How Nadia Boulanger Raised a Generation of Composers
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 เม.ย. 2024
- The Life and Teachings of Nadia Boulanger - the great music teacher who influenced composers including Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, and many more!
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0:00 - Introduction
2:10 - Her Life and Music
11:35 - Her School and Teachings
Music Heard:
Adams - Short Ride in a Fast Machine
N. Boulanger - Trois Piece pour Violoncelle
Dukas - The Sorcerer's Apprentice
N. Boulanger - Extase
Faure - Pie Jesu, from Requiem
N. Boulanger - Ecoutez la Chanson Bien Douce
Saint-Saens - The Swan
N. Boulanger - Heures Ternes
N. Boulanger - Lux Aeterna
N. Boulanger - J'ai Frappé
Gershwin - An American in Paris
Bach - Prelude in E minor, from WTC I
Bach - Wachet Auf - Movement I
Monteverdi - Lauda Jerusalem, from Vespers
Stravinsky - Dumbarton Oaks
Faure - Agnus Dei, from Requiem
My mother, Adelaide Lee Herron, was lucky enough to have studied with Nadia in a summer course at Fountainbleau in the 1920s before she got married to my father. And she was an excellent organist who, typical of women at that time, put her career behind that of my father, an engineer in the areospace industries.
Your mother took a free decision of real LOVE. You can be thankfull for her decision.
@@SAXloungeEF nonsense.
@@ratulxy username checks out /pos
she could combine
@@tadcotadco6344
No, she couldn't.
In this time, woman had not the possibility to choose.
Husbands could forbid their wifes to go to work.
Look at the tragedy between Gustav and Alma Mahler; he forbade her from composing, even though she was a trained and gifted musician!
His reason:
it would be ridiculous for a married couple to compete in the same field, and of course it was the woman who had to step back!
And one also thinks of Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelsohn-Bartholdy's sister, who was a gifted composer and could not have her pieces performed because at the time a woman was not even allowed to compose and therefore nobody wanted her music just listen!
Her brother, who of course recognized the high quality of her songs and found it unfair that Fanny was forbidden to show her skills, then had them performed under his name and was celebrated for it.
When his name was above the performances, there was applause; if Fanny was the author, they would have made fun of her.
"Having a choice" looks different to me...
One of her students introduced me to one of Nadia's singing exercises that opens the voice in a powerful way: sing a note as if you're singing the consonant "ng" - keep developing the sound - mouth open but soft palette closed. Don't allow any air to pass through the vocal chords, just get the resonance strong. Then switch to the syllable "ah", maintaining the position and resonance achieved.
Soft palate closed? What does this mean? Flat or lifted?
"Don't allow any air to pass through the vocal chords, just get the resonance strong" ??? This doesn't make sense
To translate (because this is a bit confusing to read) the exercise is to hum, but with an open mouth. The 'ng' consonant starts in the position you would need to hum with an open mouth. You then get the note you're humming to sound full and supported, then switch to an open syllable with that same laxness and breath support.
I studied with one of her pretty prominent students. It changed my life. I’m 33 years old. She really has reached into the future.
Sure you did....
I was just going to get on here to comment about her student Emil Nauoumov, who is a music prof. in the USA. Not sure if I spelled his name right. He teaches and improvs on his YT channel. It is fascinating to watch a living piano tradition in action that way. And maybe feel a part of the Boulangerie community or a similar one, which is my dream. Did you see the Monsaingeon Boulanger documentary? A very young Emil can be seen in that as well. That video is so inspiring.
Ha ha... Notice the low key grandiosity.
@@KKIcons Emile Naoumoff. What a great composer and pianist… No wonder why Nadia kept him as her last student. His daily improvs are amazing! th-cam.com/users/dafeneovideos
One of my grad school professors studied with her. He had an extraordinary ear and ridiculous facility with music theory and keyboard skills.
Another student of Nadia Boulanger’s was Darius Milhaud who is best known for being one of the members of Les Six. His flute Sonatine is beautiful and I also love his woodwind quintet
and Darius Milhaud is also known to have given lessons to the great Dave Brubeck!
