Pierre Boulez (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ buˈlɛz]) (born March 26, 1925) is a French composer of contemporary classical music and conductor.
Boulez was born in Montbrison, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics. He pursued the latter at Lyon before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen and the wife of Arthur Honegger, Andrée Vaurabourg. It was through Messiaen ...
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Pierre Boulez (French pronunciation: [pjɛʁ buˈlɛz]) (born March 26, 1925) is a French composer of contemporary classical music and conductor.
Boulez was born in Montbrison, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics. He pursued the latter at Lyon before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen and the wife of Arthur Honegger, Andrée Vaurabourg. It was through Messiaen that he discovered twelve-tone technique — which he would later study privately with René Leibowitz — and went on to write atonal music in a post-Webernian serial style. Boulez was initially part of a cadre of early supporters of Leibowitz, but due to an altercation with Leibowitz, their relations turned divisive, as Boulez spent much of his career promoting the music of Messiaen instead. The first fruits of this were his cantatas Le Visage nuptial and Le Soleil des eaux for female voices and orchestra, both composed in the late 1940s and...
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