(Pe-âr’ Boo-lez’) b. 1925 French composer and conductor A student of Messiaen and René Leibowitz (1913–72), Boulez is perhaps the arch-modernist of the twentieth century. His early piano works clearly show the influence of Schoenberg (Notations, 1945). A visit from Cage in 1949 sparked a friendship and correspondence that was to be central to the progress of twentieth-century music. He ...
the twentieth-century orchestra – as in Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta (1936) and in the music of Stockhausen, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–75), Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) and Pierre Boulez (b. 1925). Marimba The marimba appears to have been largely unknown in Europe until the manufacture of orchestral instruments from 1910, but it has become increasingly popular with composers ...
soundtrack of countless other science-fiction and horror films. The instrument also found favour among numerous composers, including Olivier Messiaen (1908–92), who used it in his Turangalila Symphonie, Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) and Edgard Varèse (1883–1965). In contemporary music, there has been a resurgence of interest in the ondes martenot – thanks to musicians like Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood, ...
The twentieth century saw the piano return to the orchestra: notable works including the orchestral piano are Kodály’s Háry János (1926), Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and Orff’s Carmina Burana (1937). Modern composers realized that, as it creates sound with hammers that strike strings, the piano is technically a member of the percussion family. Indeed, in Grainger’s The Warriors (1916) ...
From the 1950s, several composers began to discover the compositional possibilities in the technology of radio stations and specialized studios. Important centres were: Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, New York, founded in 1951 by Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening; Studio für Elektronische Musik, Cologne, established by Herbert Eimert in 1951; Studio di Fonologia, Milan, established ...
dance orchestra, the vibraphone forms part of the instrumentation of Berg’s opera Lulu (1934) and later Walton’s Cello Concerto (1956). In his Le marteau sans maître (‘The Masterless Hammer’), Boulez wrote for vibraphone and the the xylorimba, a composite of the xylophone and marimba, with an extended range. Styles & Forms | Contemporary | Classical Instruments | Harmonica ...
Singalongamax (1972) and Singalongawaryears (1989). ‘Music is... a labyrinth with no beginning and no end, full of new paths to discover, where mystery remains eternal.’ Pierre Boulez Styles Contemporary Christian Novelty Songs Music Hall Children’s Songs Christmas Songs Easy Listening Lounge Music Nostalgia Popular & Novelty Style The common factor linking the popular musical styles is their ...
may see ourselves reflected feeling the rawest of raw emotions. We may not necessarily like what we see there. Recommended Recording: Der Ring des Nibelungen, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra; Pierre Boulez, conductor; Philips 070 407-9 (DVD Region 0, NTSC); Soloists: Gwyneth Jones (Brünnhilde), Jeannine Altmeyer (Sieglinde, Gutrune), Hanna Schwarz (Fricka), Gwendolyn Killebrew (Waltraute), Ortrun Wenkel (Erda), Peter Hofmann ...
First performed as an incomplete work on 2 June 1937 in Zurich, this opera boasts a Berg libretto that is based on two Frank Wedekind tragedies: Erdgeist (‘Earth Spirit’, 1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (‘Pandora’s Box’, 1904). Following the composer’s death, controversy arose as to the fate of the incomplete third act. Berg’s widow asked Schoenberg, Webern ...
The Minotaur (2005–07). Recommended Recording: The Mask of Orpheus, soloists, BBC SO (cond) Sir Andrew Davis & Martyn Brabbins (NMC) Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | Pierre Boulez | Contemporary | Classical ...
Hebrew prayer. Schoenberg was a man of iron principle, sensitive and deeply loved by all his pupils. Recommended Recording: Orchestral Variations, op. 31, Chicago SO (cond) Pierre Boulez (Erato) Introduction | Modern Era | Classical Personalities | Franz Schreker | Modern Era | Classical ...
a former pupil of Busoni, but by 1950 he was using Schoenberg’s 12-tone techniques. Throughout the 1950s, he searched for a unique style. However, unlike Stockhausen and Boulez, who wanted to break with the past, he liked to explore aspects of Western culture. He blended acoustic and electronic sound, film, pre-recorded tape, dance ...
time with Lennox Berkeley (1903–89) and then Klaus Huber (b. 1924), though he is essentially self-taught. Ferneyhough considers himself at the forefront of modern music, along with Webern, Boulez and Stockhausen. His works are often extremely difficult, and in the early 1970s some aleatory elements were included (Sieben Sterne, ‘Seven Stars’, 1970). From the 1980s, he ...
He recorded his own arrangements of music by the composer Francesco Zappa (1717–1803): they are not believed to be related. Recommended Recording: The Perfect Stranger, Ensemble InterContemporain (cond) Pierre Boulez (Zappa Records) Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | Bernd Alois Zimmermann | Contemporary | Classical ...
1916–2013 French composer Despite success as a young composer, Dutilleux disowned almost his entire oeuvre before the Piano Sonata (1946–48). He followed a very different path from his compatriot Boulez, and his two symphonies (1950–51 and 1955–59) exhibit strong links with the traditional Germanic form. Variation was a key feature of Dutilleux’s music, but he tended not to ...
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