Nadia Boulanger: Mademoiselle

---

On the occasion

of Nadia Boulanger's 90th birthday

Nadia Boulanger is the most famous

music teacher of the 20th century.

Today, aged 90, she still teaches

pupils from all over the world.

Paul Valry wrote about her:

''N. Boulanger

sometimes allows me the illusion

''that I understand something

of the subtleties

''and skillful arrangement

of great music. ''

Here now is Igor Markevitch.

First of all,

one must bear in mind

her double origins.

On her father's side,

the French intelligentsia,

the French Academy,

the Rome Prize.

On her mother's side,

a Russian princess' family.

Hence a certain tension,

two poles which represented

- knowing Nadia as I did -

a permanent feature of her character,

of her activity,

and even of her physical appearance.

When I first came to her

as an adolescent,

I was struck by her charming profile,

by the pince-nez she wore

like a Herr Professor.

I think she wore it deliberately.

In those days, in order to exist,

a woman had to assert herself.

She probably wore that pince-nez

so that she'd be taken seriously

as a real Professor.

One thinks one is in B minor.

But no, it doesn't stay put...

With the same motive...

Each chord opens a perspective.

We are here

in Nadia Boulanger's Paris flat.

The piece she is working on

is Mozart's C minor Fantasy.

She tries to kindle

her pupils appreciation

of its surprising harmony.

He plays slowly. Rightly so.

He listens.

It seems we were in E flat minor...

Suddenly,

a streak of tenderness:

B major.

C sharp in the tenor voice!

It's better than it was.

Then G, no!

D major! G major, sorry.

Then, a different kind

of expression...

Something else.

Some minor mistakes...

Then...

again B minor.

A rest on the dominant.

Tonic! Dominant !

Tonic !

No, 4th degree!

Tonic, dominant,

we know for sure we are in B minor.

And then...

Wait!

- Then what?

- We are in D major...

Since you're playing, that's

the least we can expect of you.

So, here we are in D major.

The ear,

which heard:
f, b, f, b, f,

and suddenly...

This D major modulation

is not simply a D major modulation.

Can one actually define that?

I am using words such as tenderness

or tension. It's all wrong.

It is what the music itself is...

They have come by the thousands

to study with her.

Some of them became famous.

Pianists such as:

Dinu Lipatti,

Idil Biret,

Daniel Barenboim,

Jeremy Menuhin.

Composers like Penderecki, Berkeley,

Aaron Copland,

Jean Franaix,

Virgil Thompson,

Walter Piston,

Roger Sessions,

Elliot Carter,

Andrzej Panufnik,

Michel Legrand,

Pierre Schaeffer,

and Igor Markevitch,

the conductor

of worldwide reputation.

During my first year with her,

we would study a Bach Cantata

every week.

She revealed these works to us

in an extraordinary way.

We had the feeling

that until then

we had remained on the surface,

that we suddenly penetrated

their inner meaning,

their very structure.

I remember

my fellow student,

Sviatoslav Stravinsky,

the son of Igor, saying:

''It is as if the work at hand

suddenly became as deep as the sea.''

Indeed, we all had that feeling.

All these works acquired

a new dimension,

a new depth,

that we might never

have been aware of,

had she not played them

to us.

It went so far

that when we brought her

a score we had written,

she was able,

while sight reading it,

to correct mistakes

that had eluded us.

She had a prodigious eye,

and an ear

which were absolutely remarkable.

The accuracy of her ear

seems to have struck

all the great musicians

who knew her. Leonard Bernstein:

Yesterday, I visited her.

I brought her a new song of mine.

She insisted:

''Play it to me, please.''

And I started.

''Ah, that B flat in the bass! No!''

I am 58,

but I was like a child,

a 21 year--old student

who had come to work

with Mademoiselle.

That was the 1 st lesson

I ever had with...

Because I never was her pupil.

And she said:
''Ah, that B flat'',

and she began to live again

at that moment,

we had already been talking

for an hour

about many things.

About Mozart,

Berg, Schnberg,

Boulez,

when she insisted:

''Please, play me the song

that you brought.''

And she picked out that note.

Why did she object to it?

Yes, because that note

had already appeared...

in the right hand.

That B flat has already been heard.

She wanted something fresher...

Something like this.

And I thought:

Really,

this woman is incredible.

Indomitable!

A grand lady of almost

90 years

who is almost blind,

who can hardly move,

but who is in such form !

She is ready

to make her criticisms,

as during all her life.

She was radiating light.

f, c, f sharp,

f.

The bass line:
c, e, a,

c, c...

Teaching musical analysis,

she dissects here,

the Kyrie from Stravinsky's Mass.

Stravinsky, who was her friend,

once said about her:

''She hears everything. ''

The tenor line:

c, c, c,

d, c, b,

b, b, b.

The contralto line:

Then, the whole thing:

The chorus:

In the thirties,

Stravinsky went through

a difficult period

we've now forgotten about.

Turning his back on the composer

of the Rite of Spring and of Noces,

Stravinsky moved

towards a sort of neo--classicism,

even going in the direction

of Weber, Bellini, or Tchaikovsky.

Many people have seen this

as a self-betrayal.

Nadia Boulanger was one of the first

to grasp the importance

of Stravinsky's evolution,

all the doors that it opened,

and to demonstrate,

analyse and unveil it to us.

You are one of the people

who were closest to him,

both humanly and musically.

Stravinsky was a great believer.

I don't know if you are aware of it,

but in his art

you sense the sacred.

When he does this for instance:

Igor Stravinsky,

The Firebird, Berceuse.

When this man,

who always accepted commissions,

decided to write a Mass,

as he had decided, years before,

to write Ave Maria,

the Lords Prayer and the Credo,

he was responding

with a ritual gesture to his faith

- the faith which determined

that if he played cards,

he would play seriously

as well as he could.

In all his actions

there was something serious,

even amidst frivolity or burlesque.

Just think of Circus Polka.

He was so happy when he was asked

to write Circus Polka.

When I saw him in New York,

he urged me to go and hear it.

He was euphoric at having succeeded

in writing Circus Polka.

But there was no confusing Circus

Polka and the Symphony of Psalms;

no mock religion,

no stagey signs of the cross!

''Will you accept that commission?''

I asked him.

''I can't,

it doesn't make my mouth water.''

Take Valry's verses:

''Whether I shall be

a tomb or a treasure.

''Whether I talk or keep silent

is up to you.

''My friend,

do not enter without desire.''

Valry says:

''Do not enter without desire''

and he:

''It doesn't make my mouth water.''

That desire defines any creator,

but what is the specificity

of Stravinsky's genius?

You cannot define it with something

that applies to anyone.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes