LearnJazzPiano.com archives: Nadia Boulanger
Mike -- 09/18/2006, 16:50:28 -- #29891
Does anyone know any details or specifics about how and what she taught about composition?  I would love to find anything out about what she taught.

Mike -- 09/18/2006, 16:51:07 -- #29891
Did she write any books?

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 19:27:47 -- #29891
Google is your friend, Mike.

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 19:36:33 -- #29891
http://www.nadiaboulanger.org/

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 19:41:48 -- #29891
About her teaching
http://www.americansymphony.org/dialogues_extensions/97_98season/6th_concert/leon.cfm

Mike -- 09/18/2006, 20:55:24 -- #29891
thx for the thought about google Cynbad but I have done many searches.  What I found is information about her life.. where she lived, who she taught, why she taught,  who liked her, who was influenced by her and a lot of things like that many of which I already knew.  What i am trying to find out is specifically what she taught.  Does anybody have a clue?  Know anything about anything that she taught?

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 21:20:10 -- #29891
Well, Mike, you'll probably have to find somebody that studied composition with her.  It appears she was in the tradition of Stravinskly, according to that last article.
Quincy Jones studied with her, no?

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 21:23:54 -- #29891
Many of her students from the 1920s, including Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Roy Harris, and Virgil Thomson, established a new school of composition based on her teaching, and Walter Piston, in addition to his compositions, has produced three superb textbooks, on Harmony, Counterpoint and Orchestration. It used to be said that every town in the United States had its Boulanger pupil. Her influence was immense throughout most of the Western musical world.

Boulanger's teaching methods included traditional harmony, score reading at the piano, species counterpoint, analysis, and mastery of sight singing (using fixed-Do solfège). Her students were also expected to memorize Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Books 1 and 2, and to learn to improvise fugues (as Bach often did). Her range was phenomenal, her ear perfect, her memory seemingly photographic, and her disciplinary demands absolute. Her whole character was imbued with passionate dedication, generosity, and intense love of life.

[edit]
Students
Here is an incomplete list of her musical students. Neither Boulanger nor Annette Dieudonné, her life-long friend and assistant, kept records of those students who studied with Boulanger. In addition, it is virtually impossible to determine the exact nature of an individual's private study with Boulanger.

Douglas Allanbrook
Burt Bacharach
Daniel Barenboim
Robert Russell Bennett
Lennox Berkeley
Leonard Bernstein
Idil Biret
Diane Bish
Easley Blackwood Jr.
Marc Blitzstein
Richard Boulanger
Elliott Carter
Paul Chihara
John Chowning
David Conte
Aaron Copland
Clifford Curzon
David Diamond
Jean Françaix
John Eliot Gardiner
Egberto Gismonti
Philip Glass
Adolphus Hailstork
Gerre Hancock
Roy Harris
Peter Hill
Quincy Jones
Wojciech Kilar
Ralph Kirkpatrick
Stefan Kozinski
Gail Kubik
Robert D. Levin
Dinu Lipatti
Gian Carlo Menotti
Douglas Stuart Moore
Ginette Neveu
Albert Alan Owen
Thomas Pasatieri
Ástor Piazzolla
Walter Piston
Ned Rorem
Harold Shapero
Robert Sherlaw Johnson
Elie Siegmeister
Stanisław Skrowaczewski
William Sloane Coffin
Richard Stoker
Charles Strouse
Henryk Szeryng
Virgil Thomson
David Ward-Steinman
Howard Swanson
David Wilde

CynBad -- 09/18/2006, 21:24:15 -- #29891
Oh, that was from Wikipedia

Mike -- 09/18/2006, 22:14:23 -- #29891
well ya,  The fact that Quincy Jones studied with her is what has probally had my curiousity peaked the most for years about her.  But lately I have had a desire to expand my own skills as a composition teacher, my abilities being mostly limited to Jazz and all its related forms of Composition.  I studied a small amount of Classical composition when I was a freshman in College but I can not remember any of it.  I vaguely remember there being a type of composition that had all these rules about no parrellel fifths and things like that.  Is that Counterpoint?  So I guess I am looking for a good book that teaches that type of Composition.  I did all the searches in Wikipedia and stuff Cybad and saw the lists but your coments about
Walter Piston establishing a new school based on her teaching is helpful...  Maybe I need to look into his books?  I have been convinced that Nadia is a major infuence for a long time that i need to find out more about,  that is why I started this thread.  thanks for your help.

7 -- 09/18/2006, 22:51:42 -- #29891
The Walter Piston book "Harmony" was the definitive work on (guess what) harmony (at least at the university I studied).

