Appreciation 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐢 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 (1 Viewer)

[mysteric]

1. Elle était descendue au bas de la prairie
Born in August 21st, 1893 in Paris, France, Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger came from a musical family. Her older sister, Nadia Boulanger, is nowadays as the greatest music teacher but was also a formidable composer of her time. Their mother, Raissa Myshetskaya, was a Russian princess educated at the Paris Conservatoire, where she met their father, Frédéric Boulanger, a music teacher, conductor, and composer. Their paternal grandfather and grandmother were noted cellists and singers, respectively.
2. Elle est gravement gaie
Even as a child her musical talents were noted. Family friend Gabriel Fauré caught that she had perfect pitch, and she could sing melodies by ear. With her family's thorough musical background in mind, she grew up learning singing as well as the piano, violin, cello, harp, and organ. At the age of 5 she was already listening in to Nadia's lessons at the Paris Conservatoire lessons. Nadia, already recognized as a child prodigy herself and beyond accomplished, even regarded Lili as the more talented of the sisters. Though she was only allowed to begin composing later on, by the age of 18 she was already competing at the Prix de Rome, the preeminent composition prize.
3. Parfois, je suis triste
Unfortunately, poor health was a reoccurring theme throughout Lili's life. She had contracted pneumonia when she was 2, and never quite recovered from it: she was allowed to study composition late due to health considerations and she had to pull out of her first Prix de Rome entry due to health concerns.
4. Un poète disait
At age 19, Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, composing the winning catana of Faust et Hélène, inspired by Goethe's tragedy, in just 4 weeks in a villa without a piano. Debussy even wrote a review of it, declaring that though Lili was just 19, her experience with the techniques far exceeded that.
5. Au pied de mon lit
Though she had won the competition, she was treated poorly at Villa Medici, where she had her residency, and had no accommodations for her health. Throughout WW1 she set up a network for composers and musicians, sending music students on the frontline booklets of composition and such as her contribution to the war efforts.
6. Si tout ceci n'est qu'un pauvre rêve
Unfortunately Lili's ailing health did not improve and she soon had to leave her residency in Rome to home. By 1916 she was told that she only had 2 years to live, though she continued being a prolific composer. As her illness got worse, she went from writing her compositions herself to dictating them to be written. On March 15, 1918, she passed away in Mézy-sur-Seine. She was only 24.
7. Nous nous aimerons tant
After her passing, Nadia sought out to create the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund. Other institutions that bear her name include the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre and the Boulanger Initiative, as well as the asteroid 1181 Lilith.
8. Vous m'avez regardé avec toute votre âme
Today, Lili Boulanger still remains a rather underrated composer, though there has been an increase in performances of her works in recent years. I personally had the fortune of hearing D'un matin de printemps played live by an orchestra, though I am always on the lookout to see any performances nearby.
9. Les lilas qui avaient fleuri
Overall, Lili has a very French style to her works. A post-Romantic composer, she is most often associated with Impressionism, and I think fans of Debussy and Ravel in particular would enjoy her works. She was incredibly close to her father who passed away when she was 6, and themes of grief and sorrow and often found throughout her compositions.
10. Deux Ancolies
In terms of notable works, Sous-Bois was the first work of Lili's that was published (I believe), which was when she was 18.

There is also Faust et Hélène, the piece that won her her Prix de Rome.

(All the headings in the post are taken after section titles in Clarières dans le ciel.)

11. Par ce que j'ai souffert
Personally, I would highly recommend her psalms and the partner pieces she wrote: Psalm 24 "La terre appartient à l'Eternel", Psalm 129 "Ils m'ont assez opprimé dès ma jeunesse", and Psalm 130 "Du fond de l'abîme"; what I call the garden pieces "D'un jardin clair" and "D'un vieux jardin" ; and what I call the parts of the day pieces and among the last she wrote "D'un matin de printemps" and "D'un soir triste". Also excellent are Vieille prière bouddhique, Hymne au Soleil, and Soir sur la plaine.










12. Je garde une médaille d'elle
Overall an incredibly talented composer gone far too soon, I think she's one of music's greatest "what ifs". Between setbacks she faced due to her gender and her own health, she overcame many obstacles and left behind an incredible body of works. Her harmonies alone are to die for, and had she the time to further mature... alas.
13. Demain fera un an
In short, highly highly highly recommend Lili Boulanger as a composer. Gone too soon or not, she left behind an incredible corpus and deserves more recognition for her works.

 

[Pirioca]

Thanks for expanding my musical horizon. I never heard anything from her before.

 

[mysteric]

Thanks for expanding my musical horizon. I never heard anything from her before.

honestly I got to know her via her connection with Nadia but she truly added another level of sensibility to her pieces
I guess one of the only benefits of her only starting composing so late and passing so early is that it's easy to contextualize each piece within her corpus compared to some of her more celebrated peers where you really have to sit through quite a lot more to get that same intuition
my other out of left field recommendation is julia wolfe,
iii. protest and iv. fire from fire in my mouth, and iv. flowers from anthracite fields are just breathtaking