Dictionary of Music - Birding America

46 Borodin, AlexanderBorodin (bor o dēn′), Alexander (ä′′le ksän′dr ə ),1833–1887. A Russian composer who becameone of the so-called Five (see FIVE, THE), the groupof composers who devoted themselves to foundinga school of distinctly Russian music. Borodin’smusic reflects the Oriental, exotic side of the Russiantradition, mainly through its rhythms and colorfulorchestration. His best-known works are thesymphonic poem In the Steppes of Central Asiaand the opera Prince Igor (which contains thepopular “Polovtzian Dances,” often performed asa separate orchestral work). He also wrote threesymphonies. Borodin’s full-time occupation wasteaching chemistry, to which he was devoted.Consequently he never managed to complete anumber of his works, including Prince Igor, whichwas finished by Alexander Glazunov and NikolayRimsky-Korsakov.bossa nova (bos′sä nō′vä) Spanish. A Braziliandance music, a blend of the samba and cool jazz.Saxophonist Stan Getz helped popularize it in theUnited States in the 1960s.bouché (boo — shā′) French: “stopped.” See STOP-PING, def. 2.bouche fermée (boo — sh fer mā′) French: “closedmouth.” A direction to sing without words (by humming,or in some other fashion), employed chiefly inchoral music to obtain special effects.Boulanger (boo — läN zhā′), Nadia (nA′dyə),1887–1979. A French musician who became oneof the most highly regarded teachers of compositionof the twentieth century. She taught at severalFrench conservatories but perhaps her widest influencewas at the American Conservatory atFontainebleau, a summer school founded in 1921,where she taught a host of American composers(Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Elliott Carter, RoyHarris, Douglas Moore, Walter Piston, and others)and countless composers of other nationalities aswell. Although she herself preferred the neoclassicstyle (she greatly admired Igor Stravinsky) and wasone of the first to use the performance and analysisof Renaissance and baroque music as a teachingtool, she allowed her pupils to develop their ownindividual styles. Her younger sister, Lili Boulanger(1893–1918), was the first woman to win the prestigiousPrix de Rome for her cantata, Faust et Hélène(1913). In spite of ill health, which led to her earlydeath, she produced some instrumental works,songs, and a considerable body of choral music, in astyle influenced by her sister and Gabriel FAURÉ.Boulez (boo — lez′), Pierre (pyer), 1925– . AFrench composer and conductor who developed new,very complicated methods of composition. A pupil ofOlivier Messiaen, Boulez first based his method onthe twelve-tone technique (see SERIAL MUSIC) butcombined it with very original treatment of rhythmand dynamics (loud-soft effects), which was generallyworked out according to mathematical formulas.Although his music continued to be based on fairlystrict forms, from the late 1950s on Boulez (who bythen had begun to make a name for himself as a conductor)did not neglect the expression of emotionsand of poetic ideas in his music. He also made use ofaleatory techniques; his Third Piano Sonata (1957)gives the performer various options as to what to playnext. Unlike many composers of the time workingwith new devices and idioms, Boulez often revisedand rewrote his works. His compositions include aQuartet for four ondes Martenot; Structures, twobooks of works for two pianos; Le Marteau sansmaître (“The Hammer Without a Master”), a suite foralto voice, five instruments, and percussion; and Pliselon pli (“Fold along Fold”) for voice and orchestra.In 1971 Boulez became director of the New YorkPhilharmonic, a post he retained until 1977. He thenreturned to Paris to direct a new electronic musiccenter, Institut de Recherche et de CoordinationAcoustique/Musique (IRCAM) and resumed composing,especially electronic music involving the useof computers. For example, his Répons (“Response”)calls for thirty instrumentalists and a sophisticatedreal-time digital synthesizer that responds duringperformance to the sounds produced by the livemusicians. In 1992 he retired as director of IRCAMbut continued some conducting, principally of newmusic. Boulez’s instrumental works feature a steadyalternation of held notes and rapid figuration, considerableuse of drones, trills, tremolos, and similar