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360° Boulez

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Musicologist Marina Sudo guides us through the fascinating story of Pierre Boulez ...

Born on 26 March 1925 in Montbrison, Pierre Boulez studied mathematics and engineering in Lyon before starting his musical training in Paris in 1944. He initially studied counterpoint privately with Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger (1984–1980)♦ and harmony with Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). In the following year he officially enrolled in Messiaen’s harmony class at the Conservatoire de Paris, for which he was awarded the premier prix with the examiners’ comment recognising his talent: “the most gifted – a composer”.

Music lessons with Olivier Messiaen and René Leibowitz

During this period of apprenticeship Boulez was introduced to a broad range of modernist music, not merely early and mid-twentieth century French music, including the works of Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen, Jolivet and Honegger, but also music from other European countries, which were barely known in the wartime France, such as the works of Stravinsky, Bartók and Berg. Under the influence of Messiaen, Boulez gained analytical insight into the post-tonal musical world, developing his ability to comprehend acoustically the internal logic of complex harmonic colours.

♦ French Pianist and teacher, who married with Arthur Honegger.

During the same period in Paris, Boulez also encountered René Leibowitz (1913–1972), another prominent figure in the French avant-garde music scene. As a composer, conductor and teacher, Leibowitz played a pivotal role in disseminating and promoting the twelve-tone serial (dodecaphonic) music♦♦ of the Second Viennese School, i.e. Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. As a result of having heard a performance of Schoenberg’s Wind Quintet opus 26 in a private concert organised by Leibowitz in 1945, Boulez commenced his studies of twelve-tone composition with Leibowitz. Instances of Boulez’s adoption of this technique can already be observed in some of his earliest compositions, including Douze Notations for piano (1945) and Sonatine for flute and piano (1946). Although his encounter with Leibowitz was a catalyst for Boulez’s stylistic development, their close relationship as a teacher and student did not last long, ending rather abruptly with Boulez’s completion of the First Piano Sonata (1946). In this piece the young composer eschewed the strictness of twelve-tone composition, whilst extending the serial principle to rhythmic organisation, an idea that Leibowitz strongly disapproved of. Boulez’s innovative approach to serial composition marked an irreversible break with the musical legacy of Schoenberg and Leibowitz and the beginning of his search for his own style. Boulez’s confrontation with Leibowitz escalated as the younger composer developed a clear artistic vision for his serial composition, as manifested by some of his polemical articles published in the early 1950s, such as “Propositions” (1948) and “Schönberg est mort” (1952), in which he tacitly yet harshly criticised the academicism of Leibowitz’s approach.

♦♦ A form of atonal composition in which the twelve tones of the chromatic scale are given equal importance, and the emphasis of any one note is prevented. The basic material in this style of music is twelve-note series (a specific ordering of twelve pitch classes), manipulated by operations such as transposition, inversion and retrograde.

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Boulez’serialism

By extending the concept of serialism to the organisation of musical elements beyond pitch, including duration, attack/dynamics and timbre,♦♦♦ Boulez pursued a compositional strategy based on the notion of “the musical EVIDENCE arising from the attempt at generating structure from material.” What is set forth in this phrase is that the large-scale structure of a musical work must be logically derived from the structure of fundamental materials at a lower level. Logical and intricate processes in the structuring and manipulation of materials were a consistent feature of Boulez’s composition. However, this does not mean that his music was unyieldingly mechanical or systematic in nature. What the composer sought to establish instead was a form of serial composition that would allow for flexible modifications and redefinitions of logical rules in accordance with the composer’s musical instincts. As Boulez often said, a theme or series should be regarded as “an accumulation of possibilities” for imaginative derivations and configurations. Many of his iconic compositions from the 1950s, including Structures I for two pianos (1952), Le Marteau sans maître for alto and six instruments (1952–55), Doubles (1957–58), Third Piano Sonata (1955–57), represent milestones in this journey seeking his distinct musical language, which is informed by logical yet flexible processes.

An accumulation of possibilities

An important result of this phase of his creative work was Pli selon pli – portrait de Mallarmé for soprano and orchestra (1957–62/83/89). The work, composed from the late 1950s to the early 1960s, comprises five movements based on the five poems of Stéphane Mallarmé. The title Pli selon pli is also a quotation from Mallarmé’s poem “Remémoration d’Amis Belges”, the phrase describing the gradual clearing of morning mist in the old city of Bruges, which then reveals a series of stone buildings “fold by fold [pli selon pli].” The aesthetic images evoked by these words were used as a central metaphor not only for the overall concept of the work but also for the detail of his serial operation he called “multiplication of chords.” The fundamental serial materials were susceptible to a multitude of intricate additional elaborations, which often resulted in the creation of new sonic materials that entirely differed from their original state. The materials, conceived as “an accumulation of possibilities” were freely modified by the composer, creating in turn complex threads of relationships between local structures. By continuously oscillating between system and freedom, Boulez succeeded in integrating his logical thinking with his sensibility to the acoustic instrumental sound world.

