Marie Juliette Boulanger (French: [maʁi ʒyljɛt bulɑ̃ʒe]; 21 August 1893 – 15 March 1918), professionally known as Lili Boulanger (French: [lili bulɑ̃ʒe]), was a French composer and musician connected to the Symbolist and Impressionist movements. She was the first woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome composition competition. Her older sister was Nadia Boulanger, a composer and music teacher, and their father was Ernest Boulanger, a composer.
Although her career was short, critics, composers, and audiences have highly praised her works for their mature, thoughtful, unique, and creative qualities. Her notable works include three psalms for chorus and orchestra, the song-cycle Clairières dans le ciel (based on poems by Francis Jammes), the diptych D'un soir triste and D'un matin de printemps, Vieille prière bouddhique, Pie Jesu, the Prix de Rome cantata Faust et Hélène, and other compositions.
Biography
Marie Juliette Boulanger was born on August 21, 1893, to a musical family in the ninth district of Paris. Her mother was Raïssa Ivanovna Myshetskaya, a Russian princess from Saint Petersburg who was descended from Michael of Chernigov. In 1877, Myshetskaya married Ernest Boulanger, her vocal teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris. They had first met in her hometown. Ernest had won the Prix de Rome in 1835. By the time Marie was born, Ernest was 77 years old. She was very close to her father. Her paternal grandfather, Frédéric Boulanger, was a famous cellist, though he left his family. Her grandmother, Marie-Julie Halligner, was a well-known mezzo-soprano. To avoid confusion with her grandmother, Marie was nicknamed Lili. All the Boulanger children were named Juliette in some way, either as a first or middle name. Marie had three siblings: the oldest, Ernestine Mina-Juliette Boulanger, died as a child. In 1887, her younger sister, Juliette Nadia Boulanger, was born.
Soon after Marie’s birth, Ernest asked Nadia to promise she would care for her sister. He told Nadia that, in her parents’ eyes, she was already an adult. Nadia agreed and supported Marie’s life and career. Some people believe Nadia was Marie’s most important influence.
Nadia and her parents encouraged Marie’s musical education. Marie showed early talent even as a toddler. At two years old, she could sing melodies by ear and read sheet music before learning the alphabet. Gabriel Fauré, a family friend, noted that Marie had perfect pitch.
Marie was a sickly child. At age two, she had bronchial pneumonia, which lasted until she was sixteen. This illness weakened her immune system and caused long-term health problems.
In 1900, Ernest Boulanger died in Brussels. His family was deeply affected by his death, and this loss influenced much of his younger daughter’s work.
Marie often accompanied her ten-year-old sister, Nadia, to classes at the Conservatoire. She later attended music theory classes and studied the organ with Louis Vierne. She also played and sang piano, violin, cello, and harp. Her teachers included Marcel Tournier and Alphonse Hasselmans for harp, Hélène Chaumont for piano, and Fernand Luquin for violin. However, she could not study due to pneumonia that lasted from age six to sixteen. After waiting for years, Marie studied harmony with Georges Caussade and composition with Paul Vidal.
Inspired by Nadia’s efforts to win the Prix de Rome and their father’s victory in 1835, Marie entered the competition in 1912. However, during a performance of her cantata Maïa, she collapsed from illness. She returned the next year at age nineteen, composing the cantata Faust et Hélène based on Goethe’s Faust. She became the first woman to win first prize. Faust et Hélène was performed many times during her lifetime. During her time at the Villa Medici, she signed a contract with the music publisher Ricordi, who published her prize-winning cantata.
Although proud of her sister, Nadia gave up her own attempts to win the Prix de Rome after four tries (she had won second prize in 1908). Instead, the older Boulanger focused on her role as an assistant in Henri Dallier’s organ class at the Conservatoire. Gabriel Fauré, the director of the Conservatoire, admired Lili’s talent and often shared her songs with her. Academics who studied her compositions noted their colorful harmony, skillful use of instruments, and careful matching of music to words.
According to Caroline Potter, “Both sisters were influenced by Debussy and shared similar literary interests with him. Both sisters set poems by Maurice Maeterlinck, the author of Pelléas and Mélisande and Princesse Maleine. In February 1916, Maeterlinck allowed Lili to set Princesse Maleine as an opera. It is said that Lili almost completed the opera before her death, though only parts of the score, two versions of the libretto, and a sketchbook remain.”
In 1915, the Boulanger sisters created the Franco-American Committee of the Conservatoire to help connect students and alumni of the Paris Conservatory by writing letters and exchanging parcels. It began as a small letter exchange between Lili and her colleagues but grew into a regular newsletter. With Nadia, she founded and served as secretary of the Gazette des classes de composition du Conservatoire under the support of Whitney Warren. The newsletter started as a “circular letter,” asking certain musicians to write regularly for the committee to share as a newsletter. The first issue received 51 responses in October 1915 and was published the next month. All members, including those who did not respond, were listed alphabetically with their letters. The newsletter was illustrated by Jacques Debat-Ponsan. It ended in 1918, shortly after Boulanger’s death. During its time, it received over 1,600 letters from 316 students and graduates, issuing twelve issues in total. These were recently published by the Bibliothèque nationale de France, though the final issue was never made public.
