Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (1893 â?? 1918) was a French composer and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. As a Parisian-born child prodigy, Boulanger's talent was apparent at a very young age; at the age of two, she was already singing melodies by ear. Her parents, both of whom were musicians, encouraged their daughter's musical education. Her mother, Raissa Myshetskaya (Mischetzky), was a Russian princess who married her Paris Conservatoire teacher, Ernest Boulanger (1815â??1900), who won the Prix de Rome in 1835. Her father was 77 years old when she was born and she became very attached to him. Her grandfather Frédéric Boulanger had been a noted cellist and her grandmother Juliette a singer.

Boulanger accompanied her ten-year-old sister Nadia to classes at the Paris Conservatoire before she was five, shortly thereafter sitting in on classes on music theory and studying organ with Louis Vierne. She also sang and played piano, violin, cello and harp. Her teachers included Marcel Tournier and Alphonse Hasselmans for harp, Mme Hélène Chaumont for piano and Fernand Luquin for violin.

Boulanger grew up in a time of musical transition and her music fits easily into what was becoming defined as a post-Romantic style. Like Debussy, Boulanger associated herself more with Symbolism than Impressionism, with her music featuring the sense of obscurity and indirection more common in Symbolism. However, she also â??explored the â??Impressionistsâ?? palette of nonfunctional seventh and ninth chords, parallel chords, and modal progressions.â??. While much of Boulangerâ??s music reflects the feelings of isolation and alienation that were starting to emerge during the twentieth century, it also reveals her own struggles with depression and loneliness caused by her long-term illness. She often chose texts that conveyed a strong sense of hopelessness and sadness, as seen in Demain fera un an: â??Nothing more. I have nothing more, nothing to sustain meâ?? and â??I seem to feel a weeping within me, a heavy, silent sobbing, someone who is not thereâ??.

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Boulanger)

Although originally composed for Chorus (SATB) & Piano, I created this arrangement of "Les Soleils de Septembre" (The Suns of September) for Winds (Flute, Oboe, English Horn, French Horn & Bassoon) & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).