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Nadia Boulanger and the Stravinskys: a Selected Correspondence Ed Nadia Boulanger and the Stravinskys: A Selected Correspondence ed. by Kimberly A. Francis (review) Kendra Preston Leonard Fontes Artis Musicae, Volume 66, Number 1, January-March 2019, pp. 67-69 (Review) Published by International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/721672 Access provided at 4 Sep 2019 21:57 GMT from Harvard University REVIEWS 67 people and its music in his renderings, Delius’s I have lived all my life by the Oslo fjord, and music tries to encircle the emotional experi- spent a fair amount of my childhood vacations in ence. The differences are also obvious in form: Delius’s beloved mountain range, Jotunheimen, Grieg excelled in crystalline, precise images, so I can follow his itineraries quite easily though miniatures for piano or voice, whereas Delius I imagine the amount of detail may be somewhat operated with large orchestral forces and sym- overwhelming for readers not acquainted with phonic proportions. Norwegian geography. The same goes for the After the friendship with Grieg fades some- abundance of names, most of which will be un- what, for several reasons, a strange character known to international readers. To grasp appears on Boyle’s pages: the violinist Halfdan Bjørnestjerne Bjørnson’s significance, for in- Jebe. If Grieg was something of a father figure, stance, the reader would need a short introduc- Jebe is the wild friend who tries to lure Delius tion to his position in Norwegian cultural and out on adventures. Jebe is now long forgotten political life at the time. However, these are mi- (his life includes travels as stowaway to the Far nor objections—Delius and Norway is a thor- East, extensive touring in the American Mid - ough study in a specific part of the composer’s west, and founding a conservatory in Yucatan), life, and most fascinating where it goes against and Boyle renders some fascinating stories the grain of the established image of the man about this musician and the adventures he un- and his music. dertook with the young Delius. Eivind Buene A more balanced friendship emerges from Oslo the 1890s onwards, when Edvard Munch be- comes a close ally of Delius. They spend time to- Nadia Boulanger and the Stravinskys: A gether during the composer’s travels to the Oslo Selected Correspondence. Edited by fjord, but also in France and Germany. It is in- Kimberly A. Francis. Rochester: University of teresting to ponder the friendship between Rochester Press, 2018. (Eastman studies in these two artists that, from our vantage point a music.) [x, 348 p. ISBN 978-1-58046-596-0. $90 hundred years later, seem to have little in com- (hardcover), $55 e-Book]. mon: Munch with his expressionistic fever vi- sions as opposed to Delius’s rather polite music, In her newest book on Nadia Boulanger and the which shows little trace of the expressionist ex- Stravinsky family, Kimberly A. Francis uses se- plosion in German and Austrian music at that lected letters between Boulanger and the time. (Indeed, neither Schönberg, Berg, nor Stravinskys to create a narrative that seeks to Webern are mentioned in Delius and Norway, clarify the relationship between the French ped- and Mahler only briefly.) agogue and the Russian composer and his rela- Boyle offers a personal point of view on tives. Francis asserts that in doing so she Norway as experienced through Delius’s eyes pushes back against Robert Craft’s dismissive and ears, delivering statements that a native account of Boulanger’s involvement in Stra - might think but would never write. He closes vinsky’s life and career (that she was only a the first chapter by describing “the landscapes proofreader); argues that Boulanger’s interest that over thousands of years formed the in the composer was entirely platonic; and ex- Norwegian character” and states that Delius amines Boulanger’s connections with the would “capture in music what Norway’s moun- women of the Stravinsky family. tain wilderness can release in the human spirit”. Francis does repudiate Craft’s dismissals of It takes a Brit to put such sentiments to paper. Boulanger, but she does this much more effec- Still, Boyle has been living in Norway for almost tively in her previous book, Teaching Stravinsky: forty years, and his account of geography, his- Nadia Boulanger and the Consecration of a tory, and cultural life is very well-informed. Modernist Icon (New York: Oxford University Delius’s travels are well accounted for, and Press, 2015), rather than through these letters. Boyle spends a fair amount of ink on minute de- Her second argument, that the relationship be- tails in Dano-Norwegian orthography regarding tween Boulanger and Stravinsky was platonic, names and places. is based on Alexandra Laederich and Rémy 68 