Pierre Boulez, French composer and conductor, Died at 90

  Music, Writers

Pierre Boulez was born on March 26, 1925, and died on January 5, 2016.

He was a French composer, conductor, writer and pianist.

Pierre was also the founder and director of the Paris-based Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM).

During his early career, Boulez played a key role in the development of integral serialism, controlled chance and electronic music.

Enabling him to couple with his highly polemical views on the evolution of music, gained him the reputation as an enfant terrible.

While he was a conductor, Boulez was known mainly for his performances of Béla Bartók, Alban Berg, Anton Bruckner, Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, Maurice Ravel, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Edgard Varèse, Richard Wagner and Anton Webern.

Pierre Boulez was awarded a total of 26 Grammy Awards during his career.

He has been called an articulate, perceptive and sweeping writer on music.

Pierre has written on questions of technique and aesthetics in a reflective if sometimes elliptical manner.

Some of his writings have mostly been republished under the titles Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, Orientations: Collected Writings, and Boulez on Music Today, as well as in the journal of the Darmstadt composers of the time, Die Reihe.

The third edition of the French texts, with his previously uncollected material, has appeared under the title Points de repère I, II, and III.

Two interviews with Mr. Boulez were published in 2007 and 2008.

Pierre Boulez passed away at 90 yrs old.