If you ever get too confident return back to this video so you can go back to your place
Already knew Nadia Boulanger was a real deal but never thought she was that much.
Thanks for sharing this.
I am so thrilled to learn about this amazing woman.
I knew Quincy Jones had studied with her, but I had no idea Charles Strouse did as well.
Her influence is awe inspiring.
As French, I am happy you bring to light this original and strong character. Few people know that in fact she embodies a direct link between Gabriel Fauré and Quincy Jones. A fun fact indeed !
after all, her heroic stand towards German occupants and openly expressed contempt to them witness that her categoricalness in everything was not ostentatious.
When I was a young 22-year-old grad student in Vienna (1971-72), I inquired about studying at Fontainbleau for the summer. I had only sent a few very short (very short) pieces from my undergrad composition class with my inquiry. To my surprise, I received a handwritten and encouraging note from Nadia Boulanger about summer study. I still have that note somewhere and while I never became a full-time “composer,” I did complete my Master’s in Composition at Indiana University and have a recital and year’s worth of student music (which I like). (My handwritten scores and parts were accidentally thrown away a few years ago-protect your musical legacy.). That note did give me some forward-looking hope in learning to compose music. After seeing the rigor of her teaching methodology in this video, I wonder if I would have failed at writing, or maybe risen to a new level.
If you record some of your ideas and put them on your channel, I'd be curiouz to hear them. I didn't really have time to write music since I chose to pursue art and poetry, also having a family and farm. But I still managed to share some of my ideas I had been ruminating over for all those years. I made some friends along the way who encouraged me, even though I lacked self-confidence for many years. Gould in one of his articles mentioned one of his favorite composers didn't really begin until after he retired. So that was part the Norwegian composer F. Valens. That was probably inspiring to him as another person who had put off his composing career until later in life, but sadly he died before he could work on his ideas.
@@KKIcons Thank you for your reply and poignant note on composer Valens. Let me see if I can put up some of my serious music from Indiana U on TH-cam (have to think about it), or if I can just email you a few pieces. I need to remind myself to do these things. I am a little nervous. Yes, composing for me was difficult. At Indiana U, I picked out the notes on the piano (I did not magically hear the entire piece in my head…though I have a good musical ear.) As a side note, while I have your attention, my first exposure to composition was in Vienna and was avant-garde musique concrete. Here I took a single sound and manipulated it to make a 21 minute “story” composition, using tape techniques. It was a technical exercise. And finally, as I went through life - working and paying bills - I did have a keyboard MIDI setup and every once in a while scrapped out POP music. And a couple of songs. For yourself, maybe sit down and either write or improvise some music and record it.
'Mademoiselle Nadia Boulanger' from 1977 is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Strongly recommended!
Dear Sir, In a short time you have captured the essence of Mme. Boulanger.
At 19 years 1972 I was fortunate to study with her. I felt my lack of compositional tecjjniqy
@@BuddhaofBlackpool ...or checking for tie pose.
Forgive me, like Mademoiselle I am losing the gift of sight.
@@stevehinnenkamp5625 I am so sorry to hear, and I thank you for sharing your wonderful experience ❤️🎼
Time is revealing just how much this brilliant woman has made music so beautiful for all the world.
18:30 "Her greatest ambition was to encourage them to develop an individual musical voice" : That is the essence of an ultimate teacher. She sent Astor back to Tango and the rest is history. There is another ultimate teacher who you might want to know about, however he is way far from Western music, he is Baba Allauddin Khan from India, you may read similar guru-student stories : Punishingly hard practice and eventually individual improvisation skills.
I asked my piano instructor one week if he was familiar with Nadia, his answer was no. I couldn’t believe my ears. She is tragically under appreciated. Loved the description Philip Glass put in his memoir about his studies with her.
A piano teacher who does not know about Nadia Boulanger ? Original ...
