Pierre Boulez

French composer, conductor, and music theorist Pierre Boulez was regarded as a leading composer of the post-Webern serialist movement who also embraced aleatory elements and electronics. As a child, Boulez demonstrated a formidable aptitude in mathematics, but in 1942 he enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. His studies there often ran into difficulties, as he rapidly developed revolutionary attitudes toward all things traditional. Two decisive influences during those years helped to shape his musical personality. The first was Olivier Messiaen, the other was René Leibowitz, w...