Fontainebleau was Aaron Copland.[35]

Boulanger's unrelenting schedule of teaching, performing, composing, and writing letters started to take its toll on her health; she had frequent migraines and toothaches. She stopped writing as a critic for Le Monde musical as she could not attend the requisite concerts. To maintain her and her mother's living standards, she concentrated on teaching which was her most lucrative source of income.[36] Fauré believed she was mistaken to stop composing, but she told him, "If there is one thing of which I am certain, it is that I wrote useless music."[37]

In 1924, Walter Damrosch, Arthur Judson and the New York Symphony Society arranged for Boulanger to tour the USA. She set sail on the Cunard flagship RMS Aquitania on Christmas Eve. The ship arrived on New Year's Eve in New York after an extremely rough crossing.[38] During this tour, she performed solo organ works, pieces by Lili, and premiered Copland's new Symphony for Organ and Orchestra, which he had written for her.[15] She returned to France on 28 February 1925.[39]

Later that year, Boulanger approached the publisher Schirmer to enquire if they would be interested in publishing her methods of teaching music to children. When nothing came of it, she abandoned trying to write about her ideas.[40]

Gershwin visited Boulanger in 1927, asking for lessons in composition. They spoke for half an hour after which Boulanger announced, "I can teach you nothing." Taking this as a compliment, Gershwin repeated the story many times.[41]

The Great Depression increased social tensions in France. Days after the Stavisky riots in February 1934, and in the midst of a general strike, Boulanger resumed conducting. She made her Paris debut with the orchestra of the École normale in a programme of Mozart, Bach, and Jean Françaix.[42] Boulanger's private classes continued; Elliott Carter recalled that students who did not dare to cross Paris through the riots showed only that they did not "take music seriously enough".[43] By the end of the year, she was conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with a programme of Bach, Monteverdi and Schütz.[44]

Her mother Raissa died in March 1935, after a long decline. This freed Boulanger from some of her ties to Paris, which had prevented her from taking up teaching opportunities in the United States.[40]

Touring and recording

 
Boulanger with Igor Stravinsky

In 1936, Boulanger substituted for Alfred Cortot in some of his piano masterclasses, coaching the students in Mozart's keyboard works.[45] Later in the year, she traveled to London to broadcast her lecture-recitals for the BBC, as well as to conduct works including Schütz, Fauré and Lennox Berkeley. Noted as the first woman to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra, she received acclaim for her performances.[15][46]

Boulanger's long-held passion for Monteverdi culminated in her recording six discs of madrigals for HMV in 1937, which brought his music to a new, wider audience.[47] Not all reviewers approved her use of modern instruments.[48]

When Hindemith published his The Craft of Musical Composition, Boulanger asked him for permission to translate the text into French, and to add her own comments. Hindemith never responded to her offer. After he fled from Nazi Germany to the United States, they did not discuss the matter further.[49]

Late in 1937, Boulanger returned to Britain to broadcast for the BBC and hold her popular lecture-recitals. In November, she became the first woman to conduct a complete concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, which included Fauré's Requiem and Monteverdi's Amor (Lamento della ninfa).[50] Describing her concerts, Mangeot wrote,

She never uses a dynamic level louder than mezzo-forte and she takes pleasure in veiled, murmuring sonorities, from which she nevertheless obtains great power of expression. She arranges her dynamic levels so as never to have need of fortissimo ...[51]

In 1938, Boulanger returned to the US for a longer tour. She had arranged to give a series of lectures at Radcliffe, Harvard, Wellesley and the Longy School of Music, and to broadcast for NBC. During this tour, she became the first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In her three months there, she gave over a hundred lecture-recitals, recitals and concerts[52] These included the world premiere of Stravinsky's Dumbarton Oaks Concerto.[15] At that time she was seen by American sculptor Katharine Lane Weems who recorded in her diary, "Her voice is surprisingly deep. She is quite slim with an excellent figure and fine features, Her skin is delicate, her hair graying slightly, she wears pince-nez and gesticulates as she becomes excited talking about music."[53]

HMV issued two additional Boulanger records in 1938: the Piano Concerto in D by Jean Françaix, which she conducted; and the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes, in which she and Dinu Lipatti were the duo pianists with a vocal ensemble, and (again with Lipatti) a selection of the Brahms Waltzes, Op. 39 for piano four hands.[54]

During Boulanger's tour of America the following year, she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Washington National Symphony Orchestra. She gave 102 lectures in 118 days across the US.[55]

Second World War and emigration, 1940–45

As the Second World War loomed, Boulanger helped her students leave France. She made plans to do so herself. Stravinsky joined her at Gargenville, where they awaited news of the German attack against France.[56] Waiting to leave France till the last moment before the invasion and occupation, Boulanger arrived in New York via Madrid and Lisbon on 6 November 1940.[57] After her arrival, Boulanger traveled to the Longy School of Music in Cambridge to give classes in harmony, fugue, counterpoint and advanced composition.[58] In 1942, she also began teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. Her classes included music history, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, orchestration and composition.[59]

Later life in Paris, 1946–79

Leaving America at the end of 1945, she returned to France in January 1946. There she accepted a position of professor of accompagnement au piano at the Paris Conservatoire.[60] In 1953, she was appointed overall director of the Fontainebleau School.[61] She also continued her touring to other countries.

