Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez (IPA: /pjɛʁ.buˈlɛz/) (born March 26, 1925) is a conductor and composer of classical music. He was born in Montbrison, France. He initially studied mathematics at Lyon before pursuing music at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen and Andrée Vaurabourg (Arthur Honegger's wife). He went on to write atonal music in a post-Webernian serial style greatly influenced by Messiaen, serialising not only the pitches of notes, but also the durations, dynamics, accents, and so on. He became one of the philosophical leaders of the post-war movement in the arts towards greater abstraction and experimentation.

List of selected compositions

• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1946)
• Piano Sonata No. 2 (1947-48)
• Polyphonie X (1951)
• Structures (1952)
• Le marteau sans maître (alto, alto flute, guitar, vibraphone, xylorimba, percussion and viola, 1953-55)
• Piano Sonata No. 3 (1955-...) (Unfinished: only two of the five movements have been published.)
• Pli selon pli (soprano and orchestra, 1957-62)
• Domaines (clarinet solo, 1968-69)
• Domaines (clarinet and ensemble, 1968-69)
• cummings ist der Dichter (for chorus and ensemble, 1970)
• Rituel: In Memoriam Bruno Maderna (orchestra, 1974-75)
• Messagesquisse (seven cellos, 1976-77)
• Notations (piano version 1945, orchestral version 1978-...)
• Répons (two pianos, harp, vibraphone, glockenspiel, cimbalom, orchestra and electronics, 1980-84)
• Le visage nuptial (soprano, alto, female chorus and orchestra, 1951-89)
• ...explosante-fixe... (ensemble and electronics, first version 1972-74, second version 1991-93)
• Sur Incises (1996-98)

See also: List of compositions by Pierre Boulez

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