Nadia Boulanger talks about Schumann Davidsbündlertänze

[@lykeioschoolprojects9806]

That is the way a legendary pedagogue does things, trigger and excite the brain, extend the boundaries of thinking, leading to the maturity of the musical mind. I came here while researching Solon Michaelides, the great Cypriot composer who studied with Nadia Boulanger and Alfred Cortot.

[@paohermosin]

Es genial, una experiencia casi espiritual, me encanta esta clase

[@tinjarir]

2:48 - 3:04 - Words to live by.

[@shannonclarke8800]

This is a gem.

[@LunaLeaves]

I'm scared and I wasn't even there

[@swymaj02]

A very captivating lesson for me to watch unfold.

[@JesseDavis7373]

The point of this video is quite evident to me. The students are responding to a musical question with the technical, logical, and theoretical approach. Nadia isn’t asking a music theory question after all. It’s a spiritual one. How can a musician take an inspired idea from a genius composer and breathe life into it? This is why the advanced pianists participate in masterclasses. They are of no use to the general public or to piano hacks.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

Philip Glass said that Nadia's focus on musicianship is in the practice..

[@marcusdekker]

Thank you very much for sharing. I would love to see a video of Quincy Jones having a lesson by her.... Love reading the comments @ this video🤣

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

And while you’re at it, could you please post a video of Washington crossing the Delaware?

[@gustavo1994torres]

Que gusto escuchar a semejante maestra. Pd : Dorothy Tu . u are beautiful!

[@josephmiller5399]

I adore this.

[@SassoonArtists]

Little Emil is so adorable here

[@kpunkt.klaviermusik]

She asked for a word, which was not found even after 8 and a half minutes of guessing. Was it "key change"?

[@Alkadondon]

I think the word was "breathing". The key change is using a different tone during the piece. The first part of this piece is in "B minor", which means that you use the notes B, C#, D, E, F♯, G, A. The second part is in "E major", which means that you use the notes E, F♯, G#, A, B, C♯, D#..

[@1celibidache224]

Semi cadence.

[@ProfRonanMC]

Imbuvable!

[@kwoktimothy]

Dear Mr Naoumoff was already a star!

[@dorothytu9212]

kwok timothy I love his playing Mozart fantasia 475 in the film :)

[@charleslyall5857]

The little boy looks like a very young Piotr Andersewski ????

[@PrincePhilippe1]

No, the youg pianist is Émile Naoumoff.

[@Johnluthecomposer]

May I ask in what year was this class recorded?

[@dorothytu9212]

John Yunkai Zhai I think it's around 1972.

[@alwantamalus3709]

The year of her 90th birthday.

[@KrystofDreamJourney]

@@dorothytu9212 She is trapped in an “old” system of assigning syllables to notes, being centered on “c” as “do”. Obviously, in this cases our “do” is note “D”, NOT “c”. The piece is in DMajor-Bminor tonality. Starting on D as “do” the phrase should be sung : do, ti, do, ti, etc...

[@Mooseman327]

@@KrystofDreamJourney Trapped? This is related to solfege which was an essential part of becoming a musician in France and, probably, still is. Lenny Tristano would make his piano students sing the jazz pieces they wanted to learn BEFORE they mastered the music on the piano. Too bad we're still not "trapped" like this.

[@KrystofDreamJourney]

@@Mooseman327 This is NOT what I am referring to being an “old” system. This is solfège where “Do” and all related syllables were assigned to note C (and respective notes in C major). Think of Zoltán Kodàly system where Do-re-mi etc. correspond to Ist, 2nd, 3rd etc. degree of corresponding tonality. If you are in C major obviously your Do will be C, your re will be D and so on, preserving the intervallic structure within the scale. But if you’re in E major, your “Do” will be note E (first degree of E major scale), your “Re” will be F# note (2nd degree of E major scale) and so on. I hope it explains… Nadia is “stuck” in an old system of syllables. That’s what I meant.

[@qalaphyll]

what's the name of the pianist?

[@bettyemyer6822]

Charles Fisk

[@JoshuaSobel]

@@bettyemyer6822 wait... surely not *that* Charles Fisk?

