Aerogram From Nadia Boulanger to Russell Bennett

This article features an unusual piece in my collection, an aerogram from Nadia Boulanger to Russell Bennett. In my collection, I have many music-themed stamps, advertising covers, and various letters pertaining to musical topics. I do have a few pieces that come from musicians, such as the amateur mandolin player Arthur Conant, and a cover to the music teacher M. S. Rickel. Yet, what about philatelic items sent to or from well known musicians? I do not own many of these, mostly because they become collectible not just as philatelic pieces, but also as autographs and celebrity memorabilia.

However, occasionally I do run across a piece that I find of interest philatelically that does have an association with a better known musician. While I am not going to build a major autograph collection, to me it helps to round out my music-themed postal history collection. This article is just such a piece, connecting the famous music teacher Nadia Boulanger to her friend, the composer Russell Bennett.

Aerogram

Before encountering this piece, I did not know about an aerogram. According to quick research, I found that it is a letter on a thin piece of foldable and gummed paper, used to send letters via airmail. The letter and the envelope are the same piece of paper, which gives the mail a preferential rate. Any enclosure would cause the letter to be charged at a higher rate for airmail.

From what I can determine, most aerograms have preprinted postage, making them postal stationery. This aerogram comes with a yellow stamp and a blue abstracted plane. The design came out in 1970. In addition, there are two other stamps, both with coats-of-arms. The red and white stamp dates from 1966, whereas the red, white, and blue stamp with a unicorn, dates to 1972. The three stamps are tied to the aerogram with two postmarks (illegible). These stamps and cancellations are part of what makes the piece charming in its own right, without its attachment to well-known musicians.

Nadia Boulanger

The back of the envelope bears the address for the sender, Nadia Boulanger. In addition to being a pianist, organist, composer, and conductor, Boulanger was perhaps the most important music teacher of the twentieth century. She was the first woman to conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (among others). Her students include a whose who of American music from Aaron Copland to Quincy Jones, Philip Glass to Burt Bacharach.

Boulanger was the subject of a stamp from Monaco from 1985. Read more about her career and that stamp here.

Robert Russell Bennett

Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer born in 1894 in Kansas City, Missouri. His father played violin and trumpet, while his mother was a piano teacher. He began playing music while he was housebound at the age of four following a bout of polio. Bennett volunteered for the Army in 1917, but his ill health kept him from active service. Instead, he was assigned to be the director of the 70th Infantry Band at Camp Funston, Kansas. After being discharged, he moved to New York where he was married and had a daughter. In 1926, he left for Paris, where he studied composition with Nadia Boulanger between 1926 and 1929.

In New York, Bennett became an arranger for Broadway shows, working George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Kurt Weill. However, his most important collaborators were Jerome Kern and Richard Rodgers. Bennett arranged such shows as Show Boat and later, Oklahoma. In addition to his orchestrations, Bennett composed his own classical works, however they were not as successful as his work as an orchestrator and arranger.

The Letter

Marvelously, the aerogram includes a complete typed letter (making it easy to read) that is also signed, “Nadia B.” The short note talks about a recent letter and many shared memories. Boulanger regrets not having been able to celebrate the June 15th birthday of Bennett (his eightieth). Poignantly, acknowledging both of their advancing age, she closes by saying that she dreams they will meet again,”God knows where, but I hope still on this earth.”