I've still got my copy of it. Dry as dust, but everything was in there.

jmkarns -- 09/19/2006, 08:24:32 -- #29891
Are there any living relatives of Boulanger? I see a Richard on
the list.

7 -- 09/19/2006, 08:39:03 -- #29891
"Boulanger" means "Baker".

It's an extremely common name in France.

They are probably no more related than Norma Jeane Baker, Ginger Baker, and the Fabulous Baker Boys.

pringe -- 09/19/2006, 09:43:53 -- #29891
If you're interested in classical / jazz composition (in any relative proportion) I recommend you speak to Jack Reilly for possible lessons.

http://www.jackreillyjazz.com/

You can probably gain much information about him from his biog and website, but I remember he told me he studied with Lennie Tristano as a student (amongst others), but is extremely well studied in classical composition (a great source of knowledge on Scoenberg's texts). He has composed a wide range of classical / jazz works; I think he premiered his requiem for choir and quartet last year (http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=16984).

He is a very highly respected educator / composer / pianist!

pringe -- 09/19/2006, 09:45:03 -- #29891
It depends how far down the classical study route you want to go, but you could check out Schoenberg's texts yourself, and Fux's Counterpoint study (Gradus Ad Parnassum).

jmderay -- 09/20/2006, 02:24:57 -- #29891
Mike, among all your searches, you may have read about the Nadia and Lili (her sister dead at 24 in 1918, first woman winning the Prix de Rome for musical composition, thanks Wiki) Boulanger International Fundation : http://www.fondation-boulanger.com/index.htm
In the contact section there is an email contact or a formula where you could ask for infos.
Another main link seems to be  : www.bnf.fr and maybe could you investigate there.

(BNF is "Bibliotheque Nationale de France". BN-Opaline, collections of the Music Department and the Audio-visuel Department. The Music Department of the National Library of France is, since 1980, the principal depositary of the Nadia Boulanger collection. Musical manuscripts, with dedication or not are, are assembled, original editions, corrected proofs, autograph letters and writings. This collection contains invaluable archives of Nadia Boulanger, of Lili Boulanger and of other members of the family).
Hope this helps.
7, you forgot CHET Baker :) For your info, BOULANGER comes in 154th rank in "most usual family names" in France, with 20849 persons with this name (source : http://nom-de-famille.linternaute.com/nom/28330/boulanger.shtml

jmderay -- 09/20/2006, 02:32:15 -- #29891
AAAAAr ! my family name comes in 15156th position in France !! :) Does that mean men are less "prolific" in my family ? or don't they like to "accept to recognize paternity" :)))

jmkarns -- 09/20/2006, 09:07:57 -- #29891
I thought the Faboulous Baker Boys were fictitious characters.
Did they really exist?

7 -- 09/20/2006, 09:10:54 -- #29891
Yes, only their names were changed. They were actually the Fabulous Bridges Brothers. j/k

CynBad -- 09/20/2006, 09:56:51 -- #29891
ACtually, both the names and the sex were changed.
The real story was the Fabulous Boulanger Girls.

jmderay -- 09/20/2006, 13:07:24 -- #29891
:) CynBad
you're kidding, but it seems Nadia and Lili BOULANGER could (should)have been named this way, for what they accomplished (Lili in a short living time and Nadia).
Typing "Nadia BOULANGER" and "livres" (books) on google.fr, I found this nice link : http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm6-3/nadia-en.html and Mike, after reading that, I understand better why you want to know more about her, and this man (Don CAMPBELL) having written several books including "Master Teacher, Nadia Boulanger" certainly knows alot about her, maybe you could contact him, if you don't have Quincy's email :) Good luck !

sid -- 09/20/2006, 14:57:26 -- #29891
Albert Alan Owen in the list of NB's students lives in the hills near here.  I once went to him for a piano lesson but he took one look at my technique and that was the end of that.  Nice fellow, though, and very knowledgable about jazz.

7, did you read the section on saxophone in Piston's book?  Not just dry, positively desiccated I'd say.

sid

SolArt -- 09/21/2006, 04:37:25 -- #29891
"I've still got my copy of it. Dry as dust, but everything was in there."

I'm curious 7, is it a light purple color?

7 -- 09/21/2006, 08:44:49 -- #29891
SolArt,
It's military green on the outside, and on the inside it's white with little black markings.

Sid,
It's been thirty years since I opened that book. But I distinctly remember that the part I really hated was figured bass.

SolArt -- 09/21/2006, 10:05:46 -- #29891
How many times have I told you not to study with a mouse! Be sure to wash your hands after a refresher look.

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