We get a kick out of James Coburn during last night’s discussion of “Our Man Flint” (1966). Surprisingly lots to talk about in our discussion of this James Bond parody that yet manages to be its own cool, breezy thing. If only I could have used my weather machine to disrupt the rehash of the plot.
Join us next time as three alpha males strive for dominance in a discussion about “Alphaville” (1965). Cinephile Christian Lalancette will join us for this broadcast in memory of New Wave pioneer Jean-Luc Godard. Fedoras and cigarettes will abound as we wander the labyrinthine corridors of this dystopian sci-fi film noir.
Bring your Zippo lighters to the comments section, when we livestream on Facebook. There will be plenty of pulp in our poetry, on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner, next Friday evening at 7:30 pm!
Merveilleuse was the “Boulangerie” that produced sisters Nadia and Lili.
Their mother, Raissa Myshetskaya (Mischetzky), was a Russian princess, who married Ernest Boulanger, a teacher and prize-winning composer at the Paris Conservatory. His associates included Charles Gounod, Jules Massenet, and Camille Saint-Saëns. Their grandfather, who had also taught there, was a notable cellist. Their grandmother sang at the Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique. Suffice it to say, from their earliest years, the girls were exposed to the finest musical minds of Paris.
On Nadia Boulanger’s birthday, much respect to these marvelous musical sisters.
Nadia (1887-1979) became what has been described as the most influential teacher since Socrates. Her students included everyone from Dinu Lipatti to Igor Markevitch, from Aaron Copland to Elliott Carter, from Astor Piazzolla to Philip Glass, from Michel Legrand to Quincy Jones, from Leonard Bernstein to “What Makes It Great?” radio host Rob Kapilow.
Her influence on American music, in particular, has been incalculable. Hopefuls flocked to her American Conservatory at Fontainebleau, where she accepted applicants from all backgrounds, provided they were determined to learn. It was Virgil Thomson who quipped, “She was a one-woman graduate school, so powerful and permeating that legend credits every United States town with two things: a five and dime and a Boulanger pupil.” The five and dimes may have faded, but not so the legacy of the “Boulangerie.”
Beneath those grey hairs and pince-nez lurked an iron will that brooked no nonsense, yet Boulanger was surprisingly accepting, astonishingly objective, and generally dead-on in her assessments.
Nadia’s younger sister, Lili (1893-1918), was one of the great hopes of French music, the first woman to win the Prix de Rome composition prize. She won the prize in 1913, at the age of 19, for her cantata “Faust et Hélène.” It was actually Lili’s second attempt. The year before, she collapsed during her performance.
Unfortunately, Lili suffered from chronic ill health, contracting bronchial pneumonia at the age of 2. Her compromised immune system left her vulnerable to Crohn’s disease, which ended her life in 1918 at the age of 24.
Nadia too had had ambitions to compose. She attempted to win the Prix de Rome (as their father had done in 1835), but was repeatedly frustrated. She got as far as second place in 1908. It became evident that her sister was the real talent in that regard, so Nadia pursued organ and, of course, pedagogy.
Both sisters were greatly influenced by Gabriel Fauré, who was director of the Paris Conservatory – Lili, a musical prodigy, had been accompanying her sister to the conservatory from before the age of 5 – and of course Debussy’s impact in those days was inescapable. Like Debussy, Lili gravitated toward a kind of indirection in her music, more characteristic of Symbolism than the evocative sorts of atmospheres often attempted by the Impressionists (a classification, by the way, Debussy disliked).
Lili was greatly affected by the death of her father in 1900, and many of her works are marked by grief and loss. Ernest fathered his children quite late in life. He was 72 when Nadia was born, and 77 at the time of Lili’s birth. The girls’ mother was 41 years his junior. Despite the inherent melancholy that pervades much of her music, Lili displayed a colorful mastery of harmony and orchestration.
Often she was perceived as destined for greatness. Her music has actually been programmed fairly frequently for a woman composer of her era. But now with greater sensitivity to male dominance in the world’s concert halls, we are bound to hear even more Lili Boulanger. It’s just a pity she didn’t leave us more.