Although she loved traveling and completed works in Italy after winning the Prix de Rome, her worsening health forced her to return home. There, she and her sister organized efforts to support French soldiers during World War I. Her final years were productive musically as she worked to complete as many pieces as possible. However, she did not finish the opera La princesse Maleine, which she began in February 1916.
Her long-term health problems, which started with childhood pneumonia, led
Music
Lili Boulanger was born during a time when music was changing. Her music fits into a style called neo-Romanticism. Like Debussy, she was more connected to Symbolism than Impressionism. Her music shows Symbolism’s use of unclear and indirect ideas. She also used musical techniques from Impressionism, such as nonfunctional seventh and ninth chords, parallel chords, and modal progressions. Her music often expresses feelings of loneliness and sadness, which became common in the twentieth century. These feelings also reflect her struggles with depression and a long-term illness.
Her music shows influences from composers like Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy. Later composers, such as Arthur Honegger, were inspired by her work.
In her vocal music, Boulanger often set poetry that expresses sadness and sorrow. In the final song of her song cycle Clairières dans le ciel (with texts by Francis Jammes), she wrote: "Nothing more. I have nothing more, nothing to sustain me […] I seem to feel a weeping within me, a heavy, silent sobbing, someone who is not there."
Her deep faith in Catholicism influenced her work. She composed three psalms: Psalms 24, 129, and 130. She also included religious themes in her music.
Les sirènes, written for solo soprano and choir with piano or orchestral accompaniment, was composed in 1911. It sets a poem by Charles Grandmougin and is dedicated to Jane Bathori. It was first performed at one of her mother’s musical events. A critic from Le monde musical reported that the audience wanted to hear it again. It was a practice piece for the Prix de Rome and shows the technical training she received at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Grandmougin’s poem describes sirens, mythical creatures that lure sailors with their songs. A low F-sharp note and rising C-sharp notes create a hypnotic sound.
Psalms 24, subtitled La terre appartient à l’Eternel ("The earth doth belong to the Eternal"), was composed in 1916 while Boulanger lived in Rome. It is dedicated to Jules Griset and includes a choir, organ, brass instruments, and other instruments. It uses brass fanfares and choral passages, contrasting with the style of Faust et Hélène. It was published by Éditions Durand in 1924.
Psalm 129, also written in 1916, is longer than Psalm 24 and includes a full orchestra and choir. It premiered at the Salle Pleyel in 1921, conducted by Henri Büsser.
Du fond de l’abîme (Psalm 130: De Profundis / "Out of the depths") was composed for chorus and large orchestra, including a sarrusophone. It is dedicated to her father, Ernest. Critics praise its mature style, even though she wrote it at twenty-two. Scholars suggest it may also reflect her reaction to World War I.
Pie Jesu was written for high voice, string quartet, harp, and organ. It was composed near the end of her life, though early sketches date back to 1909–1913. Due to her illness, she dictated the piece to her sister, Nadia Boulanger. Some biographers believe she intended to write a full Requiem but did not live to finish it.
Vieille prière bouddhique ("Old Buddhist Prayer") was written for tenor and chorus, with a large orchestra. It includes instruments like flutes, oboes, clarinets, and strings. It was composed between 1914 and 1917 and premiered in 1921 after World War I. Unlike her Catholic works, it sets a Buddhist prayer from the Metta Sutta. James Briscoe notes similarities to Igor Stravinsky’s music and its influence on later composers.
D’un soir triste ("Of a sad evening") is a symphonic poem, the last piece she wrote by hand. It is part of a set of two works, with D’un matin de printemps ("Of a spring morning") following. D’un matin de printemps is one of her final completed compositions. It was arranged for different instruments, including violin and piano, flute and piano, and orchestra. Nadia Boulanger edited the arrangements to add performance instructions.
Legacy
In March 1939, with the help of American friends, Nadia Boulanger created the Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund. This fund is managed by the University of Massachusetts Boston. The fund has two goals: to keep Boulanger's music and memory alive, and to provide financial support to talented musicians. The fund does not accept direct applications for its annual competition. Instead, a group of nominators, chosen each year by the Board of Trustees, prepare a list of candidates. Each nominator suggests one candidate for the prize. The fund then awards the Prix Lili Boulanger to one of these candidates. Past winners include Alexei Haieff (1942), Noël Lee (1953), Wojciech Kilar (1960), Robert D. Levin (1966, 1971), and Andy Akiho (2015).
In April 1965, the Friends of Lili Boulanger Association was formed in Paris. This organization became the Nadia and Lili Boulanger International Centre (Centre international Nadia et Lili Boulanger, CNLB) in 2009.
Joy-Leilani Garbutt and Laura Colgate, two musicians from Washington, D.C., started the Boulanger Initiative in 2018. This initiative supports music composed by women, in honor of the Boulanger sisters.
The asteroid 1181 Lilith was named in honor of Boulanger.