Pierre Boulez (1926-2016)
A fascinating composer. A skilled musical politician. I have been influenced by Boulez’s dogmatism, the spontaneous precision of his cat-like conducting and the devastating, neurotic, crystal explosions and stases in his music. Boulez’s energy in organising the Domaines Musicales was inspiring. I have followed his rigour in pitch organisation in my own non-diatonic music, bringing these musical structures to my film scores when possible. His techniques of total serialism and chord multiplication produce freshly coherent results.
Pieces by Boulez which I most admire are Le marteau sans maître (1957), Pli selon pli (1957/62) …explosante-fixe… (1993) and Répons (1984). Cold, shattering, glistening, shocking, beautiful.
