Pierre Boulez

The dominant figure of post-war European Modernism as composer, conductor, and polemicist, Boulez developed total serialism — applying twelve-tone technique to rhythm, dynamics, and timbre as well as pitch — in works of extraordinary structural complexity. His three Piano Sonatas (especially the Second from 1948 and the open-form Third from 1957) are landmarks of 20th-century piano writing. The Second Sonata's ferocious demands and structural ambition made it the defining statement of post-war pianistic Modernism.