I would say that your piano instructor was deficiently trained if he was ignorant of Boulanger.
@@lesleyheller2271 as we say in France "c'est la base"
The first piece my composition teacher (and pianist) made us listen to was Bach, the second piece, Nadia Boulganer. Not that everyone knows her, but I would say for a teacher that is more of a him issue.
I'm honestly awestruck, not just because of the importance of this video, but also for the stupid fact that I was just listening to John Adam's "Short Ride in a Fast Machine" before this and it's the first piece that plays lol.
Cláudio Santoro was also his student
Algorithms 🤣
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One of my instructors at Westminster Choir College studied with Boulanger. The stories he shared with us about her were a highlight of my theory classes.
Thank you for this in-depth video about a remarkable woman and music teacher.
Could you tell us one?
My theory teacher, Dr. Stephen Young, now retired, would give us a ear training and chord progression exercise by telling us to play a bass line in the left hand in one key and the other three parts in the right hand in another key a tritone away, so no chords made a consonance. (e.g. C in the left - F# in the right. "Now transpose to the subdominant." Hee hee.)
Dr. Young told us Boulanger used to do that and more with her students. He would have to play the piano in one key while a recording of the same work play on a phonograph in another. Very Ivesian.
Yes! Dr. Young! He’s still teaching at WCC.
Joseph Flummerfelt was also a student of Nadia Boulanger. I was fortunate to study with him and Stefan Young as a grad student at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. And as an undergraduate, I sang in a small chamber ensemble conducted by David Conte, who was one of Mlle Boulanger's last students. He has carried forth her pedagogy and knowledge with his students at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at the summer course at Fontainebleu. Conte studied composition at Cornell University, where his teacher was Karel Husa--also a student of Boulanger. More remote connection, but still influential in my experience, are the many concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein in which I sang as a member of Westminster Choir College Symphonic Choir. In these teachers and conductors I have been obliquely a student of Mlle Boulanger, and this has made my life richer.
I was lucky to have studied with a number of her pupils at Fontainebleau and then at the Juilliard School. I wish I could have studied directly with her but sadly she was no longer alive. Fantastic video and thank you for honoring such an important pedagogue.
My composition professor at San Diego State University (1977-82) was the late David Ward-Steinman, my mentor. He studied under Nadia Boulanger, and had much to say about her tutelage.
I love to experience the creative and musical atmosphere of Paris at that time.
Even today, there are teachers like her.
My Dad studied with Nadia Boulanger for a year after college, before he met my mum, so I have stories about his year in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger. He was in the same class of students as Joe Rappozo. Rappozo was the American jazz pianist who wrote the theme songs for the classic American children's television show called Sesame Street. My dad has anecdotes about how Rappozo would get teased in class by Boulanger because Rappozo was clearly the most talented student of that year, so Boulanger did her best to make the piano exercises as difficult as possible for Rappozo. But when Rappozo encountered financial difficulty midway through the year (he was attempting to support himself and his young wife by playing gigs while he also studied with Boulanger), Boulanger made certain to get Rappozo well-paying gigs so that he could afford to finish out his year of study with her. So she was kind at heart and cared about her students, even though she seemed to "pick on" some of them in class.
Boulanger had a rule of composition that the C-major chord, namely do-mi-sol in the key of C major, should be a mainstay of good composition. My father says that he himself rebelled against what seemed to him to be such an arbitrary rule of composition, while Rappozo thrived on Bpulanger's strict composition rules. As a result of his studies with Boulanger, when Rappozo returned to America to continue his career after his year of study in Paris, Rappozo was hired by a progressive television company consisting of young idealistic writers attempting to use the new technology of broadcast public television to teach reading-readiness skills to inner city children.
And as a result of Rappozo's being hired by the Children's Television Workshop to write the theme music to the TV show Sesame Street in the 1960's, even to this day, millions and millions of American children and adults know by heart a tune that follows Boulanger's favorite rule of composition: Use the C major chord! Almost all Americans under the age of sixty years can sing to you the Sesame Street tune that epitomizes this composition rule: Sun-ny Day, sweeping the ...clouds a-way!.... (Sol -mi -do, do re mi ....sol-mi-do!)
