Vive Teacher!

Some of the best-known contemporary U.S. composers--Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Roy Harris, Marc Blitzstein, Virgil Thomson--are tied to a woman's apron strings. The woman: their sometime teacher, Nadia Boulanger, for years head of the American Conservatory of Music at Fontainebleau, first woman to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra (as a guest in 1938), and the world's most renowned teacher of composition.

Her alumni fondly recall the ways of the "tender tyrant": she had her students carrying packages for her and driving her car, called them in the middle of the night to do copying work for her. In Teacher Boulanger, they found not only a diamond-edged musical intelligence but a sinewy will that forced them to hew rigidly to the demands of their talents. The distinguished Boulanger alumni--they call themselves the "Boulangerie"--were gathered in all parts of the world last week to celebrate her 70 birthday. At the split-level chalet of Conductor Igor Markevitch, in the Swiss Alps near Montreux, "chere Nadia" herself,-white-haired, prim as ever in a black evening gown, held court before such famous ex-pupils as Pianist Clara Haskil, Cellist Pierre Fournier, Composer Darius Milhaud.

While the Markevitch children presented Nadia with a $3,000 diamond bought by members of the Boulangerie the world over, the guests launched into an exuberant chorus composed for the occasion by Francis Poulenc. "Vive Nadia, the dear Nadia Boulanger, the very dear Nadia, Al-le-lu-jah!" Later, musicians performed another birthday tribute: a cantata by Composer Jean Franc,aix for five strings, five winds and six-handed piano. Over the bubbly, breakneck music ex-pupils chanted their praise of Nadia. One, made up to look like President Rene Coty of France, paid the Fourth Republic's tribute; another, costumed like a priest, intoned, "St. Nadia, protect us," and two more singers, representing Sebastian (Bach) and Igor (Stravinsky), chanted: "Long live peaceful coexistence!"

Energetic as ever at 70, Nadia Boulanger has nevertheless decided to retire from her conservatory post, will continue teaching privately in her big, crowded Paris apartment. Says an admirer: "She still knows more about music than all the great composers and performers." What precisely is it that she knows? The woman who gave up her own early attempts at composition as "useless music" has not tried to shape a special musical style, stands first of all for intellect and discipline. In an age given to sprawling, undisciplined "self-expression," this has been a much needed corrective. Critics of Teacher Boulanger nonetheless wonder what the work of many contemporary composers might have sounded like without the apron strings of her cool, brainy, French-intellectual influence. But, says Nadia Boulanger sternly: "Great art likes chains. The greatest artists have created art within bounds. Or else they have created their own chains."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.