Women’s Wednesdays: Celebrating the Boulanger Sisters
About the program:
A Prime Number of Lines
for Lili and Nadia Boulanger
A Prime Number of Lines
for Raïssa Boulanger
These beautiful duets were commissioned by Knox Gardner of Entre Rios Press on texts from the book of poems The Unquiet Country by Patrick Milian and composed by Emerson Eads. "The Unquiet Country" explores the history and relationships of French sisters, pianists, and composers Lili and Nadia Boulanger. The collection isn't merely their poetic biography but a queering of their biography, a contemplation on illness, fame, or its absence, and ultimately, power. It raises the question of how we can attain power for ourselves in a patriarchal and anti-queer society. In counterpoint with the Boulangers' lives, Milian employs a multi-vocal approach to delve into divas, femme-fatales, and his own history as a queer poz Cuban-American. Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) is arguably the most influential composition pedagogue of the twentieth century, while Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) holds the distinction of being the first woman to win the Prix de Rome Composition Prize.
Patrick Milian is a queer Cuban American writer and teacher in Seattle, Washington. Milian holds an MFA in Creative Writing and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Washington. He teaches writing and literature at Green River College. He is the author of The Unquiet Country, forthcoming from Entre Ríos Books, and the chapbook Pornographies, from Greying Ghost. His work has appeared in Poetry Magazine, Gulf Coast, Mid-American Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. Northwest Art Song and Line Upon Line Percussion have performed his musical collaborations. He has received the Joff Hanauer Fellowship from the Simpson Center for the Humanities, the David A. Robertson Dissertation Fellowship, the Richard J. Dunn Teaching Award, and a Pushcart Prize nomination." - Entre Rios Press
Clairières dans le Ciel
Born in 1893 into an extremely musical family, Lili Boulanger was the first woman to win the
prestigious composition competition, Le Prix de Rome, at the age of 19. Her older sister was
the renown composer, conductor and teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Sadly, Lili’s life was cut short
due to chronic illness and she died at the age of 24.
Lili Boulanger’s post Romantic impressionistic style is portrayed in the 13 song cycle, Clairières
dans le Ciel (1914). Poet Francis Jammes uses symbols of nature like flowers and birds to
express nostalgia and yearning.
She is solemnly gay
She is solemnly gay. Sometimes she looked up
as if to see what I was thinking.
She was as soft as the yellow and blue velvet
of a lane of pansies late at night.
Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Faith J. Cormier
Sometimes I’m Sad
Sometimes I’m sad, and then suddenly I think of her
and I’m happy. Then I’m sad again
because I don’t know how much she loves me.
She is a bright-souled girl,
and in her heart she jealously protects
the one passion she will bestow on only one.
She left before the lindens opened.
They have flowered since then
and I was amazed, my friends,
to see linden branches with no flowers on them.
Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Faith J. Cormier
The lilacs which bloomed
The lilacs which bloomed last year
will flower again in their sad beds.
Already the frail peach tree has bedecked the blue sky
with its roses, like a child on the feast of Corpus Christi.
My heart should die amid all these things,
for it was among white and pink orchards
that I had hoped for I don’t know what from you.
My soul sleeps soundly in your lap.
Don’t push it away. Don’t awaken it,
for fear that when it leaves
it will see how you are weak and troubled in its arms.
Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Faith J. Cormier
At the foot of my bed
At the foot of my bed my mother hung a Black Virgin.
And I love this Virgin
with an almost Italian devotion.
Virgo Lauretana, standing in a field of gold,
you make me think of a thousand crustaceans
for sale on wharves where not a breath of air
stirs the sleepy banners.
Virgo Lauretana, you know that in those hours
when I am not worthy to be loved by her,
your perfume refreshes my heart.
Translation from French (Français) to English copyright © 2003 by Faith J. Cormier