French composer, born in Paris in 1893 into a Conservatoire family. In 1913, at nineteen, she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, with the cantata Faust et Hélène. Chronic illness had kept her from a full conservatory training and it killed her five years later, at twenty-four, with an opera unfinished. Her sister Nadia Boulanger, who had come second in the same competition in 1908, gave up composing and spent the rest of a very long life teaching.
Lili Boulanger was a French composer and, in 1913, the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, the state composition prize that had been running since 1803. She was born in Paris on 21 August 1893 and died at Mézy-sur-Seine on 15 March 1918, aged twenty-four.
She was nineteen when she won, with a cantata called Faust et Hélène. The prize carried a residency at the Villa Medici in Rome, and she was the first woman to take it.
She had been seriously ill since the age of two, when bronchial pneumonia left her immune system permanently damaged, and she wrote everything she wrote knowing she would not live long. The mature works — the Psalm settings, Vieille prière bouddhique, the song cycle Clairières dans le ciel — were composed in about five years.
Her older sister Nadia Boulanger had entered the same competition four times and reached second place rather than first.[1] After Lili's death Nadia gave up composing and became the most influential composition teacher of the twentieth century.
Marie-Juliette Olga Boulanger, called Lili from infancy, was born in Paris on 21 August 1893 into a family that had already produced a Prix de Rome winner. Her father, Ernest Boulanger, took the prize in 1835 and taught singing at the Paris Conservatoire; he was seventy-seven when she was born. Her grandfather had been a cellist and her grandmother a singer at the Opéra-Comique. Her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya, was a Russian who had studied singing with Ernest and who used the title of princess.
Her older sister Nadia, born in 1887, entered the Conservatoire at about ten and was a serious student there while Lili was still small.
Gabriel Fauré, a family friend, tested the two-year-old Lili Boulanger at the piano and found that she had perfect pitch. She sat in on Nadia's lessons from infancy, and by five she was following scores.
At two Lili contracted bronchial pneumonia. She survived it, but it left her with a permanently compromised immune system and chronic intestinal illness — the condition is now generally identified as Crohn's disease — and she was ill for the rest of her life.
Her schooling was therefore irregular, and formal Conservatoire study was impossible for long stretches. She learned instead at home, taught partly by her sister, and taught herself organ, violin, cello, harp and piano.
Her father died in April 1900, when she was six. She was intensely attached to him, and the losses in her music — settings about grief, exile and the dead — are usually traced to that.
Lili entered the Conservatoire properly in 1909, studying counterpoint and fugue with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal, and set out deliberately to win the Prix de Rome. Her father had won it in 1835. Her sister Nadia had entered four times between 1906 and 1909 and taken the Second Grand Prix in 1908 with a cantata called La Sirène, which was not the prize either sister was after.
The competition shut its candidates up at the château of Compiègne for several weeks to write a cantata on a set text, supervised, with no outside help.[2] Lili attempted it in 1912 and had to withdraw partway through when she became ill.
She entered again in 1913, aged nineteen, and won the First Grand Prize with Faust et Hélène, a cantata for three voices and orchestra on a text drawn from Goethe.[3] The jury voted for her by a large majority. She was the first woman to take the prize in its hundred-and-ten-year history, and the result was reported around the world.
The winning cantata, on a libretto by Eugène Adenis, sets a scene from the second part of Goethe's Faust, in which Faust summons Helen of Troy and Paris appears to claim her.[4] It is scored for mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone and orchestra, runs about half an hour, and Lili Boulanger wrote it inside the few weeks the competition allowed.
It was performed in Paris later in 1913 and published soon after, and it is still the piece most often programmed alongside the Psalm settings. The writing is already recognisably hers: long modal lines, dark orchestral colour, and a quiet ending rather than a loud one.
The prize brought a residency in Rome and a publishing contract: the Italian house Ricordi offered her an annual retainer for the exclusive rights to her work. She reached the Villa Medici in March 1914 and left that summer when the war began, returning only briefly in 1916.
