Requiem Pour Une Avant-Garde

When first published in 1995, Requiem pour une avant-garde aroused lively debate by targeting a certaintype of "contemporary music", which had turned into anew form of academicism. By retracing the history ofthis official avant-garde, the author also-for the firsttime in the field of music-inspired animated discussionson plastic arts and literature.Benoît Duteurtre drives the point home in this newly edited, revised and expanded edition. Still dubious of acertain "atonal music" tainted by the sectarianism of Pierre Boulez and his entourage, and a fervent admirerof Messiaen, Steve Reich, John Adams and Jean-Louis Florentz, the author invites us to rediscover twentiethcenturymusic in all of its diversity.Winner of the 2001 Medicis Prize for Le Voyage en France, Benoît Duteurtre is not only a novelist whosework has been translated into fifteen languages, but alsoa musician, a producer with France-Musique and acolumnist for several publications.