French contemporary classical composer Pierre Boulez

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Yesterday NPR did a story on the French contemporary classical composer Pierre Boulez because he recently passed away.

http://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2016/01/06/462176284/french-composer-pierre-boulez-dies-at-90

One of my favorite (& many many other's) groups in poetry was the French Symbolists. Boulez composed a piece titled "Pli selon pli" based on the poems of Stephane Mallarme.

 

From Wikipedia:
The composition is in five movements, each based on a poem by Mallarmé:
  1. "Don" - based on "Don du poème"
  2. "Improvisation I on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui"
  3. "Improvisation II on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "Une dentelle s'abolit"
  4. "Improvisation III on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "A la nue accablante tu"
  5. "Tombeau" - based on the poem of the same name
Contemporary classical music isn't for everyone. It is as avant garde as it gets, I think. I am a fan though, but I'm a fan of all the avant garde arts. We don't have to experience each piece of art the same way. I like how music like this challenges the comfort of patterns in our brains and has us go elsewhere.