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978-0-521-51490-3 - The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez: Writings and Compositions

Jonathan Goldman
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The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez

Writings and Compositions
Pierre Boulez is arguably the most influential composer of the second half of the
twentieth century. Here, Jonathan Goldman provides a fresh appraisal of the
composer’s music, demonstrating how understanding the evolution of Boulez’s
ideas on musical form is an important step towards evaluating his musical thought
generally. The theme of form arising from a grammar of oppositions – the legacy
of structuralism – serves as a common thread in Boulez’s output, and testifies to
the constancy of Boulez’s thought over and above his several notable aesthetic
and stylistic changes. This book lends a voice to the musical works by using the
writings – particularly the mostly untranslated collected Collège de France lectures
(1976–95) – to comment on them. It also uses five musical works from the post-
1975 period to exemplify concepts developed in Boulez’s writings, presenting a
vivid portrait of Boulez’s extremely varied production.
jonathan goldman is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the School of Music,

University of Victoria, and specializes in twentieth-century music history. Editor-
in-Chief of the journal Circuit, musiques contemporaines, he wrote the preface to
Leçons de musique (2005), a collection of Boulez’s writings published in France.
© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

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Music Since 1900

general editor Arnold Whittall
This series – formerly Music in the Twentieth Century – offers a wide perspective
on music and musical life since the end of the nineteenth century. Books included
range from historical and biographical studies concentrating particularly on the
context and circumstances in which composers were writing, to analytical and
critical studies concerned with the nature of musical language and questions of
compositional process. The importance given to context will also be reflected in
studies dealing with, for example, the patronage, publishing, and promotion of
new music, and in accounts of the musical life of particular countries.
Titles in the series

Jonathan Cross
The Stravinsky Legacy
Michael Nyman
Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond
Jennifer Doctor
The BBC and Ultra-Modern Music, 1922–1936
Robert Adlington
The Music of Harrison Birtwistle
Keith Potter
Four Musical Minimalists: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, Philip Glass
Carlo Caballero
Fauré and French Musical Aesthetics
Peter Burt
The Music of Toru Takemitsu
David Clarke
The Music and Thought of Michael Tippett: Modern Times and Metaphysics
M. J. Grant
Serial Music, Serial Aesthetics: Compositional Theory in Post-War Europe
Philip Rupprecht
Britten’s Musical Language
Mark Carroll
Music and Ideology in Cold War Europe
Adrian Thomas
Polish Music since Szymanowski
J. P. E. Harper-Scott
Edward Elgar, Modernist
Yayoi Uno Everett
The Music of Louis Andriessen

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Ethan Haimo
Schoenberg’s Transformation of Musical Language
Rachel Beckles Willson
Ligeti, Kurtág, and Hungarian Music during the Cold War
Michael Cherlin
Schoenberg’s Musical Imagination
Joseph N. Straus
Twelve-Tone Music in America
David Metzer
Musical Modernism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Edward Campbell
Boulez, Music and Philosophy
Jonathan Goldman
The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez: Writings and Compositions

Jonathan Goldman
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The Musical Language

of Pierre Boulez
Writings and Compositions
Jonathan Goldman

Jonathan Goldman
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cambridge university press

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Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
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c Jonathan Goldman 2011
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception

and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2011
Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data

Goldman, Jonathan, 1972–
The musical language of Pierre Boulez : writings and compositions / Jonathan Goldman.
p. cm. – (Music since 1900)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-521-51490-3 (hardback)
1. Boulez, Pierre, 1925– Criticism and interpretation. 2. Music – 20th century – History and
criticism. I. Title. II. Series.
ML410.B773G58 2011
780.92 – dc22 2010041734
ISBN 978-0-521-51490-3 Hardback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or

accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to
in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such
websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

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Contents
List of music examples ix

List of figures xii
Preface xv
List of abbreviations xxi
Photographs of Boulez xxiii
1 Introduction 1
Boulez’s compositional path 6
Sources for theories of musical form 16
Serialism as musical structuralism 18
part i form as opposition in the writings of pierre boulez

