Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades by James Whipple Miller
What's It About?
This is the first biographical study of the great French master teacher's last half of life. The book includes 227 letters exchanged over four decades between Boulanger and her close friend and disciple Ruth Robbins. From this unique epistolary record between an extraordinary pedagogue and her student, we gain deep and new insights into Boulanger's beliefs and feelings, and how they changed as she faced the challenges of aging.“To measure the potency of Boulanger’s influence is impossible. As a tree is rooted firmly to the earth, she was rooted in the history and grammar of Western music.”
— Don Campbell, music critic and former Boulanger student
She might not be known in the common household, but Nadia Boulanger made quite a name for herself throughout the early and mid-twentieth century as a composer, conductor and perhaps the most influential teacher of music.
Famous across the feminist and classical music world, Nadia was “a highly influential arbiter of aesthetic taste in the Paris salon culture.” She lived and moved eloquently amongst the aristocratic, the wealthy and the famous, best exemplified by her close friendships with Igor Stravinsky, Marcelle de Manziarly, Leonard Bernstein, Louise Talma and Winnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac.
While there have been many books documenting her life, Nadia Boulanger: War Years in America and Her Last Decades (Chestnut Hill Press) by James Whipple Miller provides a unique perspective through her letter correspondence with her lifelong friend, student and fellow lover of music, Ruth Robbins — the author’s aunt.
Letters Spanning a Lifetime
In the book’s opening section, the author thoroughly and articulately examines the lives of Nadia and Ruth, as well as Idil Biret, a child prodigy who studied under Nadia at a young age and developed lifelong friendships with both women.
Through extensive research, Miller provides an in-depth into these women’s lives and reveals a great deal of who these women are, interlacing quotations from Ruth and Nadia’s letters and from exclusive interviews with Idil. He also includes an abundance of pictures and scanned documents from various archives.
The bulk of the book is found in the correspondence between Nadia and Ruth. Including over 200 letters between the two (as well as a spare acquaintance or two), the book provides a deeper and more intimate look into their lives and personalities. As Miller points out, these letters often highlight Nadia’s complex personality and reveal “Robbins’s generous character, moral rigor, pragmatism, and wit,” as well as her deep respect and love for Nadia.
The letters touch on various topics, from daily goings-on and plans to visit one another to issues of war, death, morality, beauty, loss and love. Ruth often found herself asking for Nadia’s advice concerning her music career, such as in one letter where she comments on her role during the Second World War: “I have contributed nothing … and would probably be much more useful as a worker in an airplane factory or as a nurse. But I keep seeing past the war, and know that no matter how bitter and furious a struggle it is now, it cannot go on forever.”
Their correspondence stretched over four decades, ending only a few short weeks before Nadia’s death in 1979.
Three Lovers of Music
Above all, Miller’s meticulous research and the quotations from Nadia, Ruth and Idil reveal three strong and independent women with an unwavering love of beauty — musical, artistic and moral.
“They shared a worldview that placed aesthetics far above and far beyond the everyday realms of commerce and politics.”
In one letter to Nadia, Ruth comments: “It seems so strange and appalling that a nation that has given the world such superb gifts as the music and musicians of Germany should be able to even approach the horror and ruthlessness of this war.”
Like many great philosophers before them — such as Aristotle and Confucius — they believed in the transformative and spiritual power of music, and that art, music and morality were intrinsically connected.
Through his extensive research and expressive prose, author James Whipple Miller provides an insightful look into the minds of three of the 20th century’s most ardent lovers of music. Nadia Boulanger is perfect for history buffs and musicologists alike — or anyone with an appreciation and respect for beauty.
Nadia Boulanger is available for purchase through Chestnut Hill Press.
About James Whipple Miller:
Author James Whipple Miller was a professor of Comparative Literature and Classical Chinese at UC Berkeley. He served as editor-in-chief of financial and technology publications in Silicon Valley, leading to relationships with investors and technical innovators, in turn leading to decades in start-up business finance and directorships on many boards. He now invests his time in editing and writing projects far removed from finance, business, and Silicon Valley.
