Hymne au soleil by Lili Boulanger

performed live in person at Seattle First Baptist Church, Seattle, WA; Saturday, October 15, 2022

My Heart Be Brave
Karen P. Thomas, conductor
Susan Payne O'Brien, soloist
Dwight Beckmeyer, pianist
Seattle Pro Musica
New American Composers Series - Guest composer, Marques L. A. Garrett, guest composer
Streamed live on October 15, 2022 | Seattle First Baptist Church

Lili Boulanger grew up in a musical environment: her father was an opera composer and voice teacher, and composer Gabriel Fauré was a regular visitor to their home. Her elder sister Nadia, a composer who was to become one of the most renowned composition teachers of the century, supervised Lili’s musical education. Lili studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and at the young age of 19, was the first woman ever to win the highly competitive Prix de Rome composition prize. Lili wrote prolifically, in spite of constant illness (tuberculosis and cancer), and died at the age of 24. Her style is impressionistic, with its use of parallel chords, chromaticism, and occasional polytonality. Her compositional models were Fauré, Wagner, and Debussy; the latter is said to have held her writing in great esteem.

LYRICS: Hymn to the sun
Let us bless the power of the reborn sun.
With all the universe let us celebrate its return.
Crowned with splendor, it rises, it soars.
The waking of the earth is a hymn of love.
Seven rushing steeds that the God scarcely holds back
Ignite the horizon with their scorching breath.
Oh, vivid sun, you appear!
With its fields in bloom, its mountains, its thick forests,
The vast sea set ablaze by your fires,
The universe, younger and fresher,
With morning vapors are glistening with dew.