page_title: Lili Boulanger
section_title: Les sirènes
hierarchical_section_title: Lili Boulanger / Works / Les sirènes
caption_attribution_description: English: A Demonstration of The Ostinato in Les Sirenes
context_page_description: Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger was a French composer, and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger.
context_section_description: Les sirènes (1911) is written for solo soprano and three part choir. The topic, mermaids, uses a text by Charles Grandmougin. This work was first premiered at one of her mother's exclusive musical gatherings. Auguste Mangeot, a critic from the Paris music journal Le Monde Musicale, reported that everyone liked the piece so well it had to be repeated. Boulanger used this piece as a preparation for the Prix de Rome competition, and from it one can see her firm grounding in the classical technique taught at the Conservatoire. She uses this technique as a starting point and employs many devices popular at that time to create a personal and clear statement.
  The poetry of this selection deals with the mythological siren, a creature that sings to seduce sailors to steer closer; when they do, the sirens devour the men. Boulanger depicts this scene as vividly as she possibly can. She uses a pedal tone on F♯ combined with ascending C♯ octaves at the beginning to portray the mesmerizing effect of the sirens. She uses this effect for twenty-eight measures, in effect, lulling listeners into a trance-like sleep.
  The work is dedicated to Madame Jane Engel Bathori. Bathori, a soprano, was known for her concert organisation, and supported many new artists and composers.
caption: A demonstration of the ostinato in Les sirènes
exif: {}