Pierre Boulez

Boulez, Pierre 

Born March 26, 1925, in Montbrison, department of the Loire. French composer and conductor.

Boulez first studied at the Paris Conservatory in O. Messiaen’s harmony and composition classes and then with R. Leibowitz. He is one of the leaders of modern avant-gardism in music. Between 1954 and 1968 he held annual concerts of modern music (called Domaine Musical) in Paris in which works by A. Schoenberg and A. Webern were performed, as well as works of such modern avant-garde composers as K. Stockhausen and L. Nono. From 1960 to 1963, Boulez taught music analysis at the Basel Academy of Music. The best-known of his works are a piece for contralto and six instruments; The Hammer Without a Master (1955), based on verses by the surrealist poet R. Char, Structures, a piece for two pianos (part one, 1952-56; part two, 1961); and three piano sonatas. He toured the USSR in 1967.

REFERENCES

Shneerson, G. Frantsuzskaia muzyka XX veka. Moscow, 1964.
Goléa, A. Rencontres avec P. Boulez. Paris, 1958.