2 Writings from the first period: serialist doctrine, the open work and
strategies of rhetorical displacement 31
3 A portrait of Webern; a self-portrait of Boulez 41
The Second Cantata 42
Chronology of writings on Webern and key concepts 44
Webern vs. Debussy: observable correspondence or imagined encounter? 47
The turn towards perception 49
4 Form, thematicism and perceptual categories in the writings from

the 1970s to the present 53
Lessons for all or personal incantation? 54
The basic elements of musical language 56
The new concepts 63
Concept of form 70
Lessons of Leçons 78
part ii form as opposition in selected works by pierre boulez

5 Analysis by, of, in and according to Boulez 83
Boulezian motivations for analysing Boulez 83
False or ‘mutilating’ analysis 88
Boulez analyses The Rite of Spring 90
Boulez for the analyst: the didactic work 92
6 Rituel and the architecture of antiphony 100

Presentation 100
Form 103

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viii Con ten t s
Pitch in the répons sections 107

Structure of verses 113
7 Dérive 1 and harmonic control 116

Presentation 116
Form 117
Six harmonic fields 119
Anticipations, suspensions and the recovery of classical categories 123
Durations, densities and note hierarchies 124
8 Mémoriale and polar mechanics 128

Presentation 128
Themes in Mémoriale 129
Passage from clear to veiled timbre 131
Paradigmatic analysis 138
Polar notes 139
Analysis of pitch content 141
Durations 146
Unplugged electronics 148
Resonator effects 148
Delay/echo effects 150
Geometric orchestration 151
Rhythmic canons 153
9 Anthèmes and virtual thematics 160

Presentation 160
The virtual theme 163
Discontinuities: ‘characters’, rhythmic canons and non-retrogradable rhythms 164
Passage from Anthèmes 1 to Anthèmes 2 169
10 Incises and the play of recognition and surprise 174

Presentation 174
Annunciatory opening 175
Très lent sections 178
A paradigmatic–syntagmatic approach to section I, Prestissimo 179
11 Boulezian form in theory and practice 186
Notes 197
Selected recordings of works studied 213
Chronological list of works and bibliography of writings classified by work 215
Bibliography 218
Index 239

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Music examples
1.1 Notation 4 ( C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition AG,
Vienna/UE 18310) 2
1.2 Notation 1 ( C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition AG,
Vienna/UE 18310) 3
1.3 Paradigmatic analysis of Notation 1 ( C Copyright 1985 by
Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18310) 5

2.1 Quotation of Notation 5 (1945), mm. 1–5 in Première improvisation
sur Mallarmé (version 1958), mm. 13–17 ( C Copyright 1985 by
Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18310 and C Copyright 1958 by
Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/UE 12855) 33

3.1 Webern, Second Cantata, op. 31, mvmt. 5, mm. 8–10 43
4.1 A signal in Anthèmes 1 ( C Copyright 1992 by Universal Edition
AG, Vienna/UE 19992) 65

4.2 A theme from Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition
AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 72

5.1 Resonance chord in Éclat piano cadenza, m. 1 ( C Copyright 1965
by Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/PH 398) 93

5.2 Resonance signs in Éclat piano cadenza, m. 8 ( C Copyright 1965 by
Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/UE 17746) 94

5.3 Vertical lines in Le Marteau sans maı̂tre, opening ( C Copyright
1954 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/PH 398) 95

6.1 Originel from ... explosante-fixe ... (C Copyright 1993 by Universal
Edition AG, Vienna/UE 32934) 106

6.2 Chords in très lent sections of Rituel 108
6.3 First très lent chord of Rituel 109
6.4 Reduction of chords in section 15 (coda) of Rituel 112
6.5 Reflection about E flat (inversion) of interval structure of chord
from très lent section (rehearsal no. 1), to obtain pitches of modéré
(rehearsal
no. 2) of Rituel ( C Copyright 1975 by Universal Edition AG,
Vienna/UE 15941) 113

7.1 Use of sostenuto pedal in Dérive 1, m. 6 ( C Copyright 1984 by

7.2 Changing harmonies in Dérive 1, piano part, m. 17 ( C Copyright
1984 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 121