Her mature work is small and concentrated. Psalm 130, Du fond de l'abîme, is her largest piece, a setting of De Profundis for contralto, tenor, choir, organ and orchestra.[5] Psalm 24 and Psalm 129 are shorter and harsher. Vieille prière bouddhique sets a Buddhist text for tenor, choir and orchestra. Clairières dans le ciel is a cycle of thirteen songs on poems by Francis Jammes.
Two short orchestral pieces, D'un matin de printemps and D'un soir triste, were among the last things she finished. She was working on an opera, La Princesse Maleine, on Maeterlinck's play, when she died, and it was never completed.
The style is her own but audibly of its moment: Fauré's harmony, Debussy's colour, plainchant and modal writing, and a use of the orchestra that is spare rather than lush. What is unusual is the weight. These are pieces about death and supplication written by someone in her early twenties who knew exactly what was coming.
In 1915 Lili and Nadia founded the Comité Franco-Américain du Conservatoire, together with the American composer Blair Fairchild, to support French musicians serving at the front. It sent them letters, money and parcels, and kept a register of where they were. Lili ran much of it from her sickbed.
Her own health collapsed further. She spent her last years mostly bedridden, working when she could.
Lili Boulanger died at Mézy-sur-Seine, outside Paris, on 15 March 1918, at twenty-four. Her last work, Pie Jesu, was dictated to Nadia because she could no longer hold a pen.[6] She is buried in the family grave at Montmartre Cemetery, where Nadia was buried beside her in 1979.
In 1939 Nadia founded a memorial fund in her sister's name, which still awards a prize to young composers.
Nadia Boulanger gave up composition after her sister's death, saying that her own music was useless. She became a teacher instead, and taught Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, Astor Piazzoll[7]a and Daniel Barenboim among hundreds of others. She spent sixty years performing and promoting Lili's music.
The Prix de Rome mattered because it was the state's own measure of a composer, closed to women in practice until she took it, and her win was reported as a public event.
The music is the larger claim. Psalm 130 and Clairières dans le ciel are performed and recorded regularly now. The question people ask about her is what she would have written with a normal lifespan. She had about five working years.
Born in Paris on 21 August, daughter of the composer Ernest Boulanger, who had won the Prix de Rome in 1835, and Raissa Myshetskaya, a Russian princess who had studied singing with him.
Contracts bronchial pneumonia at two. She survives, but her immune system is permanently damaged and she is ill for the rest of her life.
Gabriel Fauré, a family friend, tests the two-year-old and finds she has perfect pitch.
Sits in on her sister Nadia's Conservatoire lessons and begins following scores at five.
Her father Ernest dies in April. She is six and intensely attached to him.
Teaches herself organ, violin, cello, harp and piano at home, her schooling broken by illness.
Enters the Paris Conservatoire properly and sets out to win the Prix de Rome.
Studies counterpoint and fugue with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal.
Composes her first songs to survive, among them Reflets and Les Sirènes.
Attempts the Prix de Rome and has to withdraw partway through when she becomes ill.
Wins the Prix de Rome in July at nineteen with the cantata Faust et Hélène, the first woman to take it in its hundred-and-ten-year history.
Faust et Hélène is performed at the Institut de France and published, and she signs a contract with the Italian house Ricordi for the exclusive rights to her work.
Takes up the residency at the Villa Medici in Rome, which the outbreak of war interrupts.
Founds the Comité Franco-Américain du Conservatoire with her sister Nadia and the American composer Blair Fairchild, to support French musicians at the front.
Returns to Rome briefly and works on the Psalm settings.
Completes Psalm 24 and Psalm 129.
Works on the opera La Princesse Maleine, on Maeterlinck's play, which she does not finish.
Completes Psalm 130, Du fond de l'abîme, her largest work, and Vieille prière bouddhique.
Writes the short orchestral pieces D'un matin de printemps and D'un soir triste.
