Boulez in Context

Author: Edward Campbell Series: Composers in Context

Hardcover

Explores the creativity of Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor, writer and cultural force, within the vibrant intellectual contexts of twentieth-century arts and technology.

Pierre Boulez's career as composer, conductor, recording artist, writer, teacher and systems builder was both influential and controversial. This book explores his early life, education, engagements with his modernist predecessors and contemporaries, and the importance for him of literature, visual art, mathematics, philosophy and technology.

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30th June 2025

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Hardcover

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Summary

Explores the creativity of Pierre Boulez, composer, conductor, writer and cultural force, within the vibrant intellectual contexts of twentieth-century arts and technology.

Description

Pierre Boulez was a towering figure in contemporary music from the 1940s and 1950s to his death in 2016. This volume demonstrates his distinctive impact on new music and situates him within a wide range of contexts to enhance appreciation of the cultural embeddedness of his work. Successive sections consider his early life and education, his engagements with cultural, musical, literary and artistic modernism, his relationships with his modernist predecessors and contemporaries, and the intersections of his work with literature, visual art, mathematics, philosophy and technology. Contributors explore his various roles as composer, conductor, recording artist, writer, teacher and systems builder, as well as his role in French cultural politics, his move to Germany and the time he spent in the United States. This book is essential for students and educators but also accessible to a general audience interested in Boulez's legacy and his unique position in recent music history.

About the Author

Edward Campbell is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Aberdeen. He is the author of Boulez, Music and Philosophy (2010) and Music after Deleuze (2013), and co-edited Pierre Boulez Studies (2016) and The Cambridge Stravinsky Encyclopedia (2021). He has published widely on aspects of contemporary music and aesthetics.