Marie-Juliette Olga, also known as Lili, was a female composer and child progeny. Born to a family blessed with musical talent she used her short life to compose and inspire many to come all while dealing with Crohn’s disease. But for all her talent, she is relatively still unknown.
Lili Boulanger was born on 21 August 1893 in Paris, France to Ernest Bolanger and Russian princess Raissa Myshetskaya. Ernest was 62 when he married Lili’s mother and was 72 years old when Nadia, Lili’s elder sister was born – 79 when Lili herself was born. Her parents had met at the Paris Conservatoire where he was a teacher, and she a student. Her father died in 1899 when both children were still young and this loss would feature heavily in her work.
Lili was a child musical progeny. At the age of two the composer Gabriel Fauré – a friend of the family – spotted that she had perfect pitch. Her sister Nadia was her first teacher before she moved into the tutelage of Paul Vidal, Georges Caussade, and Gabriel Fauré—the last of whom was greatly impressed by her talents and frequently brought songs for her to read. Lili, not wanting just to have perfect pitch, could also play piano, violin, cello, harp and organ as well as sing.
However, as well as being found to have perfect pitch at the age of two, she also contracted bronchial pneumonia. She survived, but the illness left her immune system weakened for the rest of her life leaving her constantly ill with intestinal tuberculosis (now called Crohn’s Disease) Because of her frail health, she relied entirely on private study since she was too weak to obtain a full music education at the Conservatoire.
Despite her ill health, Lili was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious honour for artists. It was a prize, first awarded in the 17th century, that allowed the winner to live in Rome for three to five years, all expenses paid and it wasn’t until the 19th century when it was awarded to a composer for the first time. When her father was 20 he himself won the prize.
In 1913 Lili entered her piece Faust et Hélène which was based on a poem by Eugène Adenis (itself based on Goethe’s Faust) tells the story of Faust, the man seduced by the power offered by Mephistopheles. It is a thirty-minute cantata for choir and orchestra, featuring solo parts for mezzo-soprano, tenor and baritone. The piece is all the more impressive when you consider the rules of the competition stated that the piece had to be written in four weeks. The piece won her the prize. However, the judges couldn’t quite bear to let her enjoy the honour on her own. So they also awarded first prize that year to Claude Delvincourt, a French pianist.
LISTEN HERE
Due to Lili’s quick rise to fame, she signed a contract with Ricordi (an Italian Publishing house) that offered her an annual income in return for the right or first refusal on publication of her compositions. While in Rome, she finished several compositions including the song cycle, Clairières dans le ciel.
Her study in Rome however, was cut short by the outbreak of World War I. On her return to Paris, she founded an organisation which offered material and moral support to musicians fighting in the war.
In 1916 Lili returned to Rome to finish her studies and began working on her five-act opera La Princesse Maleine, as well as her large-scale settings of Psalms 129 and 130. Unfortunately, a rapid decline in her health forced her to leave Rome and return once again to France. In the final two years of her life she concentrated her energy on finishing the compositions she had begun in Rome. When she was 24 she wrote Pie Jesu on her sickbed, dictating the piece to her sister, Nadia. The text asks Jesus to grant someone ‘everlasting rest’ and it is a deeply emotional and personal work that has been described as her own Requiem.
Lili’s Notable Works:
Du fond de l’abîme (1914-17). This was based on Psalm 130, in which the writer calls out to God from the depths of human suffering, hoping for, expecting, and insisting on God’s hearing. The piece stayed on Lili’s writing desk for a long while, largely due to the outbreak of war. The work is arranged for contralto, tenor, chorus, organ and orchestra. (LISTEN HERE)
Vieille Prière Bouddhique (1914-17) – This was her take on a Buddhist prayer. It has been described as an intensely spiritual work, and remains one of the composer’s greatest accomplishments and sits in quite stark contrast to the more nihilistic Du fond de l’abîme. (LISTEN HERE)
La princesse Maleine (1916-18) – The writer Maurice Maeterlinck was no stranger to his works being taken on by composers. Maeterlinck’s La princesse Maleine, however, was one piece he was quite protective of. In fact the only composer he allowed to take it on was Lili Boulanger. It’s said she identified greatly with Maleine, but progress on the five-act opera was slow and she struggled to complete the work. Only fragments of it remain, which leads most scholars to believe it went unfinished.
D’un soir triste / D’un matin de printemps (1917-18) – This two-part work was completed just a couple of months before Lili’s death in 1918, the first half being the moving portrait D’un soir triste (Of a sad evening) – originally arranged the piece for cello and piano. The second half, D’un matin de printemps (Of a spring morning), is the “sprightlier” of the two works, and was originally arranged for flute/violin and piano.
D’un soir triste – LISTEN HERE
D’un matin de printemps – LISTEN HERE
Sadly, Lili died on March 15, 1918 in Mézy-sur-Seine, France from tuberculosis. She was buried in Paris, in the Cimetière de Montmartre. Her sister, Nadia, was so affected by her sibling’s death that she stopped composing and turned her attention to teaching. Nadia went on to become one of the most renowned teachers of the 20th century and taught composers including Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Thea Musgrave, Leonard Bernstein and Philip Glass.
Lili lived a short life that was plagued with illness. Despite this she created beautiful pieces of music and inspired not only her family but others too. Her work is still used today and had she lived longer, who knows what other pieces she would have created.
Author: Emily Brown
Sources:
https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/lili-boulanger/
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/c.asp?c=C82
https://www.classical-music.com/features/articles/six-best-works-lili-boulanger/
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