As a long-standing friend of the family, and as official chapel-master to the Prince of Monaco, Boulanger was asked to organise the music for the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and the American actress Grace Kelly in 1956.[62] In 1958, she returned to the US for a six-week tour. She combined broadcasting, lecturing, and making four television films.[63]

Also in 1958, she was inducted as an Honorary Member into Sigma Alpha Iota, the international women's music fraternity, by the Gamma Delta chapter at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York.[64]

In 1962, she toured Turkey, where she conducted concerts with her young protégée İdil Biret.[65] Later that year, she was invited to the White House of the United States by President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline,[66] and in 1966, she was invited to Moscow to jury for the International Tchaikovsky Competition, chaired by Emil Gilels.[67] While in England, she taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She also gave lectures at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, all of which were broadcast by the BBC.[67]

Her eyesight and hearing began to fade toward the end of her life.[15] On 13 August 1977, in advance of her 90th birthday, she was given a surprise birthday celebration at Fontainebleau's English Garden. The school's chef had prepared a large cake, on which was inscribed: "1887–Happy Birthday to you, Nadia Boulanger–Fontainebleau, 1977". When the cake was served, 90 small white candles floating on the pond illuminated the area. Boulanger's then-protégé, Emile Naoumoff, performed a piece he had composed for the occasion.[68][69] Boulanger worked almost until her death in 1979 in Paris.[15] She is buried at the Montmartre Cemetery with her sister Lili and their parents.

Pedagogy

 
36 rue Ballu, Paris

Asked about the difference between a well-made work and a masterpiece, Boulanger replied,

I can tell whether a piece is well-made or not, and I believe that there are conditions without which masterpieces cannot be achieved, but I also believe that what defines a masterpiece cannot be pinned down. I won't say that the criterion for a masterpiece does not exist, but I don't know what it is.[70]

She claimed to enjoy all "good music". According to Lennox Berkeley, "A good waltz has just as much value to her as a good fugue, and this is because she judges a work solely on its aesthetic content."[71] "She was an admirer of Debussy, and a disciple of Ravel. Although she bore little sympathy for Schoenberg and the Viennese dodecaphonicians, she was an ardent champion of Stravinsky."[69]

She insisted on complete attention at all times: "Anyone who acts without paying attention to what he is doing is wasting his life. I'd go so far as to say that life is denied by lack of attention, whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece."[72]

In 1920, two of her favourite female students left her to marry. She thought they had betrayed their work with her and their obligation to music. Her attitude to women in music was contradictory: despite Lili's success and her own eminence as a teacher, she held throughout her life that a woman's duty was to be a wife and mother.[73] According to Ned Rorem, she would "always give the benefit of the doubt to her male students while overtaxing the females".[74] She saw teaching as a pleasure, a privilege and a duty:[75] "No-one is obliged to give lessons. It poisons your life if you give lessons and it bores you."[76]

Boulanger accepted pupils from any background; her only criterion was that they had to want to learn. She treated students differently depending on their ability: her talented students were expected to answer the most rigorous questions and perform well under stress. The less able students, who did not intend to follow a career in music, were treated more leniently,[77] and Michel Legrand claimed that the ones she disliked were graduated with a first prize in one year: "The good pupils never got a reward so they stayed. I was [there] for seven years. And I never obtained a first prize".[78] Each student had to be approached differently: "When you accept a new pupil, the first thing is to try to understand what natural gift, what intuitive talent he has. Each individual poses a particular problem."[79] "It does not matter what style you use, as long as you use it consistently."[80] Boulanger used a variety of teaching methods, including traditional harmony, score reading at the piano, species counterpoint, analysis, and sight-singing (using fixed-Do solfège).[80]

When she first looked at a student's score, she often commented on its relation to the work of a variety of composers: for example, "[T]hese measures have the same harmonic progressions as Bach's F major prelude and Chopin's F major Ballade. Can you not come up with something more interesting?"[81] Virgil Thomson found this process frustrating: "Anyone who allowed her in any piece to tell him what to do next would see that piece ruined before his eyes by the application of routine recipes and bromides from standard repertory."[74] Copland recalled that "she had but one all-embracing principle ... the creation of what she called la grande ligne – the long line in music."[82] She disapproved of innovation for innovation's sake: "When you are writing music of your own, never strain to avoid the obvious."[83] She said, "You need an established language and then, within that established language, the liberty to be yourself. It's always necessary to be yourself – that is a mark of genius in itself."[84] Quincy Jones says Boulanger told him "Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being".[85]

She always claimed that she could not bestow creativity onto her students and that she could only help them to become intelligent musicians who understood the craft of composition. "I can't provide anyone with inventiveness, nor can I take it away; I can simply provide the liberty to read, to listen, to see, to understand."[86] Only inspiration could make the difference between a well-made piece and an artistic one.[87] She believed that the desire to learn, to become better, was all that was required to achieve – always provided the right amount of work was put in. She would quote the examples of Rameau (who wrote his first opera at fifty), Wojtowicz (who became a concert pianist at thirty-one), and Roussel (who had no professional access to music till he was twenty-five), as counter-arguments to the idea that great artists always develop out of gifted children.[88]

Her memory was prodigious: by the time she was twelve, she knew the whole of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier by heart.[89] Students have described her as knowing every significant piece, by every significant composer.[81][90] Copland recalls,

Nadia Boulanger knew everything there was to know about music; she knew the oldest and the latest music, pre-Bach and post-Stravinsky. All technical know-how was at her fingertips: harmonic transposition, the figured bass, score reading, organ registration, instrumental techniques, structural analyses, the school fugue and the free fugue, the Greek modes and Gregorian chant.[82]

Murray Perahia recalled being "awed by the rhythm and character" with which she played a line of a Bach fugue.[91] Janet Craxton recalled listening to Boulanger's playing Bach chorales on the piano as "the single greatest musical experience of my life".[92]

Honours and awards

Key works

Vocal[15]

  • Allons voir sur le lac d'argent (A. Silvestre), 2 voices, piano, 1905
  • Ecoutez la chanson bien douce (Verlaine), 1 voice, orchestra, 1905
  • Les sirènes (Grandmougin), female chorus, orchestra, 1905
  • A l'aube (Silvestre), chorus, orchestra, 1906
  • A l'hirondelle (Sully Prudhomme), chorus, orchestra, 1908
  • La sirène (E. Adenis/Desveaux), 3 voices, orchestra, 1908
  • Dnégouchka (G. Delaquys), 3 voices, orchestra, 1909
  • Over 30 songs for 1 voice, piano, incl.:
Extase (Hugo), 1901
Désepérance (Verlaine), 1902
Cantique de soeur Béatrice (Maeterlinck), 1909
Une douceur splendide et sombre (A. Samain), 1909
Larme solitaire (Heine), 1909
Une aube affaiblie (Verlaine), 1909
Prière (Bataille), 1909
Soir d'hiver (N. Boulanger), 1915
Au bord de la nuit, Chanson, Le couteau, Doute, L'échange (Mauclair), 1922
J'ai frappé (R. de Marquein), 1922