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x List of music examples
7.3 Anticipations in upper voices of Dérive 1, m. 7 ( C Copyright 1984
by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 123

7.4 Suspensions in Dérive 1, mm. 14–15 ( C Copyright 1984 by

7.5 Maximal grace-note density at m. 23 of Dérive 1 ( C Copyright

8.1 Originel from ... explosante-fixe ... (C Copyright 1993 by Universal

8.2 Element A (rapide, stable) of Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985 by

8.3 Element B (modéré, modulé) of Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985 by

8.4 Element C (lent, souple) of Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985 by

8.5 Element D (rapide, irrégulier, vacillant) of Mémoriale (
C Copyright

8.6 Third occurrence of Element C of Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985

8.7 ‘Clean’ to ‘veiled’ continuum in Mémoriale ( C Copyright 1985 by

8.8 Appoggiatura + polar notes (explosante + fixe) in Mémoriale
(C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 140
8.9 Six harmonic fields of Mémoriale 143
8.10 ‘Resonator’ accompaniment in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 4
8.11 ‘Resonator’ accompaniment in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 20
8.12 Reverse echo in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 9 ( C Copyright 1985 by

8.13 Geometric approach to orchestration in Mémoriale, rehearsal
no. 21 (C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/
UE 18547) 152
8.14 Rhythmic canon in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22 ( C Copyright 1985

8.15 Rhythmic canon in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22, retranscribed 156
8.16 Rhythmic canon in Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 24 ( C Copyright 1985

9.1 Introduction and first Letter of Anthèmes 1 ( C Copyright 1992 by

9.2 Paradigmatic analysis of section I of Anthèmes 1 ( C Copyright 1992

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9.3 Examples of elements of virtual theme of Anthèmes 1 ( C Copyright

9.4 Composite of virtual theme of Anthèmes 1 (taken from
non-contiguous measures) ( C Copyright 1992 by Universal

9.5 Three-voiced canon in section II of Anthèmes 1 (beginning) 168
9.6 Beginning of rhythmic canon in section II of Anthèmes 1,
mm. 15–21 ( C Copyright 1992 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/
UE 19992) 169
10.1 Six phrases from opening of Incises ( C Copyright 1994, 2002 by

10.2 Opening chord of Incises ( C Copyright 1994, 2002 by Universal

10.3 Section II, first très lent section of Incises (
C Copyright 1994, 2002

10.4 Paradigmatic analysis of Prestissimo section of Incises, beginning
(C Copyright 1994, 2002 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/
UE 31966) 182

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Figures
1.1 Rhythmic structure of long notes in left hand of Notation 4 2

1.2 Deployment of series in the right hand of Notation 4 2
1.3 Two-voice texture of series in mm. 9–10 of Notation 1 3
5.1 Schema for the chords of Webern’s Cantata, op. 31, mvmt. 1 85
5.2 Webern’s Cantata, op. 31, mvmt. 2, series used in the vocal part 86
5.3 Stockhausen’s graph for Webern’s String Quartet, op. 28, mvmt. 2
1st part (used by permission of the Stockhausen-Stiftung für Musik) 89
5.4 Binary formal plan for ‘Danse de la terre’, found in ‘Stravinsky
remains’ (ST, p. 89) 92
6.1 Instrumentation of orchestral groups in Rituel 102
6.2 Antiphonal form of Rituel 102
6.3 Orchestral groups used in responses of Rituel 108
6.4 Top notes of chords in très lent sections of Rituel 109
6.5 Number of notes in chords of the très lent sections of Rituel 109
6.6 Interval structure of chords in très lent sections of Rituel 110
6.7 Orchestral groups used in each of très lent passages and in
conclusion of Rituel 111
6.8 Bass notes of chords in section 15 of Rituel 112
6.9 Superimposed groups in verses of Rituel 114
7.1 Sacher series 119
7.2 E flat series with Sacher intervals rotated one position 119
7.3 Matrix of six series of Dérive 1 120
7.4 The six harmonies of Dérive 1 120
7.5 Formal proportions of Dérive 1, expressed in quarter notes 122
7.6 Sequence of harmonies in Dérive 1 122
7.7 Metric subdivisions in part B of Dérive 1 125
8.1 Passage from ‘clean’ to ‘veiled’ sound in element C of Mémoriale 133
8.2 Paradigmatic analysis of flute part of Mémoriale ( C Copyright

