Nadia Boulanger's Students Learned To Make Great Notes By Tim Page Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, August 2, 1998; Page G04

In some ways it was an unlikely destiny, for Boulanger was very much an Old World sort of character. Proudly European, she was a firm, traditional, painstaking disciplinarian who prized meticulous craftsmanship and favored dark clothing after the early death of her composer sister, Lili Boulanger (1893-1918).

And yet it was to Boulanger that American composers from Aaron Copland in the 1920s to Philip Glass in the mid-'60s went to polish their skills, analyzing classic scores and writing numerous assignments in counterpoint for her. From 1921 until just before her death 58 years later, Boulanger was a fixture of the American Conservatory at Fontainebleu, where she served as director from 1950 until her death.

When Copland became famous, so did Boulanger, at least within the tightly knit community of modern music in America. Others came to study -- Virgil Thomson, Elliott Carter, David Diamond, Irving Fine, Roy Harris and Walter Piston -- creators who have little else in common except for their highly developed mastery of the musical idiom.

Boulanger's method was to immerse her students in fundamental techniques; whatever they might do with that technique thereafter was up to them. As such, there is no shared, distinctly identifiable "sound" of a Boulanger disciple; moreover, her own music was not especially distinguished. But musicians still speak reverently of the occasional "Boulanger student" who may be found in our conservatories and music departments.

She herself was a student of Gabriel Faure (and she conducted a cherished recording of his gentle Requiem). But her idol was Igor Stravinsky, and in 1938 she conducted the world premiere of his chamber concerto "Dumbarton Oaks" here in Washington. In 1939 she became the first woman to lead the Philadelphia Orchestra. ("Woman Conducts Orchestra!" was one headline.)

Copland, for one, always credited Boulanger as his principal teacher. "Two qualities possessed by Mlle. Boulanger make her unique," he wrote in his book "Our New Music." "One is her consuming love for music; and the other is her ability to inspire a pupil with confidence in his own creative powers."

And, finally, from the ever-quotable Thomson: "A certain maternal warmth was part of her charm for all young men," he recalled in his autobiography. "But what endeared her most to Americans was her conviction that American music was about to 'take off,' just as Russian music had done 80 years before."

Boulanger was right -- and she helped make it happen.