I never knew that about the Sesame Street theme, that it was infused with such genius. But I've always loved it, and I've always thought there was more to it than meets the eye. It's that Mozart line quality of something that is seemingly simple but in fact extremely intricate.
won't you tell me how to get, how to get to sesame street
She played a positive role when she taught a South African famous musician who was music professor and composer at the University of Cape Town, called Prof Peter Klatzow. Prof Klatzow used to tell us how lovely Ms Boulanger was in lecture hall!
I consider myself extremely fortunate to be a “musical descendant” of Nadia Boulanger … my piano professor at Rutgers University (‘93-96), Samuel Dilworth-Leslie, was a highly regarded student of hers … considering the positive and profound impact he’s made on my musical life, and the legacy - Faure, and other Prix de Rome winners Nadia Boulanger likely met, as well as the compositional giants of the 20th century she had a profound influence on - I feel quite blessed.
I'm smiling as I'm listening. You said she knew the "entire Well-Tempered Clavier" by HEART, as if that is anything of significance for someone like Nadia. She probably knew that all by heart by the time she was nine. That was trivial for her. I think she knew virtually the entire literature by heart. Her ear was beyond anything most people have a clue is possible. If she could hear it she was reading the music in her head and vice versa. That's what all that solfege is about. And as far as Barenboim playing that trivially simple (from the point of view of that kind of transposition exercise) prelude? You said it like it was some kind of superhuman feat. She had MANY students who could sightread anything into any key. And I don't just mean simple pieces. I mean Beethoven sonatas at full speed. When I was there, she had us doing that, as rank beginners in her world, with Bach chorales, leaving out a voice and solfeging that voice, and as soon as we were able to do that, with our hands crossed. And she'd switch which voice we were singing. I once played her a bach Fugue, not knowing what she was capable of, and I let one note go an instant too soon, and she groaned and howled in the way she did with such things, and then she asked me to play the piece with my hands crossed, without the music, and I was baffled, Then she had one of her more advanced students come in and show me it could be done, but then she did the leave out a particular voice and solfege it instead thing.
None of this is particularly impressive within the capabilities she and the people at her level had. I remember reading that Rubenstein could play the entire WTC, both books, in any key, regardless of the key Bach had written it in.
I admire her incredibly but how she criticized herself in every department of her life makes me very sad. After all, she was a human being like any one of us... We don't know how much suffering was involved in her life and work... This is such a wonderful video! Thank you for sharing!
Fantastically inspirational. I had only a very incomplete picture of her as a respected teacher of composition and hostess of a salon in Paris that attracted Stravinsky and Aaron Copeland. I had no idea that her roster of students was a veritable who’s who of avant- guard American composers in the 20th century as well as pop luminaries Quincy Jones and Burt Bacharach. I love the fact that her musical mind embraced everything from Claudio Monteverdi to American jazz. What is inspirational is the depth and completeness of her musicianship. Was it Stravinsky who said, “she knows absolutely everything about music”? That she walked her talk and expected nothing less from her students. I’m not like her nor would I want to be, but I could certainly benefit from emulating her hard work and dedication to thoroughness and practicality in the sphere of music. I do like the idea of memorizing Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier. I’ll begin with my favorites and may only get that far, but that’s a lot further than neglecting the challenge altogether.
Bacarach and Jones weren't pop.
Pop has no tutors.
Everyone learned from the works of
those who came before.
They performed covers and learned how
to write songs from there.
The Beatles are a.classic example.
No tuition fees. Just DIY.
The words of Jesus;
'The meek shall inherit the earth'.
This is just one of many examples
of the meek inheriting.
Poverty, no barrier.