8.3 Paradigmatic analysis of Mémoriale with syntagmatic symbols,
pitches of polar notes and playing style 142
8.4 Pitches of thirty-six polar notes of Mémoriale 142
8.5 Six hexachords derived from polar notes of Mémoriale 143
8.6 Correlation between Originel matrix and six hexachords derived
from Mémoriale’s polar notes 143

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List of figures xiii
8.7 Paradigmatic analysis of Mémoriale with shaded harmonic fields 144

8.8 Pitches of C elements in Mémoriale, and relation to harmonic fields 145
8.9 Playing style of Mémoriale as a function of position in series 145
8.10 Correlation between playing style, harmonic field and thematic
unit in Mémoriale 146
8.11 Cyclic permutations of themes A, B and D in Mémoriale 146
8.12 Durations of polar notes in Mémoriale expressed in sixteenth notes 147
8.13 Durations of polar notes in Mémoriale, grouped by playing style 147
8.14 Durations of polar notes in Mémoriale expressed in eighth notes 148
8.15 Schema for polar-note durations in Mémoriale 148
8.16 Schema for accompaniment of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 21 152
8.17 Durations in rhythmic canon of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22 154
8.18 Durations in rhythmic canon of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22,
adjusted 155
8.19 Total durations in rhythmic canon of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22 155
8.20 Durations in rhythmic canon of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 22,
expressed in symbols 156
8.21 Durations in rhythmic canon of Mémoriale, rehearsal no. 24 157
9.1 Sections of Anthèmes 1 162
9.2 Instantiations of virtual theme of Anthèmes 1 166
9.3 Four characters in section VIb of Anthèmes 1 ( C Copyright 1992 by

9.4 Predictability in section VIb of Anthèmes 167
9.5 Pitch and duration sequences in rhythmic canon of section II
of Anthèmes 1 168
9.6 Transformations of durations (in sixteenth notes) of three-voiced
rhythmic canon in section II of Anthèmes 1 168
9.7 Comparison of durations of sections in Anthèmes 1 and 2 170
9.8 Types of sound processing in Anthèmes 2 171
10.1 Sections of Incises 175
10.2 Comparison of sections and timings in Incises and Sur Incises 176
10.3 Phrase structure of opening of Incises 178
10.4 Comparison of opening chord of Incises and Sacher chord 178
10.5 Last chord of opening section of Incises (C Copyright 1994, 2002

10.6 Transposed Sacher chords in Très lent sections of Incises 180
10.7 Four elements of Prestissimo section of Incises (C Copyright 1994,

10.8 Syntagmatic chain in Prestissimo section of Incises 182
10.9 First-order Markov probabilities for elements in Prestissimo section
of Incises 183

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xiv List of figures
10.10 First-order Markov probabilities in Prestissimo section of Incises

expressed as percentages 183
10.11 ‘Corrected’ first-order Markov probabilities in Prestissimo section
of Incises 184
11.1 Formal schema of Rituel 190
11.2 Formal schema of Dérive 1 191
11.3 Formal schema of Mémoriale 192
11.4 Formal schema of Anthèmes 1 193
11.5 Formal schema of Incises 194

