Victory in Europe - 75th Anniversary

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Pour les funerailles d'un soldat, For the funeral of a soldier
Lili Boulanger

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Discovering Lili Boulanger

Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) is a day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May, 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe. Russia, Belarus, and Serbia celebrate on 9 May, as do several former Soviet bloc countries. 

In France, WWII Victory day is a celebrated holiday to mark the French people's freedom and the anniversary of when Charles de Gaulle announced the end of WWII in France on May 8, 1945. In France, the bleuet de France is the symbol of memory for, and solidarity with, veterans, victims of war, widows and orphans. The sale of "bleuet de France" is used to finance charitable works for those causes. The cornflower symbolizes delicacy and timidty, and indicates that a message has a pure, innocent, or delicate intention. 


The cornflower - like the poppy - continued to grow in land devastated by the thousands of shells which were launched daily by the entrenched armies of the Western Front. These flowers were often the only visible evidence of life, and the only sign of colour in the mud of the trenches.

Listen to this powerful piece by Lili Boulanger, called "Pour les funerailles d'un soldat, For the funeral of a soldier":


The text repeats two passages said by the choir in the fourth act of the play La Coupe et les Lèvres by Alfred de Musset :
Qu’on voile les tambours, que le prêtre s’avance.
A genoux, compagnons, tête nue et silence.
Qu’on dise devant nous la prière des morts.
Nous voulons au tombeau porter le capitaine.
Il est mort en soldat, sur la terre chrétienne.
L’âme appartient à Dieu ; l’armée aura le corps.

Si ces rideaux de pourpre et ces ardents nuages,
Que chasse dans l’éther le souffle des orages,
Sont des guerriers couchés dans leurs armures d’or,
Penche-toi, noble cœur, sur ces vertes collines,
Et vois tes compagnons briser leurs javelines
Sur cette froide terre, où ton corps est resté !

Translation:
Let the drums be veiled, let the priest come forward.
On your knees, companions, bare head and silence.
Let the prayer of the dead be said before us.
We want to take the captain to the tomb.
He died as a soldier, on Christian soil.
The soul belongs to God; the army will have the body.

If these curtains of purple and these fiery clouds,
That thunders the breath of thunderstorms in the ether,
Are warriors lying in their gold armor,
Bend down, noble heart, on these green hills,
And see your companions break their javelines
On this cold earth, where your body remained!



Marie-Juliette Olga "Lili" Boulanger (21 August 1893 – 15 March 1918) was a French composer, and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. 'Lili' suffered from chronic illness, beginning with a case of bronchial pneumonia at age two that weakened her immune system, leading to the "intestinal tuberculosis" that ended her life at the age of 24. Although she loved to travel and completed several works in Italy after winning the Prix de Rome (including Pour les funerailles d'un soldat), her failing health forced her to return home, where she and her sister organised efforts to support French soldiers during World War I. 




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