Chamber and solo works[15]

  • 3 pièces, organ, 1911, arr. cello, piano
  • 3 pièces, piano, 1914
  • Pièce sur des airs populaires flamands, organ, 1917
  • Vers la vie nouvelle, piano, 1917

Orchestral[15]

  • Allegro, 1905
  • Fantaisie variée, piano, orchestra, 1912

With Raoul Pugno[15]

Recordings

  • Mademoiselle: Premiere Audience – Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger, Delos DE 3496 (2017)
  • Tribute to Nadia Boulanger, Cascavelle VEL 3081 (2004)
  • BBC Legends: Nadia Boulanger, BBCL 40262 (1999)
  • Women of Note. Koch International Classics B000001SKH (1997)
  • Chamber Music by French Female Composers. Classic Talent B000002K49 (2000)
  • Le Baroque Avant Le Baroque. EMI Classics France B000CS43RG (2006)

Notes

  1. ^ Lennox Berkeley, Sir, Peter Dickinson, Lennox Berkeley and Friends: Writings, Letters and Interviews, page 45
  2. ^ "American Students of Nadia Boulanger".
  3. ^ Campbell, Don G. (August 1984). Master teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Pastoral Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-912405-03-2. Retrieved 28 April 2012.
  4. ^ a b Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 10–13.
  5. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 17.
  6. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 17, 21.
  7. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 20
  8. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 26.
  9. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 29.
  10. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 35–36.
  11. ^ Burton & Griffith 2002, p. 155.
  12. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 38–39.
  13. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 42.
  14. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 44–48.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Potter 2001.
  16. ^ a b Monsaingeon 1985, p. 26
  17. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 162.
  18. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 58–63.
  19. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 64.
  20. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 65–69.
  21. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 74.
  22. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 83.
  23. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 84.
  24. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 89.
  25. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 90.
  26. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 97.
  27. ^ Caron, Sylvain (12 March 2020). "1913. Lili Boulanger, première femme Prix de Rome". Nouvelle Histoire de la Musique en France (1870- 1950). Edited by the "Musique en France aux XIXe et XXe siècles : discours et idéologies" research team.
  28. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 128.
  29. ^ Brooks, Jeanice (2013). The Musical Work of Nadia Boulanger: Performing Past and Future Between The Wars. Cambridge University Press.
  30. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 145
  31. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 146
  32. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 150
  33. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 152
  34. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 153
  35. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 157
  36. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 161
  37. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, pp. 24–25
  38. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 178–179
  39. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 189
  40. ^ a b Rosenstiel 1998, p. 202
  41. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 216
  42. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 249
  43. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 3
  44. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 256
  45. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 264
  46. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 266–268
  47. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 271
  48. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 279
  49. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 282
  50. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 283
  51. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 285
  52. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 289–294
  53. ^ Weems, Katharine Lane, as told to Edward Weeks, Odds Were Against Me: A Memoir, Vantage Press, New York, 1985 p.105
  54. ^ "Nadia Boulanger". naxos.com. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  55. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 303
  56. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 312–313
  57. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 315–316
  58. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 316
  59. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 323
  60. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 336
  61. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 349
  62. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 366
  63. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 377–378
  64. ^ Ellen, Moody. . Archived from the original on 11 January 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2013.
  65. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 386
  66. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 389
  67. ^ a b Doyle, Roger O. (2003). Martha Furman Schleifer (ed.). Women Composers. Vol. 7. Hall. pp. 753–4. ISBN 0-7838-8194-0.
  68. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 400.
  69. ^ a b Bernheimer, Martin (8 September 1985). "Mademoiselle: Conversations with Nadia Boulanger, by Bruno Monsaingeon". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
  70. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 33
  71. ^ Berkeley, Lennox (January 1931). "Nadia Boulanger as Teacher". The Monthly Musical Record. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  72. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 35
  73. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, pp. 149, 352, 356
  74. ^ a b Rorem, Ned (23 May 1982). "The Composer and the Music Teacher". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  75. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, pp. 31–32
  76. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 41
  77. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 193
  78. ^ "Michel Legrand: 'Desprecio la música contemporánea' " 'Michel Legrand: "I despise contemporary music"] by Carlos Galilea, El País, 9 November 2016 (in Spanish)
  79. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, pp. 55–56
  80. ^ a b Monsaingeon 1985, p. 120
  81. ^ a b Campbell, Don (2002). . nadiaboulanger.org. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  82. ^ a b Copland, Aaron (1963). On Music. New York: Pyramid. pp. 70–77.
  83. ^ Orr, Robin (March 1983). "Boulanger". The Musical Times.
  84. ^ Driver, Paul: "Mademoiselle", Tempo, June 1986, Cambridge University Press, pp. 33–34
  85. ^ "Quincy Jones on Nadia Boulanger", recording and transcript, National Endowment for the Arts
  86. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 54
  87. ^ Rosenstiel 1998, p. 195
  88. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 42
  89. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 43
  90. ^ Orkin, Jenna (2005). "The Last Class: Memories of Nadia Boulanger". Retrieved 21 February 2012.
  91. ^ Monsaingeon 1985, p. 129
  92. ^ Owen, Albert Alan (2006). "Nadia Boulanger Remembered". aaowen.com. Retrieved 27 February 2012.
  93. ^ Kendall, Alan (1976). The Tender Tyrant – Nadia Boulanger – A Life Devoted To Music. Macdonald and Jane's. p. 76.
  94. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  95. ^ Hooker, Alan. "Griswold Awards Prize to Nadia Boulanger". Yale Daily News Historical Archive. Yale University. Retrieved 25 March 2021.
  96. ^ a b c Spycket, Jerome (1993). Nadia Boulanger. Pendragon Press. p. 160.