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Preface
I first began working on this book at a time when it seemed as if with the
close of the twentieth century, the historical judgement against modernist
composers was definitive and without appeal. Two passages I came across
brought this home to me symbolically. The first was a reference Susan
McClary made in 2006 to the ‘hostile takeover of music studies by the
serialist mafia’ in the 1960s.1 The second was a passing reference made
by Jonathan Dunsby in a 2007 lecture to the legacy of (academic) serial
compositions:
Many critics of avant-garde twentieth-century Western Art Music – much as I
may not personally agree with them – say that all the theorizing that took
place, miles and miles of print in books and journals, not to mention letter
after letter of tenure bestowal, was entirely misapplied since no one really
wanted all those neurotic, atonal musical compositions in the first place, as I
fear the twenty-first century is beginning to demonstrate to us.2
I started to get the distinct and unsettling impression that the pre-
dominant narrative of twentieth-century music in the English-speaking
world ran something like this: abstruse, serialist autocrats had been super-
seded by postmodern pastiche-artists (or rock-inflected minimalists) who
in turn ushered in the ultimate triumph of industrially produced pop
music. According to this story, in the 1960s Pierre Boulez played the role of
ringleader (one widely read critic even referred to him as the ‘Godfather’3 ),
even if McClary’s remarks were directed against American academic com-
posers, Boulez never having maintained close links with his tenured Amer-
ican counterparts. I felt that, more often than not, the reservations – even
hostility – expressed by some critics and musicologists in the first decade
of the twenty-first century were partially the result of an unjust portrayal
of Boulez as a pointillistic serialist, whose aesthetic ideals could be entirely
circumscribed by his works from the 1950s (and first and foremost the
undergraduate analysis class workhorse, Structure 1a (1951–2)) as well as the
corresponding polemical writings from the same period (‘Éventuellement’
(1952), and the famous proclamation of the uselessness of non-serial com-
posers contained therein). These judgements seemed particularly unfair in
light of the major aesthetic shift which Boulez’s art had undergone begin-
ning in the 1970s, audible in musical works from Rituel (1974–5) onwards,

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xvi Prefa ce
and ‘legible’ in the mostly untranslated writings from his years lecturing at
the Collège de France (such as the seminal ‘The system and the idea’).4 The
works from this period could be characterized variously by the presence
of thematic writing, a return to vertical harmony (often consonant albeit
always post-tonal, and with carefully chosen fixed registration) and formal
clarity. In parallel, in the writings, one senses a great concern for the audi-
ence: for the way his works are to be perceived, not only the way they are con-
ceived and then constructed. My goal in this book is to redress an imbalance
which gives pride of place to the early years of the nearly seven-decades-long
career of this important musician; in short, to affirm that Boulez should not
be relegated to the historical dustbin of twentieth-century serial excesses.
In the analyses, instead of stressing the complexity of the compositional
procedures – it is all too easy to turn musical analysis into what one of my
undergraduate mathematics professors used to call ‘proof by intimidation’ –
I wanted to ensure that every compositional procedure described in this
book could not only be explained to anyone with basic musical skills, but
also heard (for example the six chords of Dérive 1 or the four themes of
Mémoriale).
To redress this imbalance is not to deny that Boulez could be considered,
as one writer called him, on the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday,
an ‘unreconstructed modernist’,5 but to assert that he can be appreciated
and enjoyed even when the extremes of modernist fervour give way to a
more inclusive account of twentieth-century music. In short, this book was
written in the spirit of the wonderful title of a collection of readings edited
by Arved Ashby in 2004: The Pleasure of Modernist Music.
This book concentrates on two aspects of Boulez’s multifaceted career –
the composer and writer – and is intended to appeal to composers, music
historians, theorists and music students, and indeed any reader interested
in the history and aesthetics of twentieth-century music, musical manifes-
tations of artistic modernism or French cultural history generally. One of
Pierre Boulez’s chief preoccupations concerns the nature of musical form.
Understanding the evolution of his thought on form is a step towards eval-
uating his musical thought generally; it also sheds light on his most recent
works, which put his ideas on the subject into practice. The theme of form
arising from a grammar of oppositions – the legacy of structuralism – serves
as a common thread in Boulez’s output (and consequently in this book),
and testifies to the constancy of Boulez’s thought over and above his several
notable aesthetic and stylistic changes. This book, then, sets out in two
directions: on the one hand, to use the musical works to exemplify con-
cepts developed in Boulez’s writings (Part I); on the other, to lend a voice
to the musical works by using the writings to comment on them (Part II).