Completes the song cycle Clairières dans le ciel, thirteen songs on poems by Francis Jammes.
Spends her last months mostly bedridden, working when she is able.
Dictates her last work, Pie Jesu, to Nadia, being too weak to hold a pen.
Dies at Mézy-sur-Seine on 15 March, aged twenty-four.
Is buried in the family grave at Montmartre Cemetery, where Nadia is buried beside her in 1979.
Nadia Boulanger gives up composing after her sister's death and turns to teaching.
Nadia begins teaching at the American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, where her students eventually include Aaron Copland and Elliott Carter.
Nadia continues to programme and record Lili's music, which she does for the rest of her life.
The fiftieth anniversary of Lili's death brings new performances and recordings.
Nadia Boulanger dies, having spent sixty years promoting her sister's work.
The centenary of Lili's birth brings a wave of recordings and a substantial revival.
The centenary of her death is marked with concerts and recordings across Europe and America.
Collaborated with · 1915–1918
The sisters served as founding secretaries of the Comité franco-américain du Conservatoire and helped produce its Gazette des classes du Conservatoire for musicians mobilized during the First World War. Nadia continued promoting and preserving Lili's music after her death.
A French composer, born in Paris in 1893 and died in 1918 at twenty-four. In 1913, aged nineteen, she became the first woman to win the Prix de Rome, the French state composition prize that had been running since 1803.
Chronic intestinal illness, now generally identified as Crohn's disease, following the bronchial pneumonia she contracted at two which left her immune system permanently damaged. She was ill for her whole life and died at twenty-four.
Psalm 130, Du fond de l'abîme, her largest work, for contralto, tenor, choir, organ and orchestra. After that the song cycle Clairières dans le ciel, thirteen settings of Francis Jammes, and the short Vieille prière bouddhique.
It was the French state's own measure of a composer, awarded since 1803, and in practice closed to women. Her father had won it in 1835 and her sister Nadia had competed four times, taking second prize in 1908 but never the first. Lili's win at nineteen was reported around the world.
Lili's older sister, born in 1887. She competed for the Prix de Rome without winning it and gave up composition after Lili died. She became the most influential composition teacher of the twentieth century, and her students included Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones and Astor Piazzolla. She promoted Lili's music for sixty years.
A small body of work composed in about five years, because illness limited her and she died at twenty-four. The main pieces are the Psalm settings, Vieille prière bouddhique, Clairières dans le ciel, the prize cantata Faust et Hélène, and an unfinished opera on Maeterlinck's La Princesse Maleine.
Studied at · 1912
Chronic illness kept Boulanger from a full Conservatoire training, but she was admitted to Paul Vidal's composition class in January 1912. She entered the Prix de Rome that year, withdrew when her health failed, and won it in 1913.
Collaborated with · 1915–1918
The sisters served as founding secretaries of the Comité franco-américain du Conservatoire and helped produce its Gazette des classes du Conservatoire for musicians mobilized during the First World War. Nadia continued promoting and preserving Lili's music after her death.
The sources below include biographies, scholarly essays, interviews, and primary materials that informed this page. They reflect both the historical record and ongoing critical conversations about Lili Boulanger and their work.
Account of both sisters' attempts at the prize and of Nadia's later career.
Broadcaster's profile used for the four-week rule of the competition and the outline of her illness.
National library essay on the 1913 competition and the press coverage of her win.
Reference article on the prize cantata, its libretto by Eugene Adenis and its scoring.
Guide to the principal works, used for the Psalms, the Jammes cycle and the late orchestral pieces.
Reference article cross-checked for the birth and death dates, the illness, the 1913 prize and the works.
Reference entry on her sister's teaching career and her promotion of Lili's music.
French research database entry on the Boulanger family and the Conservatoire years.
Catalogue entry from the French centre for women composers, used for the list of works.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Lili Boulanger page.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Lili Boulanger page.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Lili Boulanger page.
Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the Lili Boulanger page.
These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around Lili Boulanger. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.
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