Living Intimately with Loss: Embodied Memory in Nadia Boulanger's Post-1918 Work of Mourning.

This article examines and contextualizes Nadia Boulanger's musical and non-musical mourning practices within fin de siècle French culture, her family history with mourning, and her personal approaches to loss. Through examination of archival materials, including letters, datebooks, and concert programmes, as well as her published writings, I argue that Nadia mourned her sister Lili after her death in 1918 through a set of embodied practices that either viscerally reminded her of Lili or allowed her to resemble an idealized image of her sister. In addition, through analysis of Nadia's and Lili's post-1914 compositions in the context of mourning, this article also shows how both Boulanger sisters' mourning practices and their idiosyncratic, although socio-culturally and spiritually inflected, understandings of loss and grief shaped their musical compositions. By detailing the ways that mourning and musical choices intertwined for Nadia Boulanger, this essay sheds new light on her career, while also demonstrating the importance of considering emotional practices in music history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]