Pierre Boulez: The Formative Years - Salem, Joseph (New York Oxford University Press, 2023)
"Pierre Boulez was born a middle child to Léon and Marcelle Boulez on March 26, 1925 in Montbrison, a community not far from Saint-Étienne in the Loire valley of France. By today's faster standards, this put him a little over an hour from Lyon, about three hour's drive from Geneva, about five hours from Paris, and about seven from Baden-Baden-all future residences of Boulez during his formative period. Montbrison was predominately Catholic and relatively small: it probably had a population of about 7,000 during Boulez's childhood in the 1930s, while census statistics from 1968 begin at 11,213. By comparison, nearby Saint-Étienne had a census population of 223,223 in the same year, and Lyon stood at 527,800. While Montbrison was primarily agricultural, Boulez's father was an engineer. By the time Boulez turned five, the family owned a private home and a radio that occasionally broadcast orchestral music. The radio came from a business trip abroad to the United States, but the family also traveled frequently within France. Thus, while he was born into a smaller community some distance from cultural centers in France, Boulez's childhood foreshadowed the slow, growing circumference of his worldly presence"--
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Keywords: Boulez, Pierre -- 1925-2016; 20th Century (1901-2000); Biography; Music history; Music criticism