Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger ( born August 21, 1893 in Paris, † March 15, 1918 in Mézy -sur -Seine ( Yvelines) near Paris ), Marie- Juliette Olga Boulanger actually, was a French composer.

Lili Boulanger was born into a traditional family of musicians. Her mother Raïssa Mychetsky (1858-1935) was a singer, her father Ernest (1815-1900) composer and her older sister Nadia composer, conductor and music educator.

Childhood and youth

The Boulanger had since the late 18th century an outstanding reputation in the city of Paris as an excellent family of musicians. In their open house, the children had to be surrounded by small at the opportunity of actors, musicians, poets, writers and visual artists. Among the close friends of the family were, inter alia, Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet and Camille Saint- Saëns.

Despite a chronic Bronchialpneumonie Lili Boulanger received early instruction in organ with Louis Vierne, piano, cello, violin and harp. She was not a registered student, but accompanied her sister Nadia sporadically - if it allowed their health - to the Conservatoire de Paris. Approximately seven years, she tried the there heard at home at the piano and began by teaching himself many things yourself. The musical conversations with their parents were as influential. On April 14, 1900 Ernest Boulanger died unexpectedly in an interview with Nadia - a shocking moment for the whole family. In order to process this stroke of fate, Lili composed of eleven years, the song La Lettre de Mort for soprano solo, which however has not been obtained. Also other works they destroyed self-critical at this early stage.

Her first public appearance as a violinist was held on 5 September 1901. Around this time, Lili also visited the composition lessons from Gabriel Fauré, met in this environment, Charles Koechlin, Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel. Through her ​​voice talent she had inherited from her mother, spoke and understood Lili Russian, German and Italian. Since she could not go to school regularly, she put herself together a literature program. In other Friends of Boulanger's, there was also Raoul Pugno, who was about Lili's musical talent so amazed that he want it to be very in her decision, composer, unconditionally supported. 1904 attracted the Boulanger in the Rue Ballu 36 below Montmartre. One of the key people in this time was the fictional character of the Princesse Maleine from the same piece of the symbolist playwright Maurice Maeterlinck: Maleine - with Lili identified the most - was a lonely princess, whose kingdom was destroyed and whose lover had to marry another princess. From this story, by and by Lili's only opera La Princesse Maleine which remained unfinished developed.

At the age of sixteen years, Lili made ​​the decision to become a composer and, as before, her father Ernest, the Grand Prix de Rome to win. It first dealt - because of the impressions in their environment - with religious music, since it was also inspired by the work of her sister Nadia as a professional organist. 1904 saw the premiere of Lili Psalm 47 by Florent Schmitt, also the compositional model for some of their later compositions for organ, orchestra and va Choir was. The goal of " Rome Prize " she pursued despite numerous disease-related interruptions, as their secondary compositional studies. In 1912, wrote vocal quartet renouveau was well received by critics.

Grand Prix de Rome

In 1912 Lili Boulanger attempted to participate in the Grand Prix de Rome, but withdrew because of health problems from the competition. Generally there to wish the musical quality of the combatants had left, the competition for this year was canceled altogether, as Lili's biographer Léonie Rosenstiel remarked. However, Lili held almost nothing about it, to carry on composing. In mid-August 1912, she presented one of her best known works, the Hymne au Soleil for mixed choir, done.

After only one year of intensive studies Lili took again the competition in 1913 for the " Prix de Rome " and won the same as the first woman ever to their composition Faust et Hélène, a cantata for tenor, baritone, mezzo-soprano and orchestra. The price was in a stay at the Villa Medici in Rome and a scholarship. She also graduated with Ricordi from a publishing contract, the future secured her an annual salary.

Almost overnight, Lili Boulanger was an international celebrity. The magazine Musica wrote about their success:

The Musical Leader (31 July 1913) announced Lili Boulanger like this:

A few weeks after the triumph of the Rome Prize, the cantata Faust et Hélène was first performed in Paris. Le Monde Musical:

While the composers were stormy and heated in the final round of the competition, Lili Boulanger brought with her ​​modest and clear appearance, their calm attitude without forcing their musicians - including Nadia Boulanger, who won the 1908 Second Grand Prix - to maximum performance that left the side of the men look childish. Their appearance and their performance had caused a sensation because now allowed in the Villa Medici also a composer, living and working. 1913 Lili thus won not only a scholarship there, but in Paris and a grant from the Foundation Yvonne de Gouy d' Arzy and the Prix Lepaulle for their compositions renouveau and pour les Funérailles d'un Soldat.

Disease and recent works

After many more concerts Lili's power, however, was quickly depleted: in winter 1913, Lili stuck with Nadia with measles, she fell ill in addition to a previously entered in evidence gastrointestinal disease and severe pneumonia. During this period, Lili also realized how much her ​​life was hanging by a thread - from now on she composed as in feverish haste, because she had the feeling that they are not old. Although Lili could begin their stay in Rome even more, her life there but due to the health variations not continue. With the mobilization on 1 August 1914 the First World War, the crowd of students in Rome in October 1914 then dispersed completely.

