D'un matin de printemps
Lili Boulanger
(b. August 21, 1893 in Paris, France; d. March 15, 1918 in Paris, France)

Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps is a short but dazzling tone poem, full of impressionistic color and vibrant energy. What makes its sunny disposition so remarkable is the context of its creation: Boulanger composed it in her final year of life while battling a severe, lifelong illness. The piece is a profound testament to a creative spirit that refused to be extinguished by physical suffering, offering a glimpse of the brilliant career that might have been.

Boulanger was a true prodigy from a famed musical family; her father, Ernest, had won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1835 at the young age of 19. In 1913, Lili made history by becoming the first woman to win the prize, also at the age of 19. She nearly won the prize a year earlier, but for her health. She was forced to withdraw after collapsing during the competition.

Despite her failing health, Boulanger’s will to create never faltered. She composed D’un matin de printemps first for violin and piano in 1917 and, in her final months, found the energy to arrange it for both piano trio and full orchestra. Her perseverance reveals how important the bright, hopeful world of her music was to her. Just before her death at 24, she dictated her final work, Pie Jesu, to her sister Nadia, cementing a legacy that remains as powerful as it is tragically brief.

That sister, Nadia, would forge her own monumental legacy—not as a composer, but as arguably the most influential music teacher of the 20th century. Her list of students reads like a who's who of modern music, from Aaron Copland to Philip Glass. Perhaps her most famous piece of advice was to a young Ástor Piazzolla, whom she admonished to stop imitating European composers and return to his authentic voice: the bandoneón and the tango.

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