Lili Boulanger

Lili Boulanger (1893-1918) was born in Paris to a family of musicians. She was sister of composer and teacher Nadia Boulanger. Lili was the first woman to win the Prix de Rome in 1913. She was a talented composer and died at the young age of 24, leaving few works for posterity. Deux morceaux highlights her compositional skills, inspired by late 19th century French taste and Debussy's impressionism. Nocturne develops from the bare figure of an octave on the piano, progressively thickening its increasingly virtuosic and dramatic structure, while Cortège is characterised by contrasting dynamics and shifting rhythmic accents.