References

External links

nadia, boulanger, juliette, french, ʒyljɛt, nadja, bulɑ, listen, september, 1887, october, 1979, french, music, teacher, conductor, taught, many, leading, composers, musicians, 20th, century, also, performed, occasionally, pianist, organist, boulanger, 1925bac. Juliette Nadia Boulanger French ʒyljɛt nadja bulɑ ʒe listen 16 September 1887 22 October 1979 was a French music teacher and conductor She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist 1 Nadia BoulangerBoulanger in 1925Background informationBirth nameJuliette Nadia BoulangerBorn16 September 1887Paris FranceDied22 October 1979 1979 10 23 aged 92 Paris FranceOccupation s Teacher and conductor From a musical family she achieved early honours as a student at the Conservatoire de Paris but believing that she had no particular talent as a composer she gave up writing music and became a teacher In that capacity she influenced generations of young composers especially those from the United States and other English speaking countries Among her students were many important composers soloists arrangers and conductors including Grazyna Bacewicz Burt Bacharach Daniel Barenboim Lennox Berkeley Idil Biret Elliott Carter Aaron Copland John Eliot Gardiner Philip Glass Roy Harris Quincy Jones Dinu Lipatti Igor Markevitch Astor Piazzolla Virgil Thomson and George Walker 2 Boulanger taught in the U S and England working with music academies including the Juilliard School the Yehudi Menuhin School the Longy School the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music but her principal base for most of her life was her family s flat in Paris where she taught for most of the seven decades from the start of her career until her death at the age of 92 Boulanger was the first woman to conduct many major orchestras in America and Europe including the BBC Symphony Boston Symphony Halle and Philadelphia orchestras She conducted several world premieres including works by Copland and Stravinsky Contents 1 Biography 1 1 Early life and education 1 2 Professional life 1 3 Life after Lili s death 1918 21 1 4 American School at Fontainebleau 1921 1935 1 5 Touring and recording 1 6 Second World War and emigration 1940 45 1 7 Later life in Paris 1946 79 2 Pedagogy 3 Honours and awards 4 Key works 5 Recordings 6 Notes 7 References 8 External linksBiography EditEarly life and education Edit Nadia Boulanger was born in Paris on 16 September 1887 to French composer and pianist Ernest Boulanger 1815 1900 and his wife Raissa Myshetskaya 1856 1935 a Russian princess who descended from St Mikhail Tchernigovsky 3 Ernest Boulanger had studied at the Paris Conservatoire and in 1835 at the age of 20 won the coveted Prix de Rome for composition He wrote comic operas and incidental music for plays but was most widely known for his choral music He achieved distinction as a director of choral groups teacher of voice and a member of choral competition juries After years of rejection in 1872 he was appointed to the Paris Conservatoire as professor of singing 4 Raissa qualified as a home tutor or governess in 1873 According to Ernest he and Raissa met in Russia in 1873 and she followed him back to Paris She joined his voice class at the Conservatoire in 1876 and they were married in Russia in 1877 4 Ernest and Raissa had a daughter Ernestine Mina Juliette who died as an infant 5 before Nadia was born on her father s 72nd birthday Through her early years although both parents were very active musically Nadia would get upset by hearing music and hide until it stopped 6 In 1892 when Nadia was five Raissa became pregnant again During the pregnancy Nadia s response to music changed drastically One day I heard a fire bell Instead of crying out and hiding I rushed to the piano and tried to reproduce the sounds My parents were amazed 7 After this Boulanger paid great attention to the singing lessons her father gave and began to study the rudiments of music 8 Her sister named Marie Juliette Olga but known as Lili Boulanger was born in 1893 when Nadia was six When Ernest brought Nadia home from their friends house before she was allowed to see her mother or Lili he made her promise solemnly to be responsible for the new baby s welfare He urged her to take part in her sister s care 9 From the age of seven Nadia studied in preparation for her Conservatoire entrance exams sitting in on their classes and having private lessons with its teachers Lili often stayed in the room for these lessons sitting quietly and listening 10 In 1896 the nine year old Nadia entered the Conservatoire She studied there with Faure and others 11 She came in third in the 1897 solfege competition and subsequently worked to win first prize in 1898 She took private lessons from Louis Vierne and Alexandre Guilmant During this period she also received religious instruction to become an observant Catholic taking her First Communion on 4 May 1899 The Catholic religion remained important to her for the rest of her life 12 In 1900 her father Ernest died and money became a problem for the family Raissa had an extravagant lifestyle and the royalties she received from performances of Ernest s music were insufficient to live on permanently Nadia continued to work hard at the Conservatoire to become a teacher and be able to contribute to her family s support 13 In 1903 Nadia won the Conservatoire s first prize in harmony she continued to study for years although she had begun to earn money through organ and piano performances She studied composition with Gabriel Faure and in the 1904 competitions she came first in three categories organ accompagnement au piano and fugue composition At her accompagnement exam Boulanger met Raoul Pugno 14 a renowned French pianist organist and composer who subsequently took an interest in her career 15 In the autumn of 1904 Nadia began to teach from the family apartment at 36 rue Ballu 16 In addition to the private lessons she held there Boulanger started holding a Wednesday afternoon group class in analysis and sightsinging She continued these almost to her death This class was followed by her famous at homes salons at which students could mingle with professional musicians and Boulanger s other friends from the arts such as Igor Stravinsky Paul Valery Faure and others 16 17 Professional life Edit After leaving the Conservatoire in 1904 and before her sister s untimely death in 1918 Boulanger was a keen composer encouraged by both Pugno and Faure Caroline Potter writing in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians says of Boulanger s music Her musical language is often highly chromatic though always tonally based and Debussy s influence is apparent 15 Her goal was to win the First Grand Prix de Rome as her father had done and