Kimberly Francis, Ph.D. 2010

Advisor: Annegret Fauser

Dissertation Title: Mediating Modern Music: Nadia Boulanger Constructs Igor Stravinsky

Find it in the library here.

Dissertation Abstract:

In 1925, French pedagogue, composer, performer, and conductor Nadia Boulanger proclaimed that no composer could provoke such profound thoughts and intense enthusiasms as Igor Stravinsky. Beginning in the twenties, Boulanger promoted the Russian expatriate unceasingly in her private teachings, her public lectures, and her press releases. And as the grande dame of the Conservatoire Américain, Boulanger held the power to introduce Stravinsky to the world in the early twentieth century. In the Château de Fontainebleau just outside of Paris, she taught countless students the discipline necessary to understand the infinite beauty of music. In this milieu, Boulanger served as cultural mediator between the Russian master and her beloved students. 

Beginning in 1928, Stravinsky sent his son, Soulima, to Boulanger for an education, and three years later began sending scores to her for approval. She was eventually trusted to conduct and perform premieres of Stravinsky’s music, and copy-edit his manuscripts. Yet, despite this key role, Boulanger’s voice has all but been erased from the literature. As a result, generalities, anecdotes, and rumors are all that account for the current scholarship about Stravinsky and Boulanger’s involvement. Drawing on newly available materials, my dissertation will offer, for the first time, a detailed and nuanced view of how these two figures existed in a symbiotic relationship that in turn shaped the larger course of twentieth-century music. 

Dr. Francis is currently Associate Professor of Music at the University of Guelph, where she also serves as the Director of Interdisciplinary Studies for the College of Arts. She has published three books on Boulanger and Stravinsky, who together were the subjects of her dissertation. She is currently collaborating with Sofie Lachapelle on a five-year project investigating the normalization of French speech sounds through education, medicine, law, culture, entertainment, and phonetics between 1850 and 1914. Dr. Francis also works as a feminist advocate championing equitable and inclusive practices in the field of musicology.