Studying the Relationships That Affected the Career Outcome of Nadia Boulanger

Studying the Relationships That Affected the Career Outcome of Nadia Boulanger

History has come to know world renowned female composers Lili and Nadia Boulanger. Both women are very crucial to the development of women in music, and even modern composers today. Being sisters, Nadia and Lili’s accomplishments can be seen as triumphant honors to the Boulanger legacy. While Lili is known to be more of a composer (being the first woman to win the much coveted Prix de Rome), Nadia is known to be one of the most influential musical teachers of the 20th century. But with both women starting as composers, why did Nadia’s composing suddenly stop after Lili’s death in 1919? More importantly, how did the relationship of these two sisters shape Nadia’s music career into the success it is known for today? Throughout this research paper, we will delve into the past of Nadia and Lili, and look for correlations between their upbringing and career outcomes. We will also look into other life events in Nadia’s early life, that possibly affected her career outcome. We want to see if Nadia’s upbring affected her future interactions with her peers and past students. The goal is to have a deeper understanding of Nadia most prominent life events, and see if they contributed to Nadia’s Boulanger ending her composing career and her developing methods as a teacher.

In Paris, France on September 16th, 2887, Nadia Boulanger was born. Ernest Boulanger was her father and was a very respected professor at the Paris Conservatory. Her mother, Raissa Myschetsky was a Russian princess, and a former student of Nadia’s father. Coming from very successful parents, Nadia had a lot to live up to. Nadia’s father won the Prix de Rome at the age of 20, and Nadia’s mother had trained in music her entire life. It is said that Nadia hated music as a small child, and would plug her ears and hide when sirens would go by their home. Nadia would only come to start embracing music when she was five. This also happened to be the time that her mother was pregnant with Nadia’s sister Lili. Once this time came, Nadia was very active in her musical studies and started to pay more attention to the lessons her father taught. Lili Boulanger was born in August, 21st 1893, Nadia was six at the time. Lili had perfect pitch and a love for singing. She studied harmony, played piano, violin, cello and even the harp. Lili was exposed to music at a very young age. This was not only from her parents, but from accompanying Nadia at her musical lessons. From this time, we can see that Nadia and Lili started with a very close relationship as young children. Lili began her lessons at around the age of five.

Now that we know a brief background of both women, let's begin to delve right into the relationship of the Boulanger sisters. When Lili was born, she had multiple health issues. This obviously was terrifying to the Boulanger family, especially their father Ernest. Ernest was already 77 when Lili was born. Knowing that his time to help his daughter would end soon, Ernest took Naida aside and told her she was responsible for looking after Lili. “At Lili’s birth, their father had asked Nadia to vow that she would always take care of her sister, and throughout her life Nadia kept her word, feeling the responsibility all the more, because Lili never fully recovered from a bout of bronchial pneumonia contracted at the age of two.”(Potter) Shortly after Lili was born, Rassia became pregnant one last time at age 40. Nadia and Lili witnessed their mother suffer terribly during this pregnancy, and unfortunately the baby ended up not making it. Despite the tragic loss, Nadia was forced to return back to classes at the Paris Conservatoire in the fall. There was a lot of pressure on Nadia at a very young age. “Nadi was simply too young to withstand the grueling 6 AM to midnight competitions...The pressure was too great, and, once again, exhausted beyond belief [Nadia] fell asleep [during her final testing].”(Rosenstiel 39). During this same time Lili was learning informally in months what it had taken Nadia six years to master (Rosenstiel). One could only imagine the pressure this must have put on Nadia. Her sister was advancing so much faster and farther than Nadia, even though Nadia worked relentlessly at her craft. “Comparisons were being made between the sisters, and it was generally conceded that Nadia was less gifted.”(Rosenstiel 40)

On April 1st, 1900, Ernest Boulanger died in mid sentence during a conversation with Nadia. Because of the death of Ernest, the family began having multiple financial issues. “Nadia knew that, as her father was in his seventies when they were born, it would eventually fall on her to support her mother and sister. She entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten and aimed to win as many