Editing Jean Barraqué (section)

==Life==
Barraqué was born in [[Puteaux]], [[Hauts-de-Seine]]. In 1931, he moved with his family to Paris. He studied in Paris with [[Jean Langlais]] and [[Olivier Messiaen]] and, through Messiaen, became interested in serialism. After completing his [[Piano Sonata (Barraqué)|Piano Sonata]] in 1952, he suppressed or destroyed his earlier works. A book published by the French music critic [[André Hodeir]], titled ''Since Debussy'',{{sfn|Hodeir|1961}} created controversy around Barraqué by claiming this work as perhaps the finest [[piano sonata]] since [[Piano sonatas (Beethoven)|Beethoven]]. As the work had still not been publicly performed, and only two other works by him had at this time, the extravagant claims made for Barraqué in this book were received with some scepticism. Whilst with hindsight it is clear that Hodeir had accurately perceived the exceptional features of Barraqué's music—notably its searing Romantic intensity, which distinguishes it from the contemporaneous works of [[Pierre Boulez|Boulez]] or [[Karlheinz Stockhausen|Stockhausen]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Okuneva |first=Ekaterina |title="Romantic" Serialism (Sonata for Piano by Jean Barraqué) |url=https://www.academia.edu/21288077 |journal=Теория музыки (Music Theory) |volume=2 |issue=13 |pages=119–124 |via=academia.edu}}</ref>

As [[Paul Griffiths (writer)|Paul Griffiths]]' biography clarified, Boulez had in fact attempted to get the Barraqué Piano Sonata performed for some years after it was finished.{{sfn|Griffiths|2003|loc=45}} Barraqué's music was published starting in 1963 by the Florentine businessman Aldo Bruzzichelli,{{sfn|Griffiths|2001}} who provided much-needed material assistance for the composer, but whose promotion could not perhaps compete with that of the better known [[Universal Edition]] in Vienna who published Boulez, [[Luciano Berio|Berio]], and Stockhausen.

Embracing the Parisian avant-garde, Barraqué entered into a romantic relationship with the philosopher [[Michel Foucault]]. Together, they tried to produce their greatest work, used recreational drugs heavily and engaged in sado-masochistic sexual activity.{{sfn|Eribon|1991|loc=65–68}}{{sfn|Macey|1993|loc=50–53}}{{sfn|Miller|1993|loc=66, 79–82, 89–91}}

Barraqué was involved in a car accident in 1964, and his apartment was destroyed by fire in November 1968.{{sfn|Janzen|1989|loc=241–242}} He suffered from bad health for much of his life. Nevertheless, his death in Paris in August 1973, at the age of 45, was sudden and unexpected, and he appeared to have resumed serious work on a number of larger compositions from the ''Death of Virgil'' cycle.{{sfn|Page|1986}}