Marie-Juliette Boulanger
Biography
Early years
Born in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, Boulanger's prodigiousness was apparent at a very young age: at two, she was already singing melodies by ear and learnt how to read
sheet music before the alphabet.
Her parents, both musicians, encouraged their daughter's musical education: her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya (Mischetzky) (1858–1935), was a Russian princess (born in
Saint Petersburg) who married her vocal teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris, Ernest Boulanger, who won the Prix de Rome in 1835. Ernest Boulanger was 77 years old when she was born and she became very attached to him. Her paternal grandfather Frédéric Boulanger had been a noted cellist; her grandmother, Marie-Julie Halligner (her
eponym), was a famous
mezzo-soprano.
Boulanger often accompanied her ten-year-old sister Nadia Boulanger to classes at the Paris Conservatoire, shortly thereafter auditing classes on music theory and studying organ with Louis Vierne. She also sang and played piano, violin, cello and harp. Her teachers included Marcel Tournier and Alphonse Hasselmans for harp, Hélène Chaumont (mother of Madeleine Chaumont) for piano and Fernand Luquin for violin. However, Lili herself was barred from working on her musical studies due to pneumonia lasting from the ages of six through sixteen. After much waiting, Boulanger embarked to study harmony with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal at the Conservatoire de Paris. Whilst she studied under numerous noted pedagogues at the institution, she was primarily backed by one devoted supporter—her sister Nadia.
Career: Prix de Rome and after
In 1912, Boulanger competed in the
Prix de Rome, but during the performance of her cantata
Maïa, she collapsed from illness. She would return the following year aged nineteen, and composed a
cantata:
Faust et Hélène; consequently, she would become the first woman to win first prize. Its text was written by Eugène Adenis based on Goethe's
Faust (though his text has been subject to much scrutiny).
had many performances during her lifetime.
Consequently, she gained a contract with the music publisher
Casa Ricordi.
Nadia Boulanger had given up entering the Prix de Rome after four unsuccessful attempts and focused her attention on her role as assistant in Henri Dallier's organ class at the Conservatoire, where Lili studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with Paul Vidal and Georges Caussade under its director Gabriel Fauré—the latter of whom was impressed by her talents and frequently brought songs for her to Sight-reading. Boulanger was greatly affected by the 1900 death of her father; many of her works touch on themes of grief, loss and longing. Her work was noted for its colourful harmony and instrumentation and skilful text-setting. Aspects of Fauré and Claude Debussy can be heard in her compositions; later composers, such Arthur Honegger, were influenced by her innovations.
According to Caroline Potter, "The two sisters were both influenced by Debussy, and it appears they had similar literary tastes to the elder composer. Both sisters set poems by Maurice Maeterlinck, who was the author of the play Pelléas and Mélisande and also of Princesse Maleine; in February 1916, Maeterlinck authorised Lili to set the latter play as an opera. Allegedly, Lili had almost completed the opera before her death, though only the short score of act 1, scene 2, two versions of the libretto, and a sketchbook have survived."
Illness and death
Boulanger suffered from chronic illness: at two, she was infected with
pneumonia, weakening her immune system; it would eventually lead to the intestinal tuberculosis that would kill her at 24.
Although fond of travelling (and having completed several works in Italy after winning the Prix de Rome) her failing health forced her to return home: there, she and her sister organised efforts to support French soldiers during World War I. Her last years were musically productive: she laboured to complete various works. Her death left the opera
La princesse Maleine, on which she had spent most of her last years, unfinished.
She died in Mézy-sur-Seine on 15 March 1918; afterwards, she was buried in a tomb at the Montmartre Cemetery. Nadia was buried alongside her in 1979; the sisters lie next to their parents.
Music
Raised in a time of musical transition, Boulanger's music fits easily into what was becoming defined as a post-Romantic style. Like Debussy, Boulanger associated herself more with Symbolism than
Impressionism, with her music featuring the sense of obscurity and indirection more common in Symbolism.