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Prefa ce xvii
Accordingly, I first look at the concept of form as it is revealed in the writings

of Boulez (while taking examples from his music), and then I study form as
it is revealed in five of his musical works (making use of concepts derived
from his writings).
One of the reasons for my focus on Boulez’s output since 1975 is that it
marked the dawn of a new theoretical, stylistic and aesthetic period for him
as a composer and thinker on music. The first performance of the watershed
Rituel (2 April 1975) was followed up a few months later by his nomination
to the Collège de France. The works which followed dispensed for the most
part with the stylistic tics that one associates with the first serial works –
wide leaps of register, the preference for intervals of sevenths, ninths and
tritones, pointillistic textures and so on.
Of course, in order to get a handle on the later period, it is necessary
to make a foray, however brief, into earlier periods in Boulez’s long career.
After an introductory chapter, Part I begins with a look at Boulez’s writings,
especially those which address most clearly the problems of form, such
as ‘Éventuellement’ (1952), ‘Alea’ (1957), ‘Form’ (1960), ‘Necessity of an
aesthetic orientation’ (1963), and ‘Periform’ (1965). It goes on to examine,
in Chapter 3, Boulez’s writings on a single composer – Anton Webern – who
stands for him as the ‘threshold’ of the new music, and the locus of many of
his most intense reflections on musical form generally. This first part closes
with a look at the later era of writings, those which came out of Boulez’s
appointment to the Collège de France (1976–95). These writings contrast
considerably with the tone, subject matter and aesthetic philosophy of his
earlier essays, and have thus far received little scholarly attention.6
Part II of this book looks at five works of relatively modest dimensions
(except for the larger Rituel – Dérive 1 (1984), Mémoriale (... explosante-
fixe ... Originel) (1985), Anthèmes 1 (1991–2) and Incises (1994; 2001) are
all under ten minutes in duration) and could serve as a kind of listening
guide designed to enhance and extend the concert-going experience. For
each of these analytic presentations, I try to bring out the elements which
are placed in oppositional relationships, and to show how these oppositions
are superimposed in order to shed light on the ‘form-bearing’ elements
of these works. This part is devoted to showing the manifold ways Boulez
embodies the concept of form in these works, which have also received
less sustained attention than Boulez’s catalogue from the 1950s and early
1960s, such as Le Marteau sans maı̂tre (1952–5), Pli selon pli (1957–62;
1983; 1990) or the first piece of the first book of Structures for two pianos
(1951–2). After an introductory chapter on the analysis of and by Boulez,
Chapter 6 presents an analysis of the antiphonal form of Rituel; in Chapter 7,
a study of the (eminently simple) harmonic material in Dérive 1 (1984)

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xviii Prefa ce
explores how the oppositions between note and appoggiatura, harmonic

tone and ornament, act to emphasize as well as to obscure underlying
metrical pulse. In Chapter 8, an exposition of Mémoriale (... explosante-
fixe ... Originel) demonstrates how Boulez passes from a pre-compositional
matrix to the realized work. The control of harmonic and durational values
is regulated by means of matrices, a rigid structure within which Boulez
gives his imagination free rein, thereby thematizing the dialectic of freedom
and control. Chapter 9 examines how an underlying theme in Anthèmes 1
(1991–2) for violin solo (as well as in its sister piece Anthèmes 2 with added
electronics) is always presented in fragmentary form, but constitutes the
implicit model of the piece, thereby creating an opposition between the real
and the virtual. Chapter 10 looks at thematic writing in Incises (1994; 2001)
and specifically at the way the play of recognition and surprise of thematic
characters is at the heart of the work’s dramaturgy. Finally, Chapter 11 takes
a comparative approach to form in these later works.
Far from being exhaustive, these analyses are above all in-depth descrip-
tions of the works. It is important to emphasize that these chapters are not
primarily concerned with sketch-study analysis, even though I did conduct
research at the Fonds Boulez at the Faculty of Music of the University of
Montreal as well as making a brief visit to the Paul Sacher Stiftung in 2009. I
have also greatly benefited from recent genetic studies of Boulez’s music, by
such scholars as Robert Piencikowski, Pascal Decroupet, Jean-Louis Leleu,
Peter O’Hagan and Paolo Dal Molin among others.7 Nevertheless, rather
than adopt an approach which focuses primarily on sketches, in the five
analytical presentations contained in Part II, I try to bring out the relative
simplicity of Boulez’s work on form by means of observations directly made
about the five commercially available scores.
Of course, this study of form in the works and writings of Pierre Boulez
does not set itself the impossible task of dealing with all of Boulez’s works
and writings. Rather, a selection of representative works and writings are
submitted to a two-way approach: concepts explored in the writings are used
to interpret the basic materials of Boulez’s musical works, and, conversely,
features of his music are used to exemplify abstract thoughts contained
in Boulez’s writings. Although no single overarching theme could credibly
capture the contours of this multifaceted composer, whose production spans
more than sixty-five years, several dozen compositions and several thousand
pages of writings, when the writings and the works are viewed through the
prism of the dynamics of oppositions which give rise to them, something of
the creative impulse with which Boulez generates his kaleidoscopic sound
world can be gleaned.