she worked tirelessly towards it in addition to her increasing teaching and performing commitments She first submitted work for judging in 1906 but failed to make it past the first round In 1907 she progressed to the final round but again did not win 18 In late 1907 she was appointed to teach elementary piano and accompagnement au piano at the newly created Conservatoire Femina Musica She was also appointed as assistant to Henri Dallier the professor of harmony at the Conservatoire 19 In the 1908 Prix de Rome competition Boulanger caused a stir by submitting an instrumental fugue rather than the required vocal fugue 15 The subject was taken up by the national and international newspapers and was resolved only when the French Minister of Public Information decreed that Boulanger s work be judged on its musical merit alone She won the Second Grand Prix for her cantata La Sirene 15 20 In 1908 as well as performing piano duets in public concerts Boulanger and Pugno collaborated on composing a song cycle Les Heures claires which was well received enough to encourage them to continue working together 21 Still hoping for a Grand Prix de Rome Boulanger entered the 1909 competition but failed to win a place in the final round 22 Later that year her sister Lili then sixteen announced to the family her intention to become a composer and win the Prix de Rome herself 23 In 1910 Annette Dieudonne became a student of Boulanger s continuing with her for the next fourteen years 24 When her studies ended she began teaching Boulanger s students the rudiments of music and solfege She was Boulanger s close friend and assistant for the rest of her life Boulanger attended the premiere of Diaghilev s ballet The Firebird in Paris with music by Stravinsky She immediately recognised the young composer s genius and began a lifelong friendship with him 25 In April 1912 Nadia Boulanger made her debut as a conductor leading the Societe des Matinees Musicales orchestra They performed her 1908 cantata La Sirene two of her songs and Pugno s Concertstuck for piano and orchestra The composer played as soloist 26 Lili Boulanger won the Prix de Rome in 1913 the first woman to do so 27 With the advent of war in Europe in 1914 public programs were reduced and Boulanger had to put her performing and conducting on hold She continued to teach privately and to assist Dallier at the Conservatoire Nadia was drawn into Lili s expanding war work and by the end of the year the sisters had organised a sizable charity the Comite Franco Americain du Conservatoire National de Musique et de Declamation It supplied items such as food clothing money and letters from home to soldiers who had been musicians before the war 28 Weakened by her work during the war Lili began to suffer ill health She died in March 1918 Life after Lili s death 1918 21 Edit Nadia struggled with the death of her sister and according to Jeanice Brooks t he dichotomy between private grief and public strength was strongly characteristic of Boulanger s frame of mind in the immediate aftermath of World War I Guilt at surviving her talented sibling seems to have led to determination to deserve Lili s death which Nadia framed as redemptive sacrifice by throwing herself into work and domestic responsibility as Nadia wrote in her datebook in January 1919 I place this new year before you my little beloved Lili may it see me fulfill my duty towards you so that it is less terrible for Mother and that I try to resemble you 29 In 1919 Boulanger performed in more than twenty concerts often programming her own music and that of her sister 30 Since the Conservatoire Femina Musica had closed during the war Alfred Cortot and Auguste Mangeot founded a new music school in Paris which opened later that year as the Ecole normale de musique de Paris Boulanger was invited by Cortot to join the school where she taught classes in harmony counterpoint musical analysis organ and composition 15 Mangeot also asked Boulanger to contribute articles of music criticism to his paper Le Monde Musical and she occasionally provided articles for this and other newspapers for the rest of her life though she never felt at ease setting her opinions down for posterity in this way 31 In 1920 Boulanger began to compose again writing a series of songs to words by Camille Mauclair In 1921 she performed at two concerts in support of women s rights both of which featured music by Lili 32 However later in life she claimed never to have been involved with feminism and that women should not have the right to vote as they lacked the necessary political sophistication 33 American School at Fontainebleau 1921 1935 Edit Chateau de Fontainebleau In the summer of 1921 the French Music School for Americans opened in Fontainebleau with Boulanger listed on the programme as a professor of harmony 34 Her close friend Isidor Philipp headed the piano departments of both the Paris Conservatory and the new Fontainebleau School and was an important draw for American students She inaugurated the custom which would continue for the rest of her life of inviting the best students to her summer residence at Gargenville one weekend for lunch and dinner Among the students attending the first year at Fontainebleau was Aaron Copland 35 Boulanger s unrelenting schedule of teaching performing composing and writing letters started to take its toll on her health she had frequent migraines and toothaches She stopped writing as a critic for Le Monde musical as she could not attend the requisite concerts To maintain her and her mother s living standards she concentrated on teaching which was her most lucrative source of income 36 Faure believed she was mistaken to stop composing but she told him If there is one thing of which I am certain it is that I wrote useless music 37 In 1924 Walter Damrosch Arthur Judson and the New York Symphony Society arranged for Boulanger to tour the USA She set sail on the Cunard flagship RMS Aquitania on Christmas Eve The ship arrived on New Year s Eve in New York after an extremely rough crossing 38 During this tour she performed solo organ works pieces by Lili and premiered Copland s new Symphony for Organ and Orchestra which he had written for her 15 She returned to France on 28 February 1925 39 Later that year Boulanger approached the publisher Schirmer to enquire if they would be interested in publishing her methods of teaching music to children When nothing came of it she abandoned trying to write about her ideas 40 Gershwin visited Boulanger in 1927 asking for lessons in composition They spoke for half an hour after which Boulanger announced I can teach you nothing Taking this as a compliment Gershwin repeated the story many times 41 The Great Depression increased social tensions in France Days