Steven Duff

Vanishing Voices Steven Duff

Vanishing Voices is neither a work of fiction nor a factual account of events in the French artistic world between 1900 and 1960, but instead falls somewhere in between. The 'star' of this story is the prodigiously talented but short-lived French composer Lili Boulanger (1893-1918), who left a small but significant legacy that leaves one to wonder what might have been had she lived even a few more years. Naturally, a story of Lili must include her sister Nadia, arguably the most famous music teacher of all time, as well as the likes of composers and musicians of the era - Debussy, Schmitt, Faure, Ravel, etc. One of the few fictional characters in the tale is the pianist Claude-Francois Beaudoin, but even he is based in fact. His life and career are modeled on that of Paul Wittgenstein, who had lost his right arm in the First World War but carried onward as a left-handed pianist. Claude-Francois serves as the narrator of our tale and, in one of the few departures into pure fiction, the two fall in love, but cannot go far, as Lili's health is too precarious.