The Unfinished Life of Lili Boulanger

By Lisa Barksdale

In the year 1913, French music reviewer Émile Vuillermoz wrote:

Several months ago, in this column, I warned musicians of the imminence of the ‘Pink Peril:’ events have not hesitated to prove me right. Madamoiselle Lili Boulanger has just triumphed in the last Prix de Rome competition over all its male contestants, and has carried off the Grand Prize with an authority, a speed, and an ease apt to seriously disturb the candidates who, for long years, cried tears and sweated blood while laboriously approaching this goal. Do not be fooled: this deed stands on its own merits. Not only did the gallantry of the judges not intervene to facilitate her victory, but it could be said that they were stricter with this young girl of nineteen than with her competition. The misogyny of the jury was known. […] And it required all the crushing weight and indisputable authority of this woman’s work to triumph over the student’s homework that surrounded it.”

It’s a statement that reveals a lot about the musical world surrounding Lili Boulanger, about her talent, and about the immensity of her accomplishment in shattering the glass ceiling of the prestigious Prix de Rome prize for composition. It also reveals something significant about what was required of her in order to do it – to write something that was indisputably, beyond the shadow of a doubt, worlds better than all her competitors, so that no juror could be accused of the sin of “gallantry.”

While Mr. Vuillermoz’s statement implies that she triumphed with “ease,” Lili’s path to victory was not without struggle, and sadly a close examination of her life inevitably leads me to ask the question I often ask when studying the lives of the women composers of European classical music – What might have been if not for…? Of course, that’s also a question Jeff will be asking about Debussy. Perhaps it’s a question that could be asked about all artists. But when it comes to looking at the lives of women in the story of music, it seems like those “if not fors” too often became insurmountable obstacles. Thank goodness for Lili Boulanger, they were not entirely.

Lili Boulanger was born to a musical family and soon revealed herself to be the definition of a child prodigy. She tagged along with her older sister Nadia Boulanger (whose name has more widespread recognition among musicians, as she became the composition teacher to many composing giants of the 20th century – Google her) for music lessons with composer Gabriel Faure. Lili learned to play several instruments, including piano, violin, and harp. Her composition skills and passion for music were unquestionable, but her health was poor for her entire life, likely due to a chronic battle with what is now known as Crohn’s disease. Because of her poor health and the death of her father early in her life, Lili’s mother encouraged her to pursue a career through which she might be able to support herself, knowing she was unlikely to marry with the severity of her health issues.

In fact, her first attempt at winning the Prix de Rome ended in a collapse that took her out of the competition, making her second attempt at the competition all the more breathtaking. That win earned her a publishing contract, which allowed her to establish a living for herself and to share a handful of compositions until she passed away peacefully (due to her ongoing battle with Crohn’s) at the tragically young age of 24, in 1918.

While Lili’s short life forces us to ask what we lost by her too-soon departure, the music of hers that we do have is well worth immersing ourselves in. Given the constraints of her short life, health challenges, and World War I, what she was able to accomplish in her music is to be deeply admired. She was especially known for her skills at orchestration and her rich harmonic language featured in orchestral and choral works. But even in the two short pieces featured in this Sonata Series performance – Nocturne and Cortège – you get a small taste of her voice and language as a composer. The Nocturne takes clear inspiration from Debussy, setting a contemplative mood, while the Cortège counterbalances with a playful march.

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Lisa Barksdale, violinist, is a Resident Musician at Community MusicWorks and Program Coordinator for the Daily Orchestra Program. Read her bio on our website.

Find a detailed chronicle of Lili Boulanger’s life, with links to key pieces in her legacy here.

Hear Boulanger’s work performed by Lisa Barksdale and Jeffrey Louis in this CMW Sonata Series event on YouTube.