[@Mooseman327]

@@JoshuaSobel Yes, that Charles Fisk, who specializes in Schumann and teaches at Wellesley College.

[@JoshuaSobel]

@@Mooseman327 not who I was thinking of. Thanks for the clarification, though.

[@shivankmenon4722]

Just with the way they sing ‘do’, ‘re’ and ‘si’, you can tell they’re American.

[@mishasawangwan6652]

lol

[@lokmanmerican6889]

And so?

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

She was the first French music teacher who put plenty of effort teaching American music students. She considers American music schools at the time subpar...

[@musikguru1]

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 Schools' names do not matter. What matters is a NAME of THE teacher. Hopefully, not Boulanger. Not for very advanced pianists.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

​@@musikguru1It matters to her when they come to her class having little to no clue as to what she is talking about that should be normal for any European-trained musician or composer. What will you do if the best of America's music academies doesn't understand advanced music theory?

[@djeronimo7981]

pas marrante la grande nadia boulanger , elle piquait des crises mémorables qu on nous épargne ici ,, mais la dame dit des vérités même si je n aurais pas aimé l avoir comme professeur , a moins que les progrès dépassent l angoisse des cours ,,

[@el_fr9200]

Moi je la trouve charmante c’est parce qu’elle est passionné elle a un ton sage je trouve

[@HumeSampson-g4j]

Hernandez Scott Hernandez Eric Gonzalez William

[@tadcotadco6344]

boulangerie ))

[@musikguru1]

Exactly!! "boulangerie"

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

What? So we should call Anne Frank “Anne Francine”?

[@tadcotadco6344]

@@jeffryphillipsburns but her school really was a bakery - during long decades she was baking notable composers and performers like hot gateaux )

[@bigbong620]

A lot of verbiage with very little to say.

[@voraciousreader3341]

The little toady behind Ms. Boulanger looks as smug as if he’d swallowed an entire chocolate layer cake in one bite, but he doesn’t know any of the answers, even though he acts like her little helpful macabre elf, officiously conducting with her.

[@organman52]

Have you witnessed him NOW? His name is Emile Nauomoff. You might go to his youtube 'performance' of the Bach C minor Passacaglia. Absolutely appalling. I was there in 1972 and witnessed that little twerp first hand. He is still a pretentious twerp, only not so little. Madamoiselle would be infuriated.

[@martinlee5604]

GENTLEMEN, PLEASE! [J'AURAIS AIME AVOIR L'ENSEIGNEMENT DE NADIA BOULANGER.]

[@organman52]

@@martinlee5604 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@rjlecuona]

The little boy does not look arrogant to me; he looks focused. Emile N. is a wonderful pianist and composer, by the way. I like the way she gets deep into the structure of the music. There is a wonderful KZbin video of her teaching Emile N, and she says something that Chopin also believed: we can use lots of words to help us approach music, but we never can get too far away from the inner life of the voice leading.

[@chaussonaph]

La secte boulangiste...

[@hermannsteinpilz4581]

This has strong cult-like vibes to me. Nadia Boulanger was neither a great pianist nor a great composer but she holds forth as if has all the wisdom of Schumann himself.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

When her grandfather and father were professors of the Paris Music Conservatory, her father's friends happen to be Claude Debussy and Gabriel Faure, her competitors for the Prix de Rome was Camille Saint-Saens, her sister is Lili Boulanger who herself won the Prix de Rome, and taught personages like Philip Glass, Quincy Jones, and Aaron Copland...

[@musikguru1]

This is exactly what I said. "strong cult", "Nadia Boulanger was neither a great pianist nor a great composer". 100% to the point.

[@jamespatagueule4599]

@@musikguru1 she was a great pianist

[@musikguru1]

@@jamespatagueule4599 oh, really??! Name a single satisfactory recording of hers. All is bullshit.

[@mr.wigman]

​​@@musikguru1She is a legend and you are a lil russian german nazi troll. There is nothing more to say.

[@chaussonaph]

C'était une secte Rue Ballu !

