Published for the first time: a rich epistolary dialogue revealing one master teacher's power to shape the cultural canon and one great composer's desire to embed himself within historical narratives.

A fresh look at the career of Nadia Boulanger, among the most influential musical figures of the entire twentieth century.

Although she was a performer, a composer, and a conductor of some of the world's great orchestras, it was through her genius as a pedagogue that Nadia Boulanger won renown. Venerated, feared, or opposed, she was as famous as the most prestigious performers, or the best-known conductors. And for the first three-quarters of this century, a host of musicians, young and old, crowded around Boulanger's piano where, with rigor and passion, she revealed a musical universe previously unknown to them. Jerome Spycket's biographical work (originally published in French by Editions Payot, Lausanne, on the centenary of Boulanger's birth) explores the eminent teacher's life through certain key events and through those that formed her circle (Faure, Milhaud, Stravinsky, and Poulenc, to name but a few). A wealth of photographs provides a striking visual history, from the salon of the rue Ballu, to l'Ecole de Fountainebleau, to Boulanger conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London. The spirit of this remarkable musical force shines through on every page. The wide scope of Jerome Spycket's interests, activities, and tastes infuse his writing with a spirited vitality. He brings to his subjects an independence and a search for truth, providing a genuinely analytical approach to the material. His first biography, Clara Haskil, won an Academie Francaise award and has been translated into several languages. Awarded a prize for literature by the Academie des Beaux-Arts was the original French edition of this work on Boulanger.

The strange fate of Boulanger and Pugno's La ville morte /Alexandra Laederich --Serious ambitions : Nadia Boulanger and the composition of La ville morte /Jeanice Brooks, Kimberly Francis --From the trenches : extracts from the final issue of the Paris Conservatory Gazette /translated by Anna Lehman --From technique to musique : the institutional pedagogy of Nadia Boulanger /Marie Duchêne-Thégarid --Nadia Boulanger's 1935 Carte du tendre --36 rue Ballu : a multifaceted place /Cédric Segond-Genovesi --"What an arrival!" : Nadia Boulanger's New world (1925) --Modern French music : translating Fauré in America, 1925-1945 /Jeanice Brooks --For Nadia Boulanger : five poems by May Sarton --Friend and force : Nadia Boulanger's presence in Polish musical culture /Andrea F. Bohlman, J. Mackenzie Pierce --"What awaits them now?" : a letter to Paris /Zygmunt Mycielski --A letter from Professor Nadia Boulanger /translated by J. Mackenzie Pierce --The Beethoven lectures for the Longy School /translated by Miranda Stewart --Boulanger and atonality : a reconsideration /Kimberly Francis --Why music? Aesthetics, religion, and the ruptures of modernity in the life and work of Nadia Boulanger /Leon Botstein.

The first collection ever of essays and reviews by the renowned pedagogue, composer, and conductor, providing fresh perspectives on her musical influence and impact. The impact of Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) on twentieth-century music was vast: as composer, keyboard performer, conductor, impresario, and pedagogue. Her extensive musical networks included figures such as Fauré, Stravinsky, and Poulenc, and her advocacy helped establish the compositions of her sister Lili Boulanger. Few today realize, though, that Boulanger wrote numerous essays and reviews at various times in her career. These offer unparalleled insight into her thinking and illuminate aspects of musical culture in Europe and America from the rare point of view of an internationally prominent female artist. Nadia Boulanger: Thoughts on Music provides a translation and critical edition of selected writings chosen for their quality and interest. The previously published articles and essays have never been reissued since their original appearance; the remaining materials are presented to readers here for the first time. The volume renders all these materials widely available, providing an important new resource for teaching and scholarship on twentieth-century music as well as an engaging collection of musical essays for the general reader.

It was her love of music - especially Stravinsky's music - that drew them together. This book tells the story of the ever-changing nature of Boulanger and Stravinsky's relationship from Boulanger's perspective, tracing their interactions from 1931 to 1971. Throughout, it asks how Boulanger's professional activity during the turbulent twentieth century intersected with her efforts on behalf of Stravinsky and how this facilitated her own influential conversations with the composer about his works while also drawing her into close contact with his family.