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Nadia Boulanger

daily.redbullmusicacademy.com

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Re: Nadia Boulanger

#11

Post by bambax »

> How many notes are there?” Boulanger would ask. 12? 88? As many as could be imagined? The answer Boulanger sought was seven, the diatonic scale, to which everything else was an inflection or embellishment.

That's a strange view I have never encountered before. In nature there's an infinite number of frequencies, and in the Western system of equal temperament, surely there are the 12 notes of the chromatic scale?

To think that sharps or flats are not really notes, but simply modulations of actual notes is... unusual? I wonder what she based this on, and who shared the same ideas... Is there a tradition that has historically taught this as well?

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#12

Post by bambax »

seanhunter wrote: post #6
jethkl wrote: post #2

Testimonials of her knowledge and talent are awe-inspiring. I've known or met in passing several composers and musicians who studied with her. She taught so many of that era. If interested in this sort of thing, there is a list of some of her students [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_students_by_teac...

BTW some of the people on that list that might not be household names are none the less completely astonishing. I mean everyone knows Aaron Copland and Quincy Jones but for example, if you have not ever done so, you owe it to yourself to check out Egberto Gismonti[1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-YW7I5_3AE

Amazing and beautiful piece, thank you.

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#13

Post by th0ma5 »

bambax wrote: post #11

> How many notes are there?” Boulanger would ask. 12? 88? As many as could be imagined? The answer Boulanger sought was seven, the diatonic scale, to which everything else was an inflection or embellishment. That's a strange view I have never encountered before. In nature there's an infinite number of frequencies, and in the Western system of equal temperament, surely there are the 12 notes of the chromatic scale? To…

In a scale that can compose into chords, anything too adjacent is dissonant, so doe ray mi fa so la ti or some of the other keys or modes could be considered a base.

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#14

Post by perihelions »

jethkl wrote: post #2

Testimonials of her knowledge and talent are awe-inspiring. I've known or met in passing several composers and musicians who studied with her. She taught so many of that era. If interested in this sort of thing, there is a list of some of her students [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_students_by_teac...

Here's a graph of those students, and the transitive closure of all of their students, too:

https://i.ibb.co/hsYjDcg/nadia.png (warning: large)

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#15

Post by petercooper »

seanhunter wrote: post #6
jethkl wrote: post #2

Testimonials of her knowledge and talent are awe-inspiring. I've known or met in passing several composers and musicians who studied with her. She taught so many of that era. If interested in this sort of thing, there is a list of some of her students [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_students_by_teac...

BTW some of the people on that list that might not be household names are none the less completely astonishing. I mean everyone knows Aaron Copland and Quincy Jones but for example, if you have not ever done so, you owe it to yourself to check out Egberto Gismonti[1]. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-YW7I5_3AE

The whole of Antologia is fantastic, brooding, saudade Brazilian jazz. There was a year or two I almost had it on loop while working. It also has some more Sergio Mendes-esque stuff going on like the dramatic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jl8AzELAh4

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#17

Post by parenthesis »

bambax wrote: post #11

> How many notes are there?” Boulanger would ask. 12? 88? As many as could be imagined? The answer Boulanger sought was seven, the diatonic scale, to which everything else was an inflection or embellishment. That's a strange view I have never encountered before. In nature there's an infinite number of frequencies, and in the Western system of equal temperament, surely there are the 12 notes of the chromatic scale? To…

That is actually the way I think of notes in tonal music: You've got a root, a second, a third, … , a sixth and a seventh. But there are different kinds of each degree of the scale (apart from the root): the second could be minor or major or augmented (`sharp 9' is jazz lingo); the third could be major or minor etc.

But you don't have to choose just one type of third or fifth etc. in a given piece of music (or part thereof). You can have a single melodic phrase that uses both the major and the minor third, but I think of these as two different `inflections' of the same degree of the scale, the third.

Likewise, you can have a chord that contains more than one version of the same degree of the scale. In the chord E7#9 (E, G#, B, D, F##) the G on the top is being described as F##, but what I hear is two different versions of the third (major and minor) simultaneously.

Blues music certainly thinks in this way. When a blues musician bends around on the third or fourth, it's all the one note, but `inflecting' or `embelishing' that note.

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#18

Post by bazoom42 »

bambax wrote: post #11

> How many notes are there?” Boulanger would ask. 12? 88? As many as could be imagined? The answer Boulanger sought was seven, the diatonic scale, to which everything else was an inflection or embellishment. That's a strange view I have never encountered before. In nature there's an infinite number of frequencies, and in the Western system of equal temperament, surely there are the 12 notes of the chromatic scale? To…

The chromatic scale is an artificial construction, a compromise to allow some instruments to play the diatonic scale i different keys.

Re: Nadia Boulanger

#20

Post by phlakaton »

bambax wrote: post #10
khazhoux wrote: post #8

The article mentions her sister Lili, who most people have never heard of. Here are two beautiful short compositions she wrote at age 18 and 22. She died at 24. What a loss! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57ifMZotkh4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jguzDNqTX7s

Yes. The article says she died from exhaustion from helping soldiers in WWI, but Wikipedia says the died of tuberculosis, which sounds more realistic?

She was never in good health, as she was immunocompromised from an early age. Crohn's Disease or intestinal tuberculosis was what she died from, I understand, but she was wracked with all sorts of stuff.

If you want to get into the story of Lili in WWI, you might find this 2012 music & gender studies thesis on her interesting: https://depot.library.wisc.edu/repository/fedora/1711.dl:W6F... .

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