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Prefa ce xix
Moreover, since the later works represent a return to thematic writing,

I take pains to describe and identify elements which are invested with
a characteristic melodic, harmonic, dynamic, or timbral profile. Boulez
supplies in these works auditory signposts (in French ‘points de repère’,
which is, significantly, the title given to Boulez’s collected writings) which
guide the listener through the labyrinth of musical form. Grasping how
Boulez moves from the initial matrix to the realized composition, while
integrating his predictions of the perceptive strategies which his future
listeners will bring to the table, constitutes a step towards understanding
the compositional processes at work in Boulez’s music. It is also my hope that
these chapters will contribute to the reader’s appreciation of Boulez’s works
as heard through recordings and performances. Most of all, in studying the
leitmotif of opposition in the writings and works of Boulez, particularly in
the later period, this book offers an essentially structuralist take on what is
probably the most enduring trait of French music generally: the principle
of contrasting sections. Even if, as Boulez has often stated, there is no single
definition of a French tradition that could encompass at once the musical
languages of Rameau, Berlioz and Debussy, perhaps the taste for contrast
is a kind of ‘degree zero’ of this tradition. The goal of this book is to take
that intuition seriously by applying it systematically to Boulez’s thought and
music.
The bibliography at the end of this book is meant to be a tool for
researchers and students. It contains a comprehensive list of most of the
serious writings published on specific pieces by Boulez; these are then cate-
gorized by work.
My ultimate goal in this book is to show how, like a labyrinth (one of
Boulez’s favourite metaphors), form appears simple when it is considered
globally, as an entity which is entirely constituted and outside time; it
nevertheless displays its richness when it is perceived within the context of
musical time, with all the ‘accidents’ foreign to the initial system, through
which Boulez reclaims his freedom as a composer.
Countless people gave me help and encouragement in the preparation of

this book. I wish to thank Arnold Whittall for his patience and innumer-
able helpful suggestions, and, of course, for choosing to include this book
in his series Music since 1900. For their invaluable comments and sugges-
tions I am grateful to Edward Campbell, Nicolas Donin, Jonathan Dunsby,
Christoph Neidhöfer, Robert Piencikowski and John Rea, as well as to my
copy-editor, Mary Worthington. I wish to thank the Université de Montréal
for employing me as Research Assistant to Jean-Jacques Nattiez from 2001
to 2006, which notably allowed me to write the preface to Boulez’s Leçons de