@@markrymanowski719 - both of them were sophisticated composers, arrangers, and producers of commercial music that was tailored for radio play and popular consumption. True, they weren’t like the Beatles but much of their success was in the popular idiom. Jones started in Jazz playing trumpet but went on to arranging, film scoring, then producing among others Michael Jackson. Bacharach was classically trained but he went on to write hundreds of popular songs mostly for other artists. Popular music as we understand it over the last 50 years encompasses a wide range of sub genres, folk being one of many.
@@robbes7rh
Hundreds of popular songs?
I'd love to see the list.
@@markrymanowski719 - there is a Wikipedia article, “List of Songs written by Burt Bacharach”. Altogether it lists about100. He’s had 73 hits in the top 40 in U.S. and 52 in U.K.. Probably some made both lists. But, to your point, ALL of those songs are written in the popular idiom and intended for radio play on commercial stations that cater to popular tastes. I don’t understand your incredulity. This is what Burt has done his entire professional career and continues to do to this day.
Awesome Documentary! I hope your concious of the impact your work is for younger generations to understand that theres an heritage in classical music and theres more than 4/4 beat music that mainstream media makes money from it.
This was very interesting and worthwhile. The director of the youth orchestra I played in as a teen talked about studying with Nadia Boulanger. She was working on an oratorio and played the theme of the fugue she had written. Boulanger brushed it aside. "That's Handel". And so Dr. Rittenhouse went back to work and retyrbed with something that was her own...and this time Boulanger said, 'now you have something there'. It goes along with how she exhorted composers to find their own voices.
A great musician, composer and human being. And more than anything else I'm greatful, that she put so much efforts in keeping the music of her sister Lily alive, after she died in a very young age.
I'm happy the video mentions Eliot Carter, a brilliant American composer who combined American musical innovation with traditional European music (and in a way that actually influenced Frank Zappa). Having studied under Nadia, Carter's own Counterpoint and Fugue submittal was considered so good by Nadia, that she used it in her classes as an example to her other students.
I just stumbled on this video by chance and all I can say is THANK YOU for featuring Nadia Boulanger's story and music!
I also can't wait for your next video on "Why listen to Lili Boulanger"!
I recently started studying and performing their music as a singer and the experience is absolutely thrilling! My pianist says that "opening the door to their music is the most challenging part, but once you've overcome this initial hurdle, there is no going back". To me, however, their music directly spoke to my soul from the first moment... Huge fan right here, as you might be able to tell ;)
Cheers!
Thanks Man I watched your newest podcast episode and I really related I just turned 15 and got the complete Chopin etudes for my birthday.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎶
@@Felidae-ts9wp Thank you.
My college professor was a student of hers and I had the privilege of learning from him. How lucky we are to continue on her knowledge.
my professor is close to Schoenberg Students, honor learn from him.
The same goes for me. My college professor was a student of hers.
One of my composition teachers studied with Boulanger. Much of what I learned came from her methodology and I feel honored to be a part of this tradition.
Thanks for this very instructive video. Among the "many others" students of Nadia's are the Argentine Astor Piazzolla and the Brazilian Egberto Gismonti. Both of enormous musical importance. They have very successfully found their musical voices. Check them out.
Beautiful job bringing her world and contemporaries--many who have sadly faded in their appreciation--to life. Thank you, and best wishes for your own course.
I became familiar with her and her sister because anytime I read of a famous musician or composer of the last century she was the teacher, so I thought it just couldn't be a coincidence, it reminds me of Salieri who, although he was quite a famous composer of his age, he is mostly famous now for having taught the greatest composer of his generation, and of course now for the movie
Excellent video Oscar, thank you for putting it together 👏
How can we introduce the younger music generation to one of the greatest music professors of the 20th Century? I am saddened by so much lack of interest when it comes to teaching the younger generations today. Some are so eager and open to learn, while others think that they can just get by with so little and still succeed. My deepest regret is that I could not have spent more time being with this wonderful, incredible genius of a teacher, artists, and musician. The few months i visited Mademoiselle at the Conservatoire Americaine at Fontainebleau, changed my life considerably. The results were amazing, the hard work, learning the principal foundations of a greater musical heritage, has made me aware of the greatness that lives in all of us. Nadia Boulanger is my musical God-mother who turned on the lights inside my Being, allowing me to see and hear just what was necessary and above all categories permanent in my creative world. Her words of truth "seek out and find your own path (voice)" has remained with me for more than 46 years. I am forever and ever indebted to my moments with Mademoiselle Boulanger. These moments could never be described in words alone.
