European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 18, 1967, Darmstadt, Hesse                              Page 16 the stars and stripes monday september 18, 1967 ctr Zfat Nadia Boi Daniger nor mar of mrkn4-/mrr%  of masters by Aaron Copland editor s note Nadia Boulanger whose students Are among the world s leading musicians sunday turned80. One of her students Aaron Copland distinguished american composer re Calls for the associated press his association with mile. Boulanger in the Paris of 40 years ago and in a birth Day tribute offers an intimate glimpse into her personality and Genius. Cop land 66, won the pulitzer prize for his1944 Ballet appalachian  sunday Nadia Boulanger one of he world s most remarkable women celebrated her 80th birthday. Her Fame has spread around the Globe As a teacher of music and musical com position to several generations of Stu dents. For 60 years she has uninterruptedly guided the musical training of hundreds of Young people a record i music that would be hard to match. This slight frenchwoman is unique inthe musical history of our Century per haps in any Century. Although women have often gained distinction As vocalists or instrumentalists for some mysterious reason the Art of composing in its higher reaches at any rate has Al ways been primarily a masculine Art. This makes mile. Boulanger All themore remarkable since she has risen to the top of her profession in a Field dominated by men and without herself engaging in a career As composer. One visit with her would convince that Mademoiselle is famous As a teacher not merely because of her com Mand of notes of her Metier. She would have been an outstanding teacher of any subject because she is be fore All else a great personality. By temperament she is Akin to those women of intellect one reads about in the past intimates of philosophers and Lead ers of literary or artistic circles. She has a penchant for quoting fro authors she admires Paul Valery an Dre Gide t. S. Eliot Jean  senses when one is with her that her mind and interests Are in no Way confined to the musical Field yet All she is and knows is directed toward serving the Art she loves Best. The teaching of any Art cannot debased solely on a knowledge of or practices of the past. Mile. Boulanger know this Well. It is her sensitivity As a musician and her instinctive feeling for the ngh Ness of a new work that make her critical faculty so  does t Deal in specifics. This makes it particularly difficult to pin Point one s reactions to a Brand new piece. But that is precisely what made Moiselle can do. She can Tell you where your piece is lacking where it is too Long or too Short How your contrapuntal textures might be improved Why your orchestration won t  in Short she helps the student compose to see More clearly what it is he is trying to  was an intoxicating experience for a Young student like myself at age 20,to meet and work with such a teacher i was her Pupil in Paris for three years1921-24. She has nothing of the school marm about her. She combines personal warmth with a Lucid intelligence and a degree of concern and enthusiasm which completely wins one Over. Above All she possesses two qualities that every student finds crucial in teacher she knows All the answers to any troubling technical question an she instills in the fledgling composer when convinced of his gift a sense of Confidence in his own Powers even be fore they have been put to any serious test. An unusually Large number of Ameri cans can count themselves Boulanger pupils. This is explained in part by Herlong association As teacher and later As director of the summer music schooling the Palace of Fontainebleau. Many of these summer pupils continued their studies with Mademoiselle during the Winter and told other Ameri cans about her. By the mid-30s, Nadia Boulanger had helped to train a number of men who were later to become Lead ing composers of american concert music Roy Harris Walter Piston Vir Gil Thomson Elliott Carter Robe Trussell Bennett and the late Marc Blitzstein. In the decades that followed younger men like David Diamond Arthur Berger Harold Shapero and basely Black Wood came under her guidance. Some wit once dubbed us All members of thebout lingerie bakery and the name stuck. Naturally not every student turns outs Well As those listed above. A Friend of mile. Boulanger once asked her Ina Public interview How she managed to Tell a Young person full of musical ambition that he lacked the essential  anyone she replied who has Notan absolutely inextinguishable flame is immediately discouraged because the study of music is something so exact ing and i am so awfully exacting my self that those two exacting if take into consideration make it As though the person had decided in the begin Ning quite on his own not to go ahead. I know i am exacting. I say to my Stu dents so Long As i am exacting you can have Hope. If i am Nice that Isa bad sign " True Nadia Boulanger is not without certain severity in her make up. Bill if she is not easy on her pupils or Nadia Boulanger famous concert organist teacher conductor. At 80 still one of the world s most remarkable women. Aaron Copland. Her student admirer. Associates she is also not easy on her self she works incessantly and seems to thrive on it. She believes that the More gifted Oneis the More is to be expected of one she tells her pupils it is nothing to succeed if one has not taken great Trou ble and it is nothing to fail if one has done the Best one  at was at musical receptions in her Paris apartment that i met her friends the musical elite of our time composers like Igor Stravinsky Bela Bartok Al Bert Roussel Darius Milhaud Arthur Honegger Francis poulenc conductors like Serge Koussevitzky Charles Munch Igor Markevitch artists like Yehudi Menuhin Robert Casadesus Gregor Piatigorsky it is also in her studio room crowded with students and an occasional guest that Mademoiselle holds her famous wednesday  these Are late afternoon sessions consisting of readings of musical works through live performance followed by commentary and discus Sion sometimes and Tea always. The musical repertoire ranges from in frequently heard works by masters such As Bach or Monteverdi to the lates tavant Garde effusion just off the press. More than once i heard Stravinsky most recent opus there Lent in Manu script for the occasion to his Friend bythe great Man himself. Despite her advanced years made Moiselle has continued a teaching sched ule that would exhaust Many a younger person. Added to this she has become a world traveler. Curiously she has Bee particularly successful Iri communist countries although she is herself a de Vout Catholic and a conservative by nature. When abroad she lectures conduct gives master classes and As always makes it her business to become acquainted with the Best of the recent music of each country and its composers no wonder her students these Days come from a variety of lands Poland Turkey England Japan Yugoslavia Scandinavia and South America