However, she also “explored the ‘Impressionists’ palette of nonfunctional seventh and ninth chords, parallel chords, and modal progressions”.
While much of Boulanger’s music reflects the feelings of solitude and alienation beginning to emerge during the twentieth century, it also reveals her own struggles with depression and loneliness caused by her long-term illness.
She often set poetry conveying a profound sense of despondence and melancholy, for instance from
Francis Jammes'
Clairières dans le ciel: "Nothing more. I have nothing more, nothing to sustain me” and “I seem to feel a weeping within me, a heavy, silent sobbing, someone who is not there" (from the final song,
Demain fera un an).
Style and innovation
Les sirènes
Les sirènes, for solo
soprano and three-part choir, sets a text by Charles Grandmougin. Composed in 1911, it was premièred at one of her mother's exclusive musical gatherings. Auguste Mangeot, a critic from the Paris music journal
Le Monde Musicale, reported that it was so well-received that it was
Encore. A practice piece for the
Prix de Rome,
Les sirènes exhibits the firm grounding in academic technique taught at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Grandmougin's poem deals with sirens, mythological creatures that sing to seduce sailors to steer closer; when they do, the sirens devour them. From the introduction through twenty-eight measures, a pedal tone on F combined with ascending C octaves evoke the sirens' hypnosis.
It is dedicated to Jane Bathori.
Psalms
Boulanger composed three psalm settings: Psalms 24, 129 and 130.
Psalm 24
Psalm 24 is subtitled
La terre appartient à l'Eternel ("The earth dost belong to the Eternal"); it was composed in 1916, while she was resident in Rome. The work is dedicated to
Jules Griset, who was the director of Choral Guillot de Saint-Brice.
Durand published the work in 1924. The work is scored for choir (consisting of soprano, alto, tenor and bass), accompanied by organ and brass ensemble (consisting of 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, 1 tuba), timpani and 2 harps.
Boulanger's score uses brass
and
Homophony choral passages: the contrast of sections contrast to the style of her 1912 Prix de Rome-winning cantata,
Faust et Hélène, as heard in Yan Pascal Tortelier's recording.
[Lili Boulanger, 'Faust et Hélène, D'un matin de printemps, D'un soir triste, Psaume 130, Psaume 24', CD, cond. Yan Pascal Tortelier, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus (1999) Chandos CHAN9745.]
Psalm 129
Psalm 129 was also composed in 1916 in Rome. This psalm is much longer than Psalm 24 and is scored for full orchestra.
The premiere performance was held at the
Salle Pleyel in 1921, conducted by Henri Busser.
Psalm 130
Du fond de l'abîme (Psalm 130:
De Profundis / "Out of the depths"), composed for voice and orchestra, is dedicated to the memory of her father, as noted at the top of the score.
The work, completed when Boulanger was aged only twenty-two, sounds mature and conveys a developed compositional style.
[Lili Boulanger: Psalm 130 (Du fond de l'abîme), Psalms 24 & 129, Vieille Priere bouddhique; Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms; London Symphony Orchestra, The Monteverdi Choir, Sally Bruce-Payne (mezzo soprano), Julian Podger (baritone), cond. John Eliot Gardiner; Deutsche Grammophon CD B000068PHA (2002).] Boulanger's psalms convey her
Catholic faith.
[ It has been suggested that the work was composed in reaction to World War I.][Ristow, Gregory Carylton. (2011) "Contextualizing Lili Boulanger's Psalm 130: Du fond de l'abîme: Music, War and Politics with a re-orchestration for performance in halls without organ." DMA diss., University of Rochester.] The work is for a large orchestra including a sarrusophone.
Pie Jesu
Lili Boulanger finished this Pie Jesu (1918), scored for high voice, string quartet, harp and organ, towards the end of her life, but "the first of Lili Boulanger's sketches for the Pie Jesu are to be found in a composition book she used between 1909 and 1913."[Léonie Rosenstiel, The Life and Works of Lili Boulanger (Cranbury, NJ: Associated UPs 1978), 200.] As noted by her sister, Nadia, she dictated the work to her.[Mattis, Olivia, 1993. "Lili Boulanger - Polytoniste." In Lili Boulanger-Tage 1993. Bremen zum 100. Geburtstag der Komponisten : Konzerte und Veranstaltungen, edited by Kathrin Mosler, 48-51. Callas/Zeichen und Spuren.] speculate that Boulanger intended to write a complete Requiem but did not live to complete it.
Vieille prière bouddhique
This work, "Old Buddhist Prayer", is written for tenor and chorus (soprano, alto, tenor and bass), accompanied by a large orchestra consisting of: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets (B♭), bass clarinet (B♭), 2 bassoons, sarrusophone + 4 horns (F), 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba + tympani, cymbals, bass drum + celesta + 2 harps, strings.
D'un soir triste
This symphonic poem was the last work Boulanger was able to compose by her own hand, without help in writing.
D'un matin de printemps
This instrumental work is one of the last pieces Lili Boulanger completed. Different arrangements were produced including a version for violin, for flute, and for piano, another for piano trio, and another for orchestra. Although she finished both these instrumental works, her sister Nadia reportedly edited the works to add dynamics and performance directions.
List by year
|
| Sous bois | 1911 | Choir (SATB) and piano | Philippe Gille |
| Nocturne | 1911 | Violin and piano | N/A |
| Renouveau | 1911 | Vocal quartet (SATT) and piano/orchestra | Armand Silvestre |
| Les sirènes | 1911 | Soprano, chorus and piano | Charles Grandmougin |
| Reflets | 1911 | Voice and piano | Maurice Maeterlinck |
| Prélude | 1911 | Piano; in D-flat major | N/A |
| Attente | 1912 | Voice and piano/orchestra | Maurice Maeterlinck |
| Hymne au Soleil | 1912 | Contralto, chorus and piano | Casimir Delavigne |
| Le Retour | 1912 | Voice and piano | Georges Delaquys |
| Pour les funérailles d'un soldat | 1912 | Baritone, chorus and piano | Alfred de Musset |
| Soir sur la plaine | 1913 | Soprano, tenor and orchestra | Albert Samain |
| Faust et Hélène | 1913 | Mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and orchestra | Eugène Adenis |
| D'un jardin clair | 1914 | Piano | N/A |
| D'un vieux jardin | 1914 | Piano | N/A |
| Cortège | 1914 | Violin and piano | N/A |
| Clairières dans le ciel | 1914 | Voice and piano | Francis Jammes |
| Psaume 24 | 1916 | Chorus, organ and orchestra | David |
| Psaume 129 | 1916 | Baritone and orchestra | Anonymous: Biblical Psalms |
| Dans l'immense tristesse | 1916 | Voice and piano | |
| Psaume 130 | 1917 | Two solo voices, chorus, organ and orchestra | David |
| Vieille prière bouddhique | 1917 | Tenor, chorus and orchestra | Anonymous: extract from the Metta Sutta |
| D'un matin de printemps | 1918 | Violin and piano | N/A |
| Pie Jesu | 1918 | Voice, string quartet, harp and organ | |
| D'un soir triste | 1918 | Orchestra | N/A |
Legacy
In March 1939, Nadia Boulanger with the help of American friends created the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund. It has two objectives: to perpetuate Boulanger's music and memory and to financially support talented musicians. The Lili fund does not accept applications for its annual competition, but a list of candidates is produced by a group of nominators selected each year by the Board of Trustees. Each nominator can then propose a candidate for the prize. The Fund then awards the Prix Lili Boulanger to one of these candidates. The University of Massachusetts Boston curates the fund.
In April 1965, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association was created in Paris; this organization became the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre ( CNLB) in 2009.
Joy-Leilani Garbutt and Laura Colgate, two Washington, DC, musicians, started the Boulanger Initiative in 2018 to support music composed by women, in honor of Lili and Nadia Boulanger.
The asteroid 1181 Lilith was named in honour of Boulanger.
Notes
External links