The European American Musical Alliance teaches her method. They are great!!!
In most places on this Earth, learning to be a musician is more a luxury than a necessity. If the country you live in has no musical conservatory or you yourself isn't rich or friends with a musician then tough luck...
Your videos are always inspiring. Thank you. Greetings from Argentina!
Absolutely outstanding! What a tremendous presentation! My theory professor in college - Kent Werner - studied with her. He was tough, but thank God I had a good ear. Thank you so much for this. Keep up the good work, sir.
From France
Video Très touchante et inspirante !
Merci !
I love Nadia and Lili Boulanger. Thank you immensely for the video. It's inspiring to learn about them and listen to their music. Looking forward to watching your next video about Lili !
Wow! What a wonderful resource you are. This is some really good stuff brother. Thank you!!!
One of my teachers in the Crane School of Music, Potsdam, NY, was a very close friend of Nadia Boulanger's. I learned interpretation of Faure's Requiem from this teacher who learned it from Nadia, who learned it from Faure. I love the connection I have with these wonderful women.
What a brilliant introduction, synopsis and account of Nadia Boulanger's life and legacy. 🤓🎼💝
I like the format of this video. Very professional and your narration is excellent!
The only other candidate for "greatest music teacher" that I can think of is Charles Villiers Stanford, who taught Frank Bridge, Gustav Holst, John Ireland, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Rebecca Clarke, Arthur Benjamin, Ivor Gurney, George Dyson, Eugene Goossens, Leopold Stokowski, and Ralph Vaughan Williams (again, amongst many more).
Elgar was self-taught, and no Stanford fan. As for teachers, look up the pupils of Salieri and Liszt. Even within the English system, CHH Parry was not outshone by Stanford, and taught several of those on your list.
@@EJP286CRSKW You're right about Elgar. Not sure where I got that from. Edited.
There's also Rimsky-Korsakov and Myaskovsky who both taught a huge number of famous composers
There are always weel know connections between composers, and usually it's the trachers, scholars of masters becomes masters or techers of masters.
@@arthurverlaine6434 Indeed. It's amazing to think that there is an unbroken line of student-teacher relationships between Muzio Clementi and Alan Belkin.
Learned about her while studying for my degree in music. Great video thanks
Thank you for the most in depth presentation of her I have found. I hope someone would compile detailed information about her teaching so we can all benefit.
Thank you for a great video. Women have never had it easy in composition career…
Spectacular, inspiring video. It's really a shame that she was not driven to write a book, to reveal her insight into music.
I had heard many great things about Nadia, but now I know many great things!
Yes I feel the same way. This was more clear than the other documentary by Monsaingeon about her biography. His documentary was more immersive since it sort of put you into her classroom environment. Which was also a great experience.
Just awe inspiring. Thank you!
I totally agree with Quincy Jones' quote at 17:44
Thank you for making this and your talk with David is giving me a lot of inspirations!
This is incredible. Ty so much!
Keep the good work going... Your videos are my inspiration....
Excellent video, a real pleasure to watch. Thank you et aussi merci :)
Bravo! So well done and inspiring!
Hello Megan
Great video! My Dad was one of her students before being a Messiaen’s student.
Thank you for this very informative and insightful video.
Hello tamzin
I was lucky enough to hear her conduct the CBSO sometime the late 70s. They played the Faure Requiem and some pieces by Lili. Inspirational!
thank you for this!
Charlie Parker studied with Nadia too, during a short period of time. It's simpler to make the list of the great musicians who didn't learn with her...