after the Stavisky riots in February 1934 and in the midst of a general strike Boulanger resumed conducting She made her Paris debut with the orchestra of the Ecole normale in a programme of Mozart Bach and Jean Francaix 42 Boulanger s private classes continued Elliott Carter recalled that students who did not dare to cross Paris through the riots showed only that they did not take music seriously enough 43 By the end of the year she was conducting the Orchestre Philharmonique de Paris in the Theatre des Champs Elysees with a programme of Bach Monteverdi and Schutz 44 Her mother Raissa died in March 1935 after a long decline This freed Boulanger from some of her ties to Paris which had prevented her from taking up teaching opportunities in the United States 40 Touring and recording Edit Boulanger with Igor Stravinsky In 1936 Boulanger substituted for Alfred Cortot in some of his piano masterclasses coaching the students in Mozart s keyboard works 45 Later in the year she traveled to London to broadcast her lecture recitals for the BBC as well as to conduct works including Schutz Faure and Lennox Berkeley Noted as the first woman to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra she received acclaim for her performances 15 46 Boulanger s long held passion for Monteverdi culminated in her recording six discs of madrigals for HMV in 1937 which brought his music to a new wider audience 47 Not all reviewers approved her use of modern instruments 48 When Hindemith published his The Craft of Musical Composition Boulanger asked him for permission to translate the text into French and to add her own comments Hindemith never responded to her offer After he fled from Nazi Germany to the United States they did not discuss the matter further 49 Late in 1937 Boulanger returned to Britain to broadcast for the BBC and hold her popular lecture recitals In November she became the first woman to conduct a complete concert of the Royal Philharmonic Society in London which included Faure s Requiem and Monteverdi s Amor Lamento della ninfa 50 Describing her concerts Mangeot wrote She never uses a dynamic level louder than mezzo forte and she takes pleasure in veiled murmuring sonorities from which she nevertheless obtains great power of expression She arranges her dynamic levels so as never to have need of fortissimo 51 In 1938 Boulanger returned to the US for a longer tour She had arranged to give a series of lectures at Radcliffe Harvard Wellesley and the Longy School of Music and to broadcast for NBC During this tour she became the first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra In her three months there she gave over a hundred lecture recitals recitals and concerts 52 These included the world premiere of Stravinsky s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto 15 At that time she was seen by American sculptor Katharine Lane Weems who recorded in her diary Her voice is surprisingly deep She is quite slim with an excellent figure and fine features Her skin is delicate her hair graying slightly she wears pince nez and gesticulates as she becomes excited talking about music 53 HMV issued two additional Boulanger records in 1938 the Piano Concerto in D by Jean Francaix which she conducted and the Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes in which she and Dinu Lipatti were the duo pianists with a vocal ensemble and again with Lipatti a selection of the Brahms Waltzes Op 39 for piano four hands 54 During Boulanger s tour of America the following year she became the first woman to conduct the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Washington National Symphony Orchestra She gave 102 lectures in 118 days across the US 55 Second World War and emigration 1940 45 Edit As the Second World War loomed Boulanger helped her students leave France She made plans to do so herself Stravinsky joined her at Gargenville where they awaited news of the German attack against France 56 Waiting to leave France till the last moment before the invasion and occupation Boulanger arrived in New York via Madrid and Lisbon on 6 November 1940 57 After her arrival Boulanger traveled to the Longy School of Music in Cambridge to give classes in harmony fugue counterpoint and advanced composition 58 In 1942 she also began teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore Her classes included music history harmony counterpoint fugue orchestration and composition 59 Later life in Paris 1946 79 Edit Leaving America at the end of 1945 she returned to France in January 1946 There she accepted a position of professor of accompagnement au piano at the Paris Conservatoire 60 In 1953 she was appointed overall director of the Fontainebleau School 61 She also continued her touring to other countries As a long standing friend of the family and as official chapel master to the Prince of Monaco Boulanger was asked to organise the music for the wedding of Prince Rainier of Monaco and the American actress Grace Kelly in 1956 62 In 1958 she returned to the US for a six week tour She combined broadcasting lecturing and making four television films 63 Also in 1958 she was inducted as an Honorary Member into Sigma Alpha Iota the international women s music fraternity by the Gamma Delta chapter at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam New York 64 In 1962 she toured Turkey where she conducted concerts with her young protegee Idil Biret 65 Later that year she was invited to the White House of the United States by President John F Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline 66 and in 1966 she was invited to Moscow to jury for the International Tchaikovsky Competition chaired by Emil Gilels 67 While in England she taught at the Yehudi Menuhin School She also gave lectures at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music all of which were broadcast by the BBC 67 Her eyesight and hearing began to fade toward the end of her life 15 On 13 August 1977 in advance of her 90th birthday she was given a surprise birthday celebration at Fontainebleau s English Garden The school s chef had prepared a large cake on which was inscribed 1887 Happy Birthday to you Nadia Boulanger Fontainebleau 1977 When the cake was served 90 small white candles floating on the pond illuminated the area Boulanger s then protege Emile Naoumoff performed a piece he had composed for the occasion 68 69 Boulanger worked almost until her death in 1979 in Paris 15 She is buried at the Montmartre Cemetery with her sister Lili and their parents Pedagogy Edit 36 rue Ballu Paris For Boulanger s notable students see List of music students by teacher A to B Nadia Boulanger Asked about the difference between a well made work and a masterpiece Boulanger replied I can tell whether a piece is