A fresh look at the career of Nadia Boulanger, among the most influential musical figures of the entire twentieth century.

Although she was a performer, a composer, and a conductor of some of the world's great orchestras, it was through her genius as a pedagogue that Nadia Boulanger won renown. Venerated, feared, or opposed, she was as famous as the most prestigious performers, or the best-known conductors. And for the first three-quarters of this century, a host of musicians, young and old, crowded around Boulanger's piano where, with rigor and passion, she revealed a musical universe previously unknown to them. Jerome Spycket's biographical work (originally published in French by Editions Payot, Lausanne, on the centenary of Boulanger's birth) explores the eminent teacher's life through certain key events and through those that formed her circle (Faure, Milhaud, Stravinsky, and Poulenc, to name but a few). A wealth of photographs provides a striking visual history, from the salon of the rue Ballu, to l'Ecole de Fountainebleau, to Boulanger conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. The spirit of this remarkable musical force shines through on every page. The wide scope of Jerome Spycket's interests, activities, and tastes infuse his writing with a spirited vitality. He brings to his subjects an independence and a search for truth, providing a genuinely analytical approach to the material. His first biography, Clara Haskil, won an Academie Francaise award and has been translated into several languages. Awarded a prize for literature by the Academie des Beaux-Arts was the original French edition of this work on Boulanger.

The strange fate of Boulanger and Pugno's La ville morte /Alexandra Laederich --Serious ambitions : Nadia Boulanger and the composition of La ville morte /Jeanice Brooks, Kimberly Francis --From the trenches : extracts from the final issue of the Paris Conservatory Gazette /translated by Anna Lehman --From technique to musique : the institutional pedagogy of Nadia Boulanger /Marie Duchêne-Thégarid --Nadia Boulanger's 1935 Carte du tendre --36 rue Ballu : a multifaceted place /Cédric Segond-Genovesi --"What an arrival!" : Nadia Boulanger's New world (1925) --Modern French music : translating Fauré in America, 1925-1945 /Jeanice Brooks --For Nadia Boulanger : five poems by May Sarton --Friend and force : Nadia Boulanger's presence in Polish musical culture /Andrea F. Bohlman, J. Mackenzie Pierce --"What awaits them now?" : a letter to Paris /Zygmunt Mycielski --A letter from Professor Nadia Boulanger /translated by J. Mackenzie Pierce --The Beethoven lectures for the Longy School /translated by Miranda Stewart --Boulanger and atonality : a reconsideration /Kimberly Francis --Why music? Aesthetics, religion, and the ruptures of modernity in the life and work of Nadia Boulanger /Leon Botstein.

The first collection ever of essays and reviews by the renowned pedagogue, composer, and conductor, providing fresh perspectives on her musical influence and impact. The impact of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) on twentieth-century music was vast: as composer, keyboard performer, conductor, impresario, and pedagogue. Her extensive musical networks included figures such as Fauré, Stravinsky, and Poulenc, and her advocacy helped establish the compositions of her sister Lili Boulanger. Few today realize, though, that Boulanger wrote numerous essays and reviews at various times in her career. These offer unparalleled insight into her thinking and illuminate aspects of musical culture in Europe and America from the rare point of view of an internationally prominent female artist. Nadia Boulanger: Thoughts on Music provides a translation and critical edition of selected writings chosen for their quality and interest. The previously published articles and essays have never been reissued since their original appearance; the remaining materials are presented to readers here for the first time. The volume renders all these materials widely available, providing an important new resource for teaching and scholarship on twentieth-century music as well as an engaging collection of musical essays for the general reader.

Pioneers in their fields and two of the best-known women in music in the twentieth century, Nadia and Lili Boulanger have previously been considered in isolation from one another. Yet, as Caroline Potter's new book demonstrates, their careers were closely linked during Lili Boulanger's short life (1893-1918) and there are several intriguing connections between their musical works. This biography also provides the first full analysis of the Boulanger sisters' musical styles, placing them within the context of French musical history. Their lives are also a case study in the issues of gender which surround music making even to the present day. Despite an unusually privileged upbringing, Nadia and Lili Boulanger exemplify the struggle women experienced when attempting to enter the professional music world. Lili became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in 1913, and Nadia gained second place in 1908. Yet in spite of this initial success, Nadia Boulanger was to give up composing in her thirties and devoted the remainder of her long life to teaching. Her pupils included several of the great composers of the century, including Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter. This book, focusing on their musical careers, is essential reading for anyone interested in French music of the twentieth century.