Sometimes the death of two famous people forms a chance junction of intertextuality that one would not normally ponder. At least not if your sane.<\/p>\n
We could probably not imagine two more different musical personalities than Pierre Boulez and David Bowie. The former firmly rooted in academic contemporary music and musical politics, the latter an extroverted glam-rocker who succesfully and ingeniously transcended the barren limits of commercial music. The former a member of the three composer club that is most often associated with „New Music“, together with Stockhausen and Nono, the latter a member of a three singer club of independent recording artists that expanded the Pop Music universe with aspirations of art, together with Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel (who is still alive and singing).<\/p>\n
Zappa and Boulez collaborated of course, but it is probable that it was Zappa who selected Boulez instead of the other way round. I actually nearly wrote an article „Did Boulez actually like Frank Zappa?“, but speculating on such things seems morbid now. It is clear that Zappa admired Boulez, though, and that Boulez‘ analytical approach to music fascinated him as a composer who also couldn’t be called particularly „emotional“, whatever that means. Zappa, like Boulez, was outspoken and ascerbic in his interviews and lectures. One can see where the attraction came from.<\/p>\n