well made or not and I believe that there are conditions without which masterpieces cannot be achieved but I also believe that what defines a masterpiece cannot be pinned down I won t say that the criterion for a masterpiece does not exist but I don t know what it is 70 She claimed to enjoy all good music According to Lennox Berkeley A good waltz has just as much value to her as a good fugue and this is because she judges a work solely on its aesthetic content 71 She was an admirer of Debussy and a disciple of Ravel Although she bore little sympathy for Schoenberg and the Viennese dodecaphonicians she was an ardent champion of Stravinsky 69 She insisted on complete attention at all times Anyone who acts without paying attention to what he is doing is wasting his life I d go so far as to say that life is denied by lack of attention whether it be to cleaning windows or trying to write a masterpiece 72 In 1920 two of her favourite female students left her to marry She thought they had betrayed their work with her and their obligation to music Her attitude to women in music was contradictory despite Lili s success and her own eminence as a teacher she held throughout her life that a woman s duty was to be a wife and mother 73 According to Ned Rorem she would always give the benefit of the doubt to her male students while overtaxing the females 74 She saw teaching as a pleasure a privilege and a duty 75 No one is obliged to give lessons It poisons your life if you give lessons and it bores you 76 Boulanger accepted pupils from any background her only criterion was that they had to want to learn She treated students differently depending on their ability her talented students were expected to answer the most rigorous questions and perform well under stress The less able students who did not intend to follow a career in music were treated more leniently 77 and Michel Legrand claimed that the ones she disliked were graduated with a first prize in one year The good pupils never got a reward so they stayed I was there for seven years And I never obtained a first prize 78 Each student had to be approached differently When you accept a new pupil the first thing is to try to understand what natural gift what intuitive talent he has Each individual poses a particular problem 79 It does not matter what style you use as long as you use it consistently 80 Boulanger used a variety of teaching methods including traditional harmony score reading at the piano species counterpoint analysis and sight singing using fixed Do solfege 80 When she first looked at a student s score she often commented on its relation to the work of a variety of composers for example T hese measures have the same harmonic progressions as Bach s F major prelude and Chopin s F major Ballade Can you not come up with something more interesting 81 Virgil Thomson found this process frustrating Anyone who allowed her in any piece to tell him what to do next would see that piece ruined before his eyes by the application of routine recipes and bromides from standard repertory 74 Copland recalled that she had but one all embracing principle the creation of what she called la grande ligne the long line in music 82 She disapproved of innovation for innovation s sake When you are writing music of your own never strain to avoid the obvious 83 She said You need an established language and then within that established language the liberty to be yourself It s always necessary to be yourself that is a mark of genius in itself 84 Quincy Jones says Boulanger told him Your music can never be more or less than you are as a human being 85 She always claimed that she could not bestow creativity onto her students and that she could only help them to become intelligent musicians who understood the craft of composition I can t provide anyone with inventiveness nor can I take it away I can simply provide the liberty to read to listen to see to understand 86 Only inspiration could make the difference between a well made piece and an artistic one 87 She believed that the desire to learn to become better was all that was required to achieve always provided the right amount of work was put in She would quote the examples of Rameau who wrote his first opera at fifty Wojtowicz who became a concert pianist at thirty one and Roussel who had no professional access to music till he was twenty five as counter arguments to the idea that great artists always develop out of gifted children 88 Her memory was prodigious by the time she was twelve she knew the whole of Bach s Well Tempered Clavier by heart 89 Students have described her as knowing every significant piece by every significant composer 81 90 Copland recalls Nadia Boulanger knew everything there was to know about music she knew the oldest and the latest music pre Bach and post Stravinsky All technical know how was at her fingertips harmonic transposition the figured bass score reading organ registration instrumental techniques structural analyses the school fugue and the free fugue the Greek modes and Gregorian chant 82 Murray Perahia recalled being awed by the rhythm and character with which she played a line of a Bach fugue 91 Janet Craxton recalled listening to Boulanger s playing Bach chorales on the piano as the single greatest musical experience of my life 92 Honours and awards Edit1932 Chevalier to the Legion d honneur 15 1934 Order of Polonia Restituta 93 1962 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 94 1962 Howland Memorial Prize 95 1975 Medaille d Or of the Academie des Beaux Arts of the Institut de France 96 1977 Grand officier to the Legion d honneur 96 1977 Order of the British Empire 96 1977 Order of St Charles of Monaco 15 1977 Order of the Crown of Belgium 15 Key works EditVocal 15 Allons voir sur le lac d argent A Silvestre 2 voices piano 1905 Ecoutez la chanson bien douce Verlaine 1 voice orchestra 1905 Les sirenes Grandmougin female chorus orchestra 1905 A l aube Silvestre chorus orchestra 1906 A l hirondelle Sully Prudhomme chorus orchestra 1908 La sirene E Adenis Desveaux 3 voices orchestra 1908 Dnegouchka G Delaquys 3 voices orchestra 1909 Over 30 songs for 1 voice piano incl Extase Hugo 1901 Deseperance Verlaine 1902 Cantique de soeur Beatrice Maeterlinck 1909 Une douceur splendide et sombre A Samain 1909 Larme solitaire Heine 1909 Une aube affaiblie Verlaine 1909 Priere Bataille 1909 Soir d hiver N Boulanger 1915 Au bord de la nuit Chanson Le couteau Doute L echange Mauclair 1922 J ai frappe R de Marquein 1922Chamber and solo works 15 3 pieces organ 1911 arr cello piano 3 pieces piano 1914 Piece sur des airs populaires flamands organ 1917 Vers la vie nouvelle piano 1917Orchestral 15 Allegro 1905 Fantaisie variee piano orchestra 1912With Raoul Pugno 15 Les