[@madcat8369]

j'aurais plutôt formuler ça comme une réunion d'érudit

[@chaussonaph]

@@madcat8369 Oui, un milieu très fermé cependant !

[@madcat8369]

@@chaussonaph Mouais faut aussi écrémé un petit peu pour pas que ''Joe le rigolo'' arrive de nulle part. si on place un extremiste baroqueux adepte de tempérament relativement ingérable dans une classe fétichiste de minimaliste ...au bout d'un moment faut savoir où l'on veut aller aussi ^__^

[@trblcleft]

A bit overly pedantic for my liking,

[@VallaMusic]

Nadia offers her pupils a quote from Valery near the end of this video which I find somewhat silly - what is one to make of Valery's statement? - that there is a divine inspiration that lasts but a brief moment or two, and then dear creative person, you're all on your own ? - that's not been my experience at all

[@zanhuang7402]

Well, I didn't think it was silly at all. I think she was referring to the fact that during the process of creation, the first ideas all come easily through inspiration, and that phrase can generate itself predictably. But after that first phrase, the difficulty lies in finding a phrase that is equally inspired and can also serve, at the same time, as material logically succeeding the first.

[@maxime7382]

@@zanhuang7402 Exactly, and that’s why the word they were after before is “cadenza”, because it regiments the development of music itself.

[@erzherzogone4802]

What a horrible lesson. She is acting like a Guru speaking to her disciples and does this in an arrogant, non respectful way. It scared me, how she pulls off the hand of the student. And by the way… I don’t have the feeling, that she really had something important to say about the music.

[@MorganHayes_Composer.Pianist]

spot-on.

[@nosojdjos]

Snowflake

[@fredelin2580]

You are quite disconnected. Your lack of receptivity is alarming.

[@musikguru1]

She is all about herself, not about Music.

[@musikguru1]

@@fredelin2580 and your pretentiousness is even more alarming because there are way too many of you - people who think of themselves way too much.

[@mathersdavid5113]

Abusive and disrespectful to pull a student's hand off the piano. Should have known better.

[@Seekthetruth3000]

Old school.

[@lokmanmerican6889]

That's silly. Update: my comment refers to the original post by Mathers David.

[@carolepaul8390]

George Zell used to hit students with a ruler if they made a mistake. He produced great like James Lavine in the process. Maybe treating students like babies these days is why we produce little.

[@lokmanmerican6889]

@@carolepaul8390 I can tell you in Australia they wrap kids in cotton wool (so to speak), then treat them like babies. And expect them to learn by themselves ("Discovery") with teachers "guiding" instead of actually teaching.

[@pymebones]

I think it's you who should know better

[@musikguru1]

Total nonsense! Complete invention of nothingness. A vain attempt to explain Music from a genius by words from a mediocrity!!

[@AlexLamia]

If you say that, you definitely doesn't know Nadia Boulanger. Like, really, not a clue at all. But your message is also a good example on how we can judge a person just in a single video, or a single clip in our time. Taking a moment, appropriate it in the wrong way by ignorance of the whole picture, and making it a generality. Sad for you.

[@theotherohlourdespadua1131]

Dude, she's not even commenting about the music itself, she's commenting about the pianist playing it and giving points how to do it. This is Nadia Boulanger, an entire generation of composers was created under her tutelage...

[@musikguru1]

@@AlexLamia gee, this is exactly the bullshit comment one expects from a Franco file moron like you.

[@musikguru1]

@@theotherohlourdespadua1131 very sad. You can see and evaluate this “generation” of ‘composers’. A bunch of nobodies except Bernstein who was great even before he entered this damn studio.

[@jeffryphillipsburns]

@@musikguru1 Really? Why Bernstein? Because he was a famous conductor, wrote one successful musical, and appeared on television a lot? In other words, because he’s someone you’ve actually heard of. I submit that Walter Piston, Aaron Copeland, Roy Harris, and Elliot Carter are “nobodies” to you merely because you know essentially nothing about music. That would be fine in itself, you’re entitled to your ignorance, but you’re not entitled to be arrogant and belligerent about your ignorance. Find something better to do with your time.