Comment: Bruno Monsaingeon's 'Mademoiselle'

In the wake of listening to Lili Boulanger's marvelous Du Fond de l'Abîme I turned to a DVD on Lili's famous sister Nadia. Of course I was aware of the fact that she had been one of the most famous pedagogues in the field of classical music but I didn't know much more than that. The film Mademoiselle is Bruno Monsaingeon's official opus 11, released back in 1977. It was shot from 1973 onwards on 16 mm lending the whole thing a rather quaint atmosphere. This is reinforced by the imposing figure of the aged mademoiselle, pushing 90 but still admirably active and sharp-witted. The movie has not been conceived as a biographical portrait, but tries to impart something of her idiosyncratic teaching style. As is well known, Boulanger taught Wednesday classes in her own quarters for decades to a crowd of budding performers and composers (Clifford Curzon, Aaron Copland, Astor Piazzolla, Roger Sessions and many others amongst them). She had a deep understanding of the handwork of ('classical', not dodecaphonic) composing but had given up on writing music herself since 1922. The sessions filmed by Monsaingeon are indeed fascinating. The material is too fragmentary to really get to the bottom of Boulanger's philosophy and approach, but I had a visceral response of 'yes, this is a teacher I might have liked a lot'. From what we can see she does not dwell on technical details but goes to the musical core. Directly and indirectly she stresses the importance of authenticity and 'being' as a composer/performer. Some of what she said reminded me of the lessons I received from photographer Lorenzo Castore. Writing down a chord or pushing the shutter release is maybe not that different. The movie features rather lengthy testimonials by Igor Markevitch (interesting) and Leonard Bernstein (not so interesting). There is a section in which she talks a lot about Stravinsky. Sadly not a word about Debussy. Another rather striking appearance is the very young pianist-composer Emile Naoumoff, who was Boulanger's last pupil. At the time the film was made he must have been 11 or 12. Amazing to see this prodigy's accomplishments at the keyboard and his youthful enthusiasm. Apparently he is now a professor at Indiana University. He leads a summer academy near Paris in the spirit of Nadia Boulanger. His personal online photo album contains some touching snaps from his time with his ageing teacher. Whilst I did not think the film to be a great accomplishment, it is interesting enough to invite me seek out the book that Monsaingeon compiled from his conversations with Nadia Boulanger.