One of the most influential composers of the past century, Pierre Boulez, has died aged 90 at his home in Baden-Baden, Germany. The French composer was one of the most important and dominant figures in composition, at the forefront of contemporary music for over fifty years.

His family announced his death saying, “For all those who met him and were able to appreciate his creative energy, his artistic vigour… will remain alive and strong.” Born in the Loire region of France in 1925, Boulez trained at the Conservatoire in Paris where he studied with Olivier Messiaen, who introduced the talented young Boulez to the twelve-tone serialism pioneered by Schoenberg.

Boulez exploded this ordered method of composition to its most extreme limits, and thus forged a new level of avant garde expression that paved the way for countless other composers in the 20th and into the 21st century. This was most potently expressed in the early 1950s with the composition of Le marteau sans maître, a work that embraced multiple musical influences including jazz, serialism and several ethnic practices including Balinese Gamelan, African and Japanese music.

Boulez was closely involved with many of the most...