3. Boulez Interview from 1958 now on radiOM.org

Pierre Boulez on Music (1958)
In an program recorded in March of 1958, the French composer Pierre Boulez is interviewed by Alan Rich, Robert Erickson and a panel of distinguished and learned musicologists and composers. Sounding at times like a doctoral dissertation defense, the young Frenchman attempts to clarify the role, or lack there of, of development and structure in the avant-garde music being produced by a new wave of European composers such as himself, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and others. Boulez's comments about music without repetition, climax, or symmetry seem to confound Andrew Imbrie, Robert Erickson, Arnold Elston, Jack Holloway, and Alan Rich, most of whom represent the traditional, academic ideal of music as a development of themes and motifs. Boulez, whose English while understandable is not fully fluent, uses such analogies as the stream-of-conciseness writing style of James Joyce to highlight his concept of music as a labyrinth, or network of possibilities, that can be listened to in a variety of ways, rather than as a linear narrative with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. The idea of music as a relatively arbitrary exploration of choices, tied together by common rhythms, tone rows, and chords, rather than a predetermined theme or melody, is clearly foreign to the panelists, and they can be heard to struggle with it throughout the program. As such, this fascinating and historical interview stands as an example of the challenge that the avant-garde music of the mid-20th Century presented to the established order, and is a testament to Boulez's perspicacity and personal courage, as well as the graciousness, and even open-mindedness, of the host and panelists.

Alan Rich on interviewing Pierre Boulez (2009)
Charles Amirkhanian interviews music critic, and former KPFA Music Department Director, Alan Rich, at his home in Los Angeles, California. In this interview, recorded on October 21, 2009, just six months before Rich's peaceful passing on April 23, 2010, Amirkhanian asks Rich to recall the events that led to the historic, first American broadcast interview with the French avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez on KPFA in March of 1958. As Rich remembers it, it was during a dinner party in honor of Boulez that he managed to corner the composer and get him to agree to meet with a panel of composers and musicians in the KPFA studios to discuss his music and philosophy. Rich then quickly assembled a learned panel that included Robert Erickson, Andrew Imbrie, Arnold Elston, and Jack Holloway, and a couple of days later recorded them all in what was at times a contentious discussion, in which the occasionally testy Boulez confounded the more traditionally minded composers with his ideas about the structure, or lack thereof, in his music. Amirkhanian and Rich also share some memories of working within the anarchical environment of KPFA and reminisce about some of the more famous personalities that worked there in the late 20th century.