Nadia’s life was as long as her sister’s was brief. She died in 1979 at the age of 92.
Fascinating documentary about Nadia Boulanger, including first-hand accounts, historical footage, and terrific insights. Leonard Bernstein is interviewed in French, beginning around the 7-minute mark:
Nadia conducts Fauré’s Requiem
Nadia’s own “Fantaisie variée” for piano and orchestra
Lili Boulanger’s “Faust et Hélène”
“D’un soir triste” (“Of a Sad Evening”)
“Vieille prière bouddhique” (“Old Buddhist Prayer”)
BREAK BREAD WITH THE BOULANGERS ON NADIA’S BIRTHDAY: Nadia, left, with Lili in 1913. The bread was baked fresh this morning.
Thanks for sharing, @[100063792690234:2048:U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo]! In case you missed it, here’s a link to my article in this week’s edition.
The conversation will be all about “spy-fi” on the next “Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner.”
A polymath on the level of Doc Savage (he’s a karate champion, brain surgeon, swordsman, and nuclear physicist), but with the sex appeal, sophistication, and gadgetry of James Bond (his cigarette lighter contains 82 death-dealing devices), Derek Flint effortlessly surfs the swinging ‘60s super-spy tsunami.
There were two Flint films – “Our Man Flint” (1966) and “In Like Flint” (1967) – with talk of producing more, but according to star James Coburn, the studio simply wasn’t set on investing very much in the franchise. Bond knockoffs were rather thick on the ground at the time. Nevertheless, Flint proved to be a breakout role for Coburn. “Our Man Flint” firmly established him as an above-the-title leading man, and one of the era’s reigning tough guys.
Of course, none of it is supposed to be taken very seriously (it’s not for nothing that the sequel, “In Like Flint,” is Austin Powers’ favorite movie), but that doesn’t keep Jerry Goldsmith from lavishing the film with his characteristic invention, including a breezy theme and abundant felicitous touches in the orchestration (requisite surf guitar, jazzy sax, romantic strings, accordion, electronics, mandolin, and Latin percussion). The composer had plenty of experience honing his espionage skills from his work on “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
I hope you’ll join us, as Roy and I will be at our manliest (and flintiest) when discussing “Our Man Flint,” on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Your license to kill will be waiting in the comments section when we livestream on Facebook, this Friday evening at 7:30 EDT.
60 years ago, Princeton University engineers noticed members of the music department, staring agog at a recently-installed computer. It wasn’t long before a not-so-unlikely alliance was formed that helped to change history. New Jersey’s role in the creation of digital music is the subject of a new podcast, “Composers & Computers.”
The accessible, absorbing presentation illuminates the work of engineers at RCA Laboratories in Princeton in the 1950s, Princeton music faculty at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York, and musicians who first entered the computer center in the Princeton University EQuad in 1962, with the intention of harnessing a new IBM 7090 to synthesize music.
No less than 20 subjects were interviewed for the series, to create an oral history spanning six decades. Commentary, anecdotes, and insights are punctuated and underscored by samples of electronic music, from Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen (his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Time’s Encomium”) to Stevie Wonder and The Beach Boys.
Aaron Nathans, Digital Media Editor at Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, is the mastermind behind the podcast. He too is an interesting, multifaceted individual, who became the unexpected co-subject of an article I wrote for this week’s U.S. 1 Newspaper – PrincetonInfo.
Learn more about electronic music pioneers Milton Babbitt, Godfrey Winham, Paul Lansky, Ken Steiglitz, and their colleagues and students, and the continued vitality of the Princeton computer scene as exemplified by the Princeton Laptop Orchestra and the multidisciplinary experimentation of Naomi Leonard and her “Rhythm Bots.”
Look for the story in print in area vending machines and local businesses, or find immediate gratification here:
The “Composers & Computers” podcast, sponsored by Princeton University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, can be heard on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and other platforms. Show notes, including playlists, sources, rare photos, and podcast audio, are also available at https://engineering.princeton.edu/series/composers-computers-podcast
ONCE UPON A TIME IN NEW YORK: Princeton composer Milton Babbitt at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center