♦♦♦ This approach is generally referred to as total serialism or integral serialism. Together with other prominent figures in the avant-garde musical movement, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono, Boulez became a leading protagonist in the post-war European new music scene, particularly active within the context of the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music.

The further implementation of freedom

In conjunction with his serial compositional techniques, Boulez also explored the potential of “aleatoric music”, a form of music in which performers exert some control over the interpretation or “final completion” of the piece. Drawing inspiration from Mallarmé’s free verse poem “Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard” (1897), Boulez sought to integrate elements of musical indeterminacy with some of his compositions during the 1950s to 1960s, for instance, Livre for string quartet (1948–49), Third Piano Sonata, Pli selon pli and Éclat (1964–65). In these works, the composer afforded a certain degree of autonomy in determining the structural detail of the piece, including the sequence of subsections to be performed or the precise timing of instrumental entries. It is important to note, however, that despite a sense of freedom given to the musicians, the actual musical content was strictly defined by the composer himself—Boulez’s concept of aleatoric music differs from that promoted by John Cage in the same period.

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Criticaster

Boulez was known as a critical author, frequently offering sharp appraisals of the musical works of past and contemporary composers. However, he was also critical of his own compositions. In search of a better solution to his compositional decisions, Boulez frequently revised his works, at times to the extent that the content of the original score was barely recognisable in its revised version. He never formerly declared the completion of any of his works; instead, he constantly sought to identify potential areas for improvement, adhering to his lifelong concept of “work-in-progress”. The idea of “work-in-progress” was not merely reflected in the composer’s act of self-correction but also in the fact that he frequently reused materials in other compositions. The complex network between Boulez’s works can be partially traced though the filiation of a piece with its later expanded version, for example, Notations for piano and its orchestral version, Éclat and Éclat/Multiples (1966–70), and Incises for piano (1994/2001) and sur Incises for three pianos, three harps and three percussionists (1996/1998). The expanded versions of his earlier works were neither a mere orchestration nor a simple prolongation of the original score. Serial or thematic materials extracted from the original work were often completely recontextualised, leading to a process that entailed a significant amount of manual work, including further configurations and reinterpretations of the existing materials.

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Boulez as conductor

From the 1960s onwards, his contribution to contemporary music culture expanded as he began to establish himself as a conductor, while maintaining his reputations as a leading composer. Boulez was renowned as a conductor specialising in twentieth-century repertoire, yet also held in high regard as a great interpreter of nineteenth-century symphonies and operas. In 1969 he was appointed as the Principal Guest Conductor and musical adviser of the Cleveland Orchestra, a post he held until 1972. He subsequently served as a Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra (1971–75) and the New York Philharmonic (1971–77). By the time he conducted Richard Wagner’s Ring des Nibelungen in the legendary production of Patrice Chéreau for the centenary of the Bayreuth Festival in 1976, his international reputation was already well established. As a composer-conductor, Boulez also had numerous opportunities to conduct his own ensemble/orchestral works, which in turn enabled him to reflect critically upon his instrumental writing and to reconsider the detail of his scores.

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IRCAM

In the 1970s Boulez emerged as a pivotal figure in the realm of French contemporary music and culture more generally. In response to a proposal of the French President Georges Pompidou, Boulez founded the Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) in Paris in 1977. The establishment of this institution constituted a revolutionary step in the evolution of late twentieth-century music, providing an ideal environment in which musicians, composers, computer scientists, software developers, acousticians and designers could work together. As the founder and director of IRCAM, Boulez himself integrated the potential of computer music technology with his own compositions. Répons (1981/82/84) for 6 soloists, large ensemble and live electronics represents a seminal work in the history of electroacoustic music. It combined a large-scale live instrumental performance with real-time sound modulation and mixing using 4X computers, the cutting-edge technology developed at that time. His experience with computer technology was further developed in Dialogue de l’ombre double for clarinet and tape (1985) ...explosante-fixe... for flute, two solo flutes, ensemble and electronics (1991–93), or Anthème 2 for violin and electronics (1997).

His own ensemble: Ensemble Intercontemporain

Boulez also founded one of the most esteemed ensembles specialising in contemporary music: Ensemble Intercontemporain. A significant number of compositions commissioned by this ensemble have formed an integral part of the history of twentieth and twenty-first century music.

Through his diverse roles as a composer, conductor, intellectual and founder of musical institutions, Boulez made an immeasurable impact on the advancement and promotion of contemporary musical culture, establishing a framework for its creation, performance and dissemination, an influence that continues to exert its power to the present day.

Marina Sudo