Synopsis
On today’s date in 1893, French composer Lili Boulanger was born in Paris.
In 1913, when she was 20, Boulanger became the first woman to win the prestigious Prix de Rome for her cantata Faust and Helen, an achievement which was headline news in those days. Her father, Ernst, had he lived to see it, would have been especially proud, since he too, was a composer and had won the Prix de Rome in 1835.
The Boulangers were a remarkably talented family, it seems, and it’s one of music history’s saddest “what-might-have-beens” to consider what Lili might have accomplished if she had lived as long as her gifted older sister, Nadia, who died at 92 after a long career as the world’s most famous composition teacher. Nadia could count among her pupils several generations of famous American composers, ranging from Aaron Copland to Philip Glass.
Boulanger suffered from Crohn’s disease, and died at just 24, in 1918. Despite her frail health and tragically short life, she left behind a small body of vocal and instrumental works that are still performed. Her Psalm settings in particular are admired for their solemnity and deep spirit.
Music Played in Today's Program
Lili Boulanger (1893-1918): D’un Matin de Printemps; Olivier Charlier, violin; Emile Naoumoff, piano; Marco Polo 8.223636
On This Day
Births
1893 - French composer Lili Boulanger, in Paris. She was the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), the famous French composition teacher.
1927 - German composer Willhelm Killmayer, in Munich
Deaths
1951 - British composer and writer Constant Lambert, 45, in London
Premieres
1966 - Creston: Pavane Variations at the La Jolla Music Festival in California
Others
1800 - The U.S. Marine Band presented its first public concert in Washington, D.C., on a hill overlooking the Potomac, near the future site of the Lincoln Memorial
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.