September 5, 1901:
Lili Boulanger (8) makes her performing debut, as violinist at Notre Dame de Bon Secours in Trouville, on the Normandy coast, just across the mouth of the Seine from Le Havre.
December 10, 1909:
Lili Boulanger (16) begins serious musical study: harmony with Georges Caussade.
April 10, 1911:
Lili Boulanger (17) travels with her mother to Nice to take advantage of healing baths there. They will remain in Nice for a month.
February 22, 1912:
Lili Boulanger (18) performs in public for the first time, in a salon on the Rue Bally, Paris.
May 13, 1912:
Lili Boulanger (18) enters the Prix de Rome competition. She will eventually withdraw due to illness.
November 29, 1912:
Lili Boulanger (19) leaves Paris for Berck on the Pas-de-Calais for physical therapy.
February 8, 1913:
Le ménestrel announces that Lili Boulanger (19) has won the Prix Lepaul awarded by the Paris Conservatoire for her choral works Pour les Funérailles d’un Soldat and Printemps.
February 11, 1913:
The orchestral version of Lili Boulanger’s (19) Pour les Funérailles d’un Soldat is performed for the first time, at the Paris Conservatoire, along with her vocal quartet Renouveau, the composer at the piano.
May 6, 1913:
Lili Boulanger (19) enters the Prix de Rome competition for the second time.
July 5, 1913:
Lili Boulanger (19) becomes the first woman to win the Grand Prix de Rome for music, winning 31 of 36 votes. The judges award her the prize for her “intelligence of subject, correctness of declamation, sensitivity and warmth, poetic feeling, intelligent and colorful orchestration. A remarkable cantata.” The work, a setting of Faust et Hélène, is performed for the first time, in the grand hall of the Institute, accompanied by the composer’s sister, Nadia (25). Breaking with tradition, she dedicates her work not to her Conservatoire composition teacher, but to her sister.
August 1, 1913:
Lili Boulanger (19) signs an exclusive contract with Ricordi Company, guaranteeing her a yearly stipend.
November 9, 1913:
Two works by Lili Boulanger (20) are performed for the first time, at a concert of the Prix de Rome winners in the Palais d’Orsay, Paris: Hymne au soleil for mezzo-soprano, chorus, and piano, and Le retour for mezzo-soprano and piano to words of Delaquys. Also premiered is the orchestral version of her winning composition, the cantata Faust et Hélène.
December 10, 1913:
Maurice Ravel's (38) piano work A la manière de... is performed for the first time, at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, played by Alfredo Casella (30). Also premiered is Reflets for voice and piano by Lili Boulanger (20) to words of Maeterlinck, the composer at the piano.
February 20, 1914:
Lili Boulanger (20) and her mother depart Paris for the Villa Medici in Rome.
March 9, 1914:
Lili Boulanger (20) and her mother arrive in Rome for her Prix de Rome stay, in the middle of a taxi strike.
March 12, 1914:
Lili Boulanger (20) moves to the Villa Medici in Rome. Her departure has been delayed by months because of illness.
July 1, 1914:
Lili Boulanger (20) leaves the Villa Medici without permission to visit a friend in Nice.
August 2, 1914:
By this date, all the male inhabitants of the Villa Medici (all Prix de Rome winners) have been mobilized into the French army. The only female inhabitant, Lili Boulanger (20), left a month ago. Except for servants, the villa is empty.
February 13, 1916:
It being thought safe now, Lili Boulanger (22) departs Paris with her mother and sister Nadia (28) to complete her Prix de Rome year. It was interrupted by the onset of war in 1914.
February 22, 1916:
After several stopovers along the way, Lili Boulanger (22), along with her mother and sister Nadia (28), reaches the Villa Medici to complete her Prix de Rome year.
March 2, 1916:
At the Villa Medici in Rome, Lili Boulanger (22) writes in her diary, “Am in anguish about this German attack on Verdun--so much more unhappiness--I think of those who will not return and my heart aches.”
December 29, 1916:
Lili Boulanger (23) records in her diary, “I am so tired that I can’t get up...I am so ill I can hardly eat.”
July 30, 1917:
In an attempt to relieve her pain, an appendectomy is performed on Lili Boulanger (23). It does not produce the desired effect.
March 8, 1918:
Clairières dans le Ciel by Lili Boulanger (24) is performed for the first time, in Paris. While the premiere proceeds, the composer lies extremely ill in nearby Mézy.
March 15, 1918:
After receiving the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church, Lili Boulanger dies of an intestinal ailment (perhaps Crohn’s Disease) in Mézy-par-Meulan, Seine-et-Oise, Republic of France, at the age of 24 years, six months, and 22 days.
March 19, 1918:
A funeral in memory of Lili Boulanger takes place in L’Église de la Trinité, Paris. Following this, her mortal remains are laid to rest in Montmartre.
June 9, 1921:
Two works for solo voice, chorus, and orchestra by Lili Boulanger (†3) are performed for the first time, in the Salle Pleyel, Paris: Vieille prière bouddhique for tenor, chorus, and orchestra to words translated by Karpelès, and Psaume CXXIX.
October 26, 1921:
Aaron Copland (20) visits the Paris apartment of Nadia Boulanger (34) at 36 rue Ballu (now 3 Place Lili Boulanger) with some of his scores. Among them he plays “Jazzy” the last of his Three Moods for piano. Boulanger immediately accepts him as a student. Copland will call his studies with Mme Boulanger “the decisive musical experience of my life.” (Copland&Perlis 2012)
April 8, 1962:
Evolutio Organ for organ solo by Charles Wuorinen (23) is performed for the first time, at the Church of the Advent, Boston. The work is dedicated to the memory of Lili Boulanger (†44) in gratitude for the presentation of the Lili Boulanger Award to the composer on 13 March 1961. The dedicatee’s sister, Nadia Boulanger (74), is in the audience.