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 66/1 Strickler’s research into Boulanger’s private life Boulanger’s connections with patrons to obtain and a claim that Boulanger’s passionate lan- commissions, her knowledge of publishers to guage in her letters to Stravinsky is, despite ap- make his work more quickly available, and her pearances, utterly platonic. This latter claim teaching to make his work better known to both would be stronger if Francis had compared French and American performers. She obtained Boulanger’s language to Stravinsky with that of guest teaching and conducting engagements for her letters to other composers and those whose him, and even paid him out of her own salary for work she supported; as it is, the letters can cer- classes he taught to her students (p. 36). tainly be read as indicative of Boulanger’s non- Boulanger benefited from this by being able to platonic interest in Stravinsky, while his clearly teach Stravinsky’s works—and sometimes pre- do not reciprocate. On the final point, that it was mière them—before anyone else, and was the Stravinsky women who “facilitated and nur- able to bring Stravinsky to the Conservatoire tured the lines of communication between Igor Américain for masterclasses, raising her own ca- Stravinsky and Nadia Boulanger in the early chet among her students and potential students, 1930s”, the letters included here are simply and establishing her as an expert on his works. too few and too superficial to support this read- She was also able to direct Stravinsky’s attention ing (p. 4). Despite the mixed results in Francis’s to her most promising students, although in re- stated goals for the book, this collection is an im- ality this mainly consisted of her telling him who portant addition to the literature, not just on to select out of the yearly applicants for the Lili Stravinsky and Boulanger, but in documenting a Boulanger Memorial Fund prize and other com- common manifestation of gender roles in music petitions she oversaw rather than the composer in the twentieth century in which male com- actively mentoring or assisting students in their posers used the admiration, connections, and careers. goodwill of female colleagues to assist them for But this exchange was hardly equal, and the free and promote their careers. In particular, it language of the letters affirms this disparity. offers additional support for Virgil Thomson’s While Stravinsky’s letters are often businesslike claim that “Nadia bullied women, but she served and occasionally border on the curt side, men”, a critical issue in understanding Boulanger’s are full of lavish expressions of ad- Boulanger and her influence (Virgil Thomson miration and affection. Her letters praise the ac- to Leonie Rosenstiel, 14 May 1982. Gilmore tivities of the Stravinsky family, describe her de- Music Library, Yale University, MSS 29 Series 3, spair during World War II, note how sad she is Box 28, Folder 29). when she cannot see the Stravinskys for long Not long after Boulanger accepted Igor and periods of time, discuss her latest reading and Katherine Stravinsky’s son Soulima as a compo- prayers, and repeatedly state her devotion to the sition and analysis student, Katherine Stra vin - family and Igor in particular. In 1938, she practi- sky asked Boulanger to intervene in Soulima’s cally begged to be allowed to promote his work love life, encouraging him to end a relationship in the U.S., writing: “I have so connected my that the family felt improper. Boulanger’s social life with your work this year that I would give engineering with her students knew no bounds, anything—if you do not come—to have the re- and in addition to her teaching Soulima, this re- markable privilege of making the concerto quest for involvement in the family’s affairs al- known here” (p. 43). The surviving reply is a lowed her to begin a relationship with all of the telegram from Stravinsky stating that the score Stravinskys. From there, Boulanger made her- was being sent to her; a follow-up letter focuses self available to Igor Stravinsky as a colleague, a on Stravinsky’s payment for the work. This kind champion of new music, and, above all, an en- of exchange is common throughout the letters: thusiastic volunteer editor and proofreader. Boulanger writes about her emotions and her Writing that Stravinsky and his music were thoughts of him, but Igor’s letters to her are al- “constantly present” (p. 23) in her mind and most entirely what one might write to an agent: heart, Boulanger worked to become indispens- “I’m sending you a score, please proofread it; able to Stravinsky. For his part, Stravinsky used here is a copy of a newly published piece, please REVIEWS 69 send me money to cover the cost of it; have you touching of all of the Stravinsky family’s.
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