I have found this presentation very moving. What an incredible ear this woman had (listen to Bernstein speak about his encounter...) to be able to teach and play a vast repertoire. And what moral strength, integrity and generosity she exemplified. It is fair to say she really 'loved' her pupils..
What a fascinating woman, i knew her only by name becasue I watched a doc about Astor Piazzola, i'm glad that I found your marvelous video.
Thank you for this fantastic introduction to the work of Nadia Boulanger, and equally your video about Lili Boulanger.
Egberto Gismonti also studied with her; said she was very important in his music development.
phenomenal lecture. im going to use it with my music students. thank you
Extremely interesting. I've been aware of her for decades but didn't really know much about her. It is amazing to learn about the pop composers who studied with her. The NYPO concertmaster was Michel Piastro. Not Plastro.
Looking forward for your next video.
The piano part in Nadia's final song reminded me a lot of a piece we're preparing for my zone honor choir. We are actually singing one of Lili's works! If the other video is out about Lili I'll definitely have a look to see if it's in there, it's her "Hymne ou Soleil" for choir, piano, and solo contralto.
Thank you for the inspiration.
I studied music at the University of Chicago, and there my musical advisor, Easely Blackwood, had also been a student of NB in the 1960s. He is a pianist and composer who has also extensively studied microtonal tunings.
Easely Blackwood's microtonal etudes are the greatest things going! th-cam.com/video/HbuFPpiJL1o/w-d-xo.html
Emile Naoumoff, her last ever student said that she could sing every voice from every WTC fugue
Can't wait for the Lili video
Thank you, that was fascinating. :)
That's maybe the best video I've seen about Nadia... with passion and accuracy.
I would have liked a mention of Michel Legrand. Besides that, this is a very nice subject, told with insight and enthousiasm
I remember reading somewhere that John Coltrane's Giant Steps was based on what he learned from Nadia B
Oh, wow! When you said she tried to reproduce the fire bell, I thought of my son. At five, he tried to reproduce the train horn chords on our DX-7 keyboard. He did it. And kept doing it for weeks! Obsessed. And it was amazing. He has perfect pitch. When he was seven his piano teacher asked him to play a C. He played a C, then a C#, then a C chord, and a C# diminished. And named them. I didn't even know where he learned them! She said teaching him for the last four years has been like holding the reins of a runaway horse.
Oh my lord. This is so valuable. The information you've conveyed in this video... Thank you so much. So, so much.
great! looking forward to the video on l. boulanger.
Back in the 1980's I bought a new Baldwin church organ for my house. The store where I bought it had Robert Hebble come and do a short class on hymn playing and registrations, which I attended. I was fortunate enough to become friends with Bob, although we lost touch several years ago. He passed away in February 2020. He was one of Nadia's students, and a fabulous composer, and worked closely with Virgil Fox on organ arrangements. I am a huge fan of Virgil's.
Just about all my teachers studied under her. Best line was a teacher of mine studied under both, Boulanger & Messiaen & when both heard, they had the same comment; "Oh is he/she still alive?"
Thank you Sir. being from Brazil the great Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti and Argentinian Astor Piazzola also studied with her.
This was fascinating
A few of my professors also studied with her. It would have been nice to have met her. :)
Great profile of Nadia Boulanger!
That is just sooo true... "if you can play[/write] anything you want, then you play[/write] nothing." Spew/barf something/anything up onto paper... get an A -- that's no way to teach/learn composition... and it's an attitude that I've enountered everywhere I go, though NOT everyone follows it. Thank GOD.
Great conductor Joseph Flummerfelt was also a student of Nadia Boulanger. I was fortunate to study with him and Stefan Young (a composer/theorist who studied with Boulanger) as a grad student at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. And as an undergraduate, I sang in a small chamber ensemble conducted by David Conte, who was one of Mlle Boulanger's last students. He has carried forth her pedagogy and knowledge with his students at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and at the summer course at Fontainebleu. Conte studied composition at Cornell University, where his teacher was Karel Husa--also a student of Boulanger. More remote connection, but still influential in my experience, are the many concerts conducted by Leonard Bernstein in which I sang as a member of Westminster Choir College Symphonic Choir. In these teachers and conductors I have been obliquely a student of Mlle Boulanger, and this has made my life richer.
