It was her love of music—especially Stravinsky’s music—that drew them together. This book tells the story of the ever-changing nature of Boulanger and Stravinsky’s relationship from Boulanger’s perspective, tracing their interactions from 1931 to 1971. Throughout, it asks how Boulanger’s professional activity during the turbulent twentieth century intersected with her efforts on behalf of Stravinsky and how this facilitated her own influential conversations with the composer about his works while also drawing her into close contact with his family. This narrative draws upon the work of Pierre ... More

It was her love of music—especially Stravinsky’s music—that drew them together. This book tells the story of the ever-changing nature of Boulanger and Stravinsky’s relationship from Boulanger’s perspective, tracing their interactions from 1931 to 1971. Throughout, it asks how Boulanger’s professional activity during the turbulent twentieth century intersected with her efforts on behalf of Stravinsky and how this facilitated her own influential conversations with the composer about his works while also drawing her into close contact with his family. This narrative draws upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu and his notion of cultural capital as a means of interrogating how Boulanger played a foundational role in defining, defending, and consecrating Stravinsky’s canonical identity. Linking the metaphor of cultural capital with the work of feminist musicologists, this text calls for a reevaluation of the influence of women on cultural production during the twentieth century, particularly the power of those imbedded within scholarly institutions to validate individuals after 1920. Thus, this book is both a story of one woman’s vibrant friendship with Igor Stravinsky and a case study in how gendered polemics informed professional negotiations of the artistic-political fields of the twentieth century. Ultimately, these materials are brought together to address these questions: How did Boulanger teach both Igor and Soulima Stravinsky; how did she teach Stravinsky’s music, and how, in doing this, did she influence the course of modernism?