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I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing of composer, conductor, pianist and author Pierre Boulez on January 5, 2016. I woke up this morning (Wednesday, Jan. 6), made myself a cup of tea, opened my laptop and continued working on a Max/MSP patch to run the electronics for Boulez’s Anthemes II for violin and electronics - a project I’ve been working on constantly for the last few days - when I took a brief detour to check the news. The first thing I saw on NPR was an article titled "Composer Pierre Boulez, A Reverend Iconoclast, Has Died at 90," and I was completely stunned. Literally, stunned for a second - I couldn’t move enough to refresh the page to make sure the article was real. After a minute or two the initial shock wore off and I read the article in front of me. I went on a search to find more articles that could confirm the story. I just couldn’t believe that Boulez had passed away.
I’m not sure why I had such a hard time believing this was true. Boulez was 90 years old and I knew that he had health issues that were preventing him from traveling to various performances and festivals throughout 2015, but it still came as such a shock to me. The music world lost such an incredibly talented, creative, thoughtful, and imaginative musician - a man who is arguably one of the most important figures of the 20th century whose music, recordings and writings will continue to influence musicians long into the 21st century. I have only been familiar with Boulez and his contributions to music for a decade, but I can honestly say that he has been the most influential voice on my career as a musician. My first interaction with Boulez’s music was when I was an undergraduate at Ohio University. His name came up in a history book in relation to his work Le Marteau sans Maitre and post-WWII Darmstadt serialism, but little time was spent on the topic. I mostly knew Boulez as a conductor, and I owned many of his recordings (most importantly The Complete Works of Anton Webern), and listened to them often. When I began my graduate studies at Bowling Green State University I became much better acquainted (figuratively) with Boulez the composer while taking a contemporary music survey course with Dr. Mikel Kuehn. I later studied composition with Dr. Kuehn, and he continued to foster my interest in Boulez’s music through score study, guided reading, small exercises in serial and post-serial composition, etc. I was fascinated by the immense spectrum of timbral color that Boulez could get from both a large orchestra and a solo performer. His mathematical compositional techniques appealed to my more rational side of thinking and the visceral result of his music appealed to my personal aesthetic taste. And, if I’m being honest, his writings appealed to my love of working against the grain and shaking things up. Boulez became a new compositional idol for me, and he has remained a constant source of inspiration. While many will remember Boulez as a young polemical composer/performer in the middle of 1940s war-ravaged Europe, I hope that most will choose to remember him for the numerous contributions and innovations he made to the world of contemporary music. Additionally, there are myriad interviews with Boulez’s colleagues over the years (Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Pierre Aimard and others) who speak very highly of Boulez as a person, speaking of his gentle demeanor and lighthearted attitude. Was he an intense musical figure? Yes. Did he place extreme demands on performers? Yes, that too. Did he say outlandish inflammatory things at a time when he was a young man surrounded by musical pioneers in the center of new music of the world and was basically given a podium and a bullhorn? Yes, but that should all be water under the bridge at this point. With that out of the way, what I have read so far in obituaries and social media postings have been incredibly positive and uplifting and speak very highly of Boulez both as a musician and as a human being. I can only hope that this kind of courtesy and heartfelt remembrance of a great musical hero and pioneer will continue. And with that, I say goodbye, Maestro Boulez, and thank you for all that you've given me, and more importantly, thank you for everything you've given to the world of music.
Below is a selection of obituaries, videos of Boulez’s music and a video tribute to Boulez put together by Universal Edition.
Articles: The New York Times BBC The Guardian The Telegraph Universal Edition Tribute (all interviews available in full on the UE youtube channel)
1 Comment
1/15/2025 10:39:39 pm
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