Paris-Manchester 1918
Conservatoires in time of war

This section includes extracts from the (unpublished) diaries of Nadia Boulanger, who writes about the first few days of war at the Paris Conservatoire. They offer important information about the state of mind in Parisian music circles at this time, and allow us to gain an understanding of her devotion to her fellow students during the four-year conflict. It also includes transcripts from the Gazette des classes du Conservatoire, established by Nadia and her sister Lili in 1915 to correspond with musicians serving at the Front. The Gazette, which ran until 1919, forms the most enduring record of a cultural institution – the Paris Conservatoire – at war.

We also learn about Adolph Brodsky, Principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM), who was interned in Austria at the start of the war and the letter requesting his release, and of the other RMCM staff detained or otherwise absent due to war.