Jonathan Goldman
Frontmatter
More information
xx Prefa ce
musique, and during which time I wrote the doctoral dissertation which was
the starting point for this project. The assistantship also involved me in many
other interesting Boulez-related projects. I also wish to express my gratitude
to the Université de Montréal for having given me access to the aforemen-
tioned Fonds Boulez, located in the Faculty of Music, which was established
by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Sophie Galaise. Brief visits to the Paul Sacher
Stiftung in Basel and the Music Department of the Bibliothèque nationale
de France in Paris were also invaluable. I wish to thank Pierre Boulez for
approving the use of materials and for being favourable to the idea of my
book project, as well as his administrative assistants Klaus-Peter Altekruse
and Marion Thiem. In addition, I was delighted when Jean Radel allowed
me to use his wonderful photos in this book. Many of my ideas crystallized
while teaching a graduate seminar on Boulez at McGill University’s Schulich
School of Music in 2005. My current faculty, the School of Music of the Uni-
versity of Victoria, has been incredibly supportive. Thanks also to Nicholas
Piper for his help with the musical examples. I wish to thank my editors at
Cambridge University Press, Victoria Cooper, Rebecca Jones and Thomas
O’Reilly. Without my parents’ support and encouragement, none of this
would have been possible. Most of all, I wish to thank Jean-Jacques Nattiez
who, through his intelligence, patience and generosity, made a musicologist
out of me. This book is dedicated to him.

Jonathan Goldman
Frontmatter
More information
Abbreviations
WRITINGS BY PIERRE BOULEZ

OR Orientations, trans. Martin Cooper, ed. Jean-Jacques Nattiez
(London: Faber, 1986)
PdR Points de repère, ed. Jean-Jacques Nattiez, 2nd edn (Paris:
Christian Bourgois/Seuil, 1985)
PdRI Points de repère I: Imaginer, ed. Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Sophie
Galaise (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1995)
PdRII Points de repère II: Regards sur autrui, ed. Jean-Jacques Nattiez
and Sophie Galaise (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2005)
PdRIII Points de repère III: Leçons de musique, ed. Jean-Jacques Nattiez;
prefaces by Jean-Jacques Nattiez, Michel Foucault and Jonathan
Goldman (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 2005)
PMA Penser la musique aujourd’hui (Paris and Geneva: Éditions
Gonthier/Denoël, 1963); English trans., Boulez on Music Today,
trans. Susan Bradshaw and Richard Rodney Bennett (Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1971)
PVPH Par volonté et par hasard. Entretiens avec Célestin Deliège (Paris:
Éditions du Seuil, 1975); English trans., Pierre Boulez:
Conversations with Célestin Deliège (London: Eulenburg,
1976)
RA Relevés d’apprenti, ed. Paule Thévenin (Paris: Seuil, 1966)
ST Stocktakings from an Apprenticeship, trans. Stephen Walsh,
introduction by Robert T. Piencikowski (Oxford University Press,
1991)
All translations for which no published versions exist are the author’s own
unless otherwise stated.
Note: throughout this book, the name of the individual Collège de

France lecture is given, the year it was delivered, and its pages in Leçons
de musique (PdRIII); for example, ‘Thème, variations et forme’ (1984),
PdRIII, p. 200.

Jonathan Goldman
Frontmatter
More information
xxii List of abbrev iat ions
FURTHER ABBREVIATIONS
CDMC Centre de documentation de musique contemporaine (Paris)
GRM Groupe de recherches musicales
IRCAM Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique
NEM Nouvel Ensemble Moderne
NRF Nouvelle Revue française

Jonathan Goldman
Frontmatter
More information
1. Pierre Boulez backstage at the Auditorium in the Louvre, Paris,

19 November 2008 (photo Jean Radel)
2. Pierre Boulez in the Temppeliaukio Church (‘Church of the Rock’), Helsinki,

13 August 2009 (photo Jean Radel)

Jonathan Goldman
Frontmatter
More information
3. Pierre Boulez in the Temppeliaukio Church, Helsinki, 13 August 2009 (photo

Jean Radel)
4. Pierre Boulez at the Cité de la Musique, Paris, 23 January 2007 (photo Jean
Radel)

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Cambridge University Press

978-0-521-51490-3 - The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez: Writings and Compositions

The Musical Language of Pierre Boulez

jonathan goldman is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the School of Music,

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Music Since 1900

Titles in the series

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

The Musical Language

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cambridge university press

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First published 2011

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List of music examples ix

part i form as opposition in the writings of pierre boulez

4 Form, thematicism and perceptual categories in the writings from

part ii form as opposition in selected works by pierre boulez

6 Rituel and