Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger received her musical training under the guidance of her sister Nadia, while regular visitors to the family home included Fauré, whose presence also shaped her artistic growth. Although her life ended prematurely, she produced an impressive quantity of music within that brief span. She studied composition at the Paris Conservatoire and captured the Prix de Rome with her cantata Faust et Hélène in 1913. Even while contending with fragile health during her Roman residency, she set aside her own creative projects to support the households of musicians serving at the front. At the close of the conflict she succumbed to illness, her ambitious operatic setting of Maeterlinck’s La princesse Maleine left incomplete. Despite the abbreviated timeline, her catalogue encompasses a substantial body of pieces notable for their assured writing for both individual voices and large ensembles. Vieille prière bouddhique of 1917 stands among her strongest achievements, a choral work that carries distinct erotic undertones. Her language, built on contrapuntal textures and chromatic harmony, remains firmly rooted in the prevailing French idiom of the period.