heures claires Verhaeren 8 songs 1 voice piano 1909 La ville morte d Annunzio opera 1910 13Recordings EditMademoiselle Premiere Audience Unknown Music of Nadia Boulanger Delos DE 3496 2017 Tribute to Nadia Boulanger Cascavelle VEL 3081 2004 BBC Legends Nadia Boulanger BBCL 40262 1999 Women of Note Koch International Classics B000001SKH 1997 Chamber Music by French Female Composers Classic Talent B000002K49 2000 Le Baroque Avant Le Baroque EMI Classics France B000CS43RG 2006 Notes Edit Lennox Berkeley Sir Peter Dickinson Lennox Berkeley and Friends Writings Letters and Interviews page 45 American Students of Nadia Boulanger Campbell Don G August 1984 Master teacher Nadia Boulanger Pastoral Press p 17 ISBN 978 0 912405 03 2 Retrieved 28 April 2012 a b Rosenstiel 1998 pp 10 13 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 17 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 17 21 Monsaingeon 1985 p 20 Rosenstiel 1998 p 26 Rosenstiel 1998 p 29 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 35 36 Burton amp Griffith 2002 p 155 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 38 39 Rosenstiel 1998 p 42 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 44 48 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Potter 2001 a b Monsaingeon 1985 p 26 Rosenstiel 1998 p 162 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 58 63 Rosenstiel 1998 p 64 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 65 69 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 74 Rosenstiel 1998 p 83 Rosenstiel 1998 p 84 Rosenstiel 1998 p 89 Rosenstiel 1998 p 90 Rosenstiel 1998 p 97 Caron Sylvain 12 March 2020 1913 Lili Boulanger premiere femme Prix de Rome Nouvelle Histoire de la Musique en France 1870 1950 Edited by the Musique en France aux XIXe et XXe siecles discours et ideologies research team Rosenstiel 1998 p 128 Brooks Jeanice 2013 The Musical Work of Nadia Boulanger Performing Past and Future Between The Wars Cambridge University Press Rosenstiel 1998 p 145 Rosenstiel 1998 p 146 Rosenstiel 1998 p 150 Rosenstiel 1998 p 152 Rosenstiel 1998 p 153 Rosenstiel 1998 p 157 Rosenstiel 1998 p 161 Monsaingeon 1985 pp 24 25 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 178 179 Rosenstiel 1998 p 189 a b Rosenstiel 1998 p 202 Rosenstiel 1998 p 216 Rosenstiel 1998 p 249 Monsaingeon 1985 p 3 Rosenstiel 1998 p 256 Rosenstiel 1998 p 264 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 266 268 Rosenstiel 1998 p 271 Rosenstiel 1998 p 279 Rosenstiel 1998 p 282 Rosenstiel 1998 p 283 Rosenstiel 1998 p 285 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 289 294 Weems Katharine Lane as told to Edward Weeks Odds Were Against Me A Memoir Vantage Press New York 1985 p 105 Nadia Boulanger naxos com Retrieved 21 February 2012 Rosenstiel 1998 p 303 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 312 313 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 315 316 Rosenstiel 1998 p 316 Rosenstiel 1998 p 323 Rosenstiel 1998 p 336 Rosenstiel 1998 p 349 Rosenstiel 1998 p 366 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 377 378 Ellen Moody Sigma Alpha Iota Honorary Members Archived from the original on 11 January 2011 Retrieved 21 April 2013 Rosenstiel 1998 p 386 Rosenstiel 1998 p 389 a b Doyle Roger O 2003 Martha Furman Schleifer ed Women Composers Vol 7 Hall pp 753 4 ISBN 0 7838 8194 0 Rosenstiel 1998 p 400 a b Bernheimer Martin 8 September 1985 Mademoiselle Conversations with Nadia Boulanger by Bruno Monsaingeon Los Angeles Times Retrieved 12 May 2013 Monsaingeon 1985 p 33 Berkeley Lennox January 1931 Nadia Boulanger as Teacher The Monthly Musical Record Retrieved 21 February 2012 Monsaingeon 1985 p 35 Rosenstiel 1998 pp 149 352 356 a b Rorem Ned 23 May 1982 The Composer and the Music Teacher The New York Times Retrieved 21 February 2012 Monsaingeon 1985 pp 31 32 Monsaingeon 1985 p 41 Rosenstiel 1998 p 193 Michel Legrand Desprecio la musica contemporanea Michel Legrand I despise contemporary music by Carlos Galilea El Pais 9 November 2016 in Spanish Monsaingeon 1985 pp 55 56 a b Monsaingeon 1985 p 120 a b Campbell Don 2002 Nadia Boulanger Teacher of the Century nadiaboulanger org Archived from the original on 27 July 2011 Retrieved 21 February 2012 a b Copland Aaron 1963 On Music New York Pyramid pp 70 77 Orr Robin March 1983 Boulanger The Musical Times Driver Paul Mademoiselle Tempo June 1986 Cambridge University Press pp 33 34 Quincy Jones on Nadia Boulanger recording and transcript National Endowment for the Arts Monsaingeon 1985 p 54 Rosenstiel 1998 p 195 Monsaingeon 1985 p 42 Monsaingeon 1985 p 43 Orkin Jenna 2005 The Last Class Memories of Nadia Boulanger Retrieved 21 February 2012 Monsaingeon 1985 p 129 Owen Albert Alan 2006 Nadia Boulanger Remembered aaowen com Retrieved 27 February 2012 Kendall Alan 1976 The Tender Tyrant Nadia Boulanger A Life Devoted To Music Macdonald and Jane s p 76 Book of Members 1780 2010 Chapter B PDF American Academy of Arts and Sciences Retrieved 29 July 2014 Hooker Alan Griswold Awards Prize to Nadia Boulanger Yale Daily News Historical Archive Yale University Retrieved 25 March 2021 a b c Spycket Jerome 1993 Nadia Boulanger Pendragon Press p 160 References EditBurton Anthony Griffith Paul 2002 Nadia Boulanger In Alison Latham ed Oxford Companion to Music Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 866212 9 Monsaingeon Bruno 1985 Mademoiselle Conversations with Nadia Boulanger Carcanet Press ISBN 0 85635 603 4 Potter Caroline 2001 Boulanger Juliette Nadia Grove Music Online Oxford Oxford University Press doi 10 1093 gmo 9781561592630 article 03705 ISBN 978 1 56159 263 0 subscription or UK public library membership required Rosenstiel Leonie 1998 Nadia Boulanger A Life in Music Norton ISBN 9780393317138 Boulanger Nadia 2020 Thoughts on Music Rochester NY University of Rochester Press ISBN 978 1580469678 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nadia Boulanger www nadiaboulanger org The American Conservatory at Fontainebleau Nadia Boulanger at Find a Grave Songs by Nadia Boulanger at The Art Song Project Free scores by Nadia Boulanger at the International Music Score Library Project IMSLP http www openculture com 2018 04 meet nadia boulanger html Interview with Nadia Boulanger Nadia Boulanger Improvisation 1911 2 Andrew Pink 2021 Exordia ad missam Nadia Boulanger letters to Members of the Chanler and Pickman Families 1940 1978 at Isham Memorial Library Harvard University Nadia Boulanger scores by her students 1925 1972 at Isham Memorial Library Harvard UniversityPortals Classical music Biography France Music Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nadia Boulanger amp oldid 1127623544, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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