Can’t wait for the video of Lili: one of my favourites; Wonderful Video By the way
She suffered the fate of all great teachers: they only shine through the achievements of their pupils. Like most teachers, she has no work of her own to shine through. And people don't care about teachers, only about divas.
Which is something of a problem: she might not have been a genius like her sister but she certainly could have given us beautiful works.
She did write a few compositions of her own : see three pieces for cello and piano or fantasy for piano and orchestra.
But then I'm an amateur guitarist in my 50s, and I've known about her for 30 years or so. And every classical musician I know does, too. How incredible to have taught Glass, Jones, John Adams, and Gardiner. Nobody has ever had a tutelage like that, not even Bach or Chopin.
@Personal info So remind me why you’re watching this video in the first place?
@Personal info I’m not sure what you mean by “your logic.” I’m not the original commenter.
And I also don’t even really know what you mean by “no one cares about the kind of music you’re talking about.” What is that “kind of music” you referenced?
You listen to Ravel (who happens to be my favorite composer), yes? Then why would you claim that no one cares about the kind of music the original commenter was referencing? I love the work of the Boulanger sisters, and I find myself agreeing with those who claim that Lili forms the third point of the Impressionist trifecta with Ravel and Debussy.
To me, her MOST important student, was MY professor of piano, Samuel Dilworth-Leslie. Her methodology and musicianship lived on through him, and was passed on to me … for which I am grateful, and carry with pride and respect …
Oh my gosh; this felt like a master class in appreciation biography, with extra benefits in music history, comparative music literature and the transcendent elements comprising the germinal code of tonal music that every competent musician should know and that theory, composition and conducting students must know.
In fact, of the many gems of insight this video has shared, the most compelling for me was Boulanger's challenge to young Barenboim. How could she know, correctly, that he was even remotely capable of a musical feat that comes easy to very few, and only after struggle for most, and sends some students into paralytic cataplexy? To transpose, reflexively, a work in real time, in both its temporal, horizontal melodic journey and its vertical elevation of harmonic architecture, verifies his prodigy, obviously, but also proved something more impressive--her capacity for estimation of a student's mettle, which paralleled her assessments of historically great composers and the value of each in her pedagogy.
This video was a real treat, and a privilege to meet Nadia virtually, hopefully absorbing an hour of her compositional intelligence. Thank you!
Beautiful. Happy Holidays 🌹🌲🌹
her style of teaching is similar to what surived at Mozarteum University. Everything you should have the scores as main source and make sense practically. The good part that i keep also when i teach
Merci for this. I've already watched your video about Lili.
We met in the 1970 ties ,have fond memories !
I feel blessed that one of my music teachers was a student of hers. I once created some music I titled "Super Beautiful" to express how I feel about female human beings like her, her sister Lili, Hilary Hahn, Clara Scumann, Fanny Mendelssohn.
Thanks for this insightful look at Boulanger. Don't forget George Walker! who studied with her. He included a short chapter in his memoirs that describes, in somewhat rambling fashion, his time with her.
I studied music theory post-grad and privately with George Walker. An amazing person, both as a teacher and composer.
@@johnmaryn4497 Yes. And I'll say "thank you," as he was my dad. Best-- Ian
Great video!
@insidethescore
Dear Mr.Osicki,
Thank you very much for your excellent video with lots of informations, explanations, selected music samples and inspriations! As a Instrumental Pedagogy student, I think especially that the part of the video that deals with her “teaching philosophy”, should definitely be watched in the basic seminar but also in music theory class🙏👌🏻👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Could you also share the sources that you used in preparation and also quoted? I‘m very interested e.g. in the quot by Philip Glass that appears at 16:09.
Greetings from Hanover/Germany