With her ​​best friend Miki Piré that used wounded in Nice at Hôpital du Grand- Hôtel, Lili worked charitable, led by brisk soldiers with musical letter contacts or incurred in their field works corrected. When she felt how much the soldiers needed their attention and assistance, she founded together with her sister Nadia, the Comité Franco - Americain du Conservatoire and revised by the way of going to press their older works. 1916 Lili learned from her doctor that her illness was very advanced and they had probably only live for about two years. Again and again raided Lili great pain and fever; an appendectomy on July 31, 1917 should bring relief of symptoms, but the opposite was the case: during surgery, the doctors discovered that Lily's gut was already destroyed.

From his correspondence with Miki Piré some letters received expressing Lili's love, gratitude and brave attitude:

Only with the greatest difficulty they could hold less upright. During this time she completed one of its largest and most important works, the Pie Jesu - Requiem as it were their own - for soprano, string quartet, harp, organ and orchestra, their favorite instruments. Lili had become so physically weak that they could only dictate the last lines of her sister Nadia. In this way also emerged yet D' un soir triste and small parts of La Princesse Maleine. Since Paris was at that time in the north and east under heavy artillery fire, the Boulanger decided to bring Lili after Mézy -sur -Seine, where she was cared for devotedly by Miki Piré and Nadia.

Lili Boulanger died after Nadia's descriptions peacefully and resolved on 15 March 1918. On March 19, she was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery. At her funeral Nadia wrote the work Lux aeterna for soprano, strings, harp and organ, which made them to each behave a year end date of death. Nadia Boulanger sat tirelessly for a performance of music by her sister one, but it was only in the 1960s, Lili's works with the help of recordings were again publicly known. Marc Blitzstein, author of the magazine Saturday Review, commented on 28 May 1960 on the Weltureinspielungen some works Lili Boulanger following dimensions:

Appreciation

Nadia Boulanger introduced the works of her sister in 1962 under her leadership with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, which she had already in 1939 as the first woman ever conducted. In 1965, the Association Les Amis de Lili Boulanger founded with the task of making their work known and to provide scholarships to young composers. On August 16, 1971, these foundation received the official recognition of the French government to honor its members, inter alia, Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, George Auric, Marc Chagall, Marcel Dupré, Yehudi Menuhin, Olivier Messiaen, Darius Milhaud, Arthur Rubinstein and Igor Stravinsky included. Yehudi Menuhin and Clifford Curzon also played for the first time a Lili's Nocturne, Cortège and D'un Matin de Printemps. 1968 organized by the Friends of an exhibition and a few concerts in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, which also Lili's artistic estate and some personal items are located. On October 15, 1970, the intersection of Rue Ballu was named the Rue Ventimiglia to Place Lili Boulanger -. Two years earlier, on 17 October 1968 a memorial plaque was attached to the residence of the Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger in the more lived, taught and died on 22 October 1979. Meanwhile, Lili Boulanger is considered most performed composer and one of the main characters of French Impressionism.

Works (selection)

Vocal music

• Renouveau (T: Armand Silvestre ) for choir and piano / orchestra (1911 )
• Les Sirènes (T: Ch Grandmougin ) for mezzo- soprano, choir and piano / orchestra (1911 )
• Reflets (T: Maurice Maeterlinck ) for voice and piano (1911 )
• Sous- bois (T: Ph. Gilles ) for choir and piano / orchestra (1911 )
• Fredegonde (T: Ch Morel ), cantata for 3 voices and piano (1911 )
• Attente (T: Maurice Maeterlinck ) for voice and piano (1912 )
• Hymne au soleil (T: Casimir Delavigne ) for alto, chorus and piano (1912 ), reconstruction of the orchestral version of Oliver Korte (2003)
• Pendant la tempête (T: Th Gautier ) for male choir and piano (1912 )
• Le Retour (T: G. Delaquys ) for voice and piano (1912 )
• La Source (T: Charles -Marie -René Leconte de Lisle ) for choir and piano / orchestra (1912 )
• Pour les funérailles d'un soldat (T: A. de Musset ) for baritone, choir and piano / orchestra (1912 )
• Soir sur la plaine (T: Albert Samain ) for soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus and piano (1913 )
• Faust et Hélène (T: Eugène Adenis ), cantata for tenor, baritone, mezzo-soprano and orchestra ( 1913)
• Clarières dans le ciel (T: Francis Jammes ) for voice and piano (1914 )
• Psaume 24 for choir, organ and orchestra (1916 )
• Psaume 129 for baritone, chorus and orchestra (1916 )
• Dans l' immense tristesse (T: B. Galeron de calone ) for voice and piano (1916 )
• Psaume 130 you fond de l' abîme for alto and tenor solo, choir, organ and orchestra ( 1917)
• Vieille Prière bouddhique for tenor, chorus and orchestra (1917 )
• Pie Jesu for voice, string quartet, harp, organ and orchestra (1918 )

Instrumental music

• Nocturne for violin, flute and piano (1911 )
• Fugue (1912 )
• Fugue (1913 )
• D'un jardin clair for piano (1914 ), arranged for orchestra by Oliver Korte (1999)
• D'un vieux jardin for Piano (1914 ), arranged for orchestra by Oliver Korte (1999)
• Cortège for Violin or Flute and Piano ( 1914), arranged for orchestra by Oliver Korte (1999)
• Thème et variations for piano (1915 )
• D'un matin de printemps for violin or flute and piano or for orchestra, Nocturne (1918 )
• D' un soir triste for cello and piano, for trio or orchestra ( 1918)