Lili Boulanger's life was tragically cut short at age 24 by contracting bronchial pneumonia which progressed via immune suppression to intestinal tuberculosis. Her post-Romantic musical style was more symbolic than impressionistic, featuring thematic obscurantism, unresolved 7th and 9th chords in the style of Debussy, inclusion of modal and parallel chordal progressions, etc. The end product is forlorn, somewhat alienated 20th century aural landscape which Boulanger supplemented by reference to equally forlorn literature, such as her short compositions Clairières dans le ciel (1914) to the poetry of Francis Jammes:
"Today is the most beautiful of Easter days.
I plunged deep into the blue countryside,
across woods, across meadows, across fields.
How is it, O heart, you did not die a year ago?
O heart, once more I’ve caused you this Calvary
of seeing again this village where I suffered so,
the roses which bled before the vicarage,
the lilacs that kill me in their melancholy beds."
Boulanger's "Sous Bois" was performed by the choral ensemble Voices of Ascension in March 2019. Although the piece had fallen into obscurity during the 20th century, it is rightly undergoing a popular revival of interest.
References
Classic FM., 2023. Who was Lili Boulanger? Meet the inspiring composer who died tragically young. Classic FM Discover Music. https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/lili-boulanger/
Wikipedia., 2023. Lili Boulanger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili_Boulanger
