Nadia Boulanger et Lili Boulanger: Temoignages et etudes. Ed. by Alexandra Laederich.

Abstract

When is a book not a book? When it's a series of conference papers—or, in the case of the present volume, a mixture of conversations, conference papers, catalogues, and sundry appendices. This publication stems (at least in part) from a conference given in Villecroze, in the south of France, in October 2004, one of a number of events commemorating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Nadia Boulanger's death. According to Alexandra Laederich, who organized the conference, the combination of Boulanger's former students, musicologists, and researchers in related fields was particularly effective, ‘favorisées à la fois par l’absence du public et par l’accueil idéal de l’Académie musicale de Villecroze’ (p. 5). In her introduction (p. 5), Laederich writes: ‘À l’aube du XXe siècle, que reste-t-il de la mémoire de Nadia Boulanger?’ While Lili Boulanger's reputation as a composer is established, her elder sister's multiple contributions to the musical world as pedagogue, conductor, performer, writer on music, and (until around 1923) composer are perhaps in greater need of dissemination. It is therefore easy to understand why the work of Nadia Boulanger dominates this publication.