Lili Boulanger
Marie-Juliette 'Boulanger, professionally known as Lili Boulanger', was a French composer and musician who was the first female winner of the Grand Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger; their father was the composer Ernest 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, was a Russian princess 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, was a famous mezzo-soprano.Boulanger often accompanied her ten-year-old sister Nadia 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 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.
When Lili was born their father Ernest made her older sister Nadia promise that she would be responsible for her new baby sister’s welfare. At this moment their father explained that Nadia was now an adult in her parent’s eyes even though she was only 6 years old. Nadia swore to the agreement and it led to Lili being severely influenced by Nadia. Through their childhood Nadia would receive lessons and Lili would tag along. Listening quietly, she attentively picked up all of the information she could. Nadia’s pursuit of the Prix de Rome also led to Lili to do the same which inevitably led Lili to becoming the first woman ever to win the prestigious award.
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. Faust et Hélène had many performances during her lifetime. Consequently, she gained a contract with the music publisher 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 read. 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."
The Gazette des classes de composition du Conservatoire
In 1915, Lili and Nadia Boulanger created the Franco-American Committee of the Conservatoire to help connect students and alumni of the Paris Conservatory by the writing of letters and exchanging of parcels. It began as a small exchange of letters between Lili and her closest colleagues but quickly grew into a regular newsletter; a Gazette. She began The Gazette des classes de composition du Conservatoire as a founding secretary with Nadia under the patronage of Whitney Warren. The gazette began as a “circular letter” which asked a collection of musicians from the Paris Conservatory to regularly write into the Committee to be sent back out as a newsletter. The first circular letter received 51 responses in October, 1915 and was published as a newsletter the following month as the 1st issue. They included all members in alphabetical order with their letters listed as well as an illustration by Jacques Debat-Ponsan. The Gazette ended in 1918 shortly after the death of Lili. During its lifetime the gazette received over 1,600 letters from 316 students and graduates; issuing 12 issues in total. These were only recently published by the Bibliothèque nationale de France with the 12th letter never being made public.Illness and death
Boulanger suffered from chronic illness: at two, she was infected with bronchial pneumonia, weakening her immune system; it would eventually lead to the intestinal tuberculosis that would kill her at 24. Although fond of travelling 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".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 encored. 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 ; 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, accompanied by organ and brass ensemble, timpani and 2 harps. Boulanger's score uses brass fanfares and homophonic 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.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, 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. Boulanger's psalms convey her Catholic faith. It has been suggested that the work was composed in reaction to World War I. The work is for a large orchestra including a sarrusophone.''Pie Jesu''
Lili Boulanger finished this Pie Jesu, 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." As noted by her sister, Nadia, she dictated the work to her. Scholars such as biographer Léonie Rosenstiel and Olivia Mattis 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, accompanied by a large orchestra consisting of: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, sarrusophone + 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 4 trombones, tuba + tympani, cymbals, bass drum + celesta + 2 harps, strings. Composed during 1914–1917, it was, as many of her works, not performed until after World War I, in 1921. This work is not based within Catholicism, as her psalms were. Rather, it sets the text of a Buddhist daily prayer. James Briscoe notes that this work shows similarities to Stravinsky but also anticipates the next generation of composers.''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.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. Previous winners have included Alexei Haieff, Noël Lee, Wojciech Kilar, Robert D. Levin and Andy Akiho.In April 1965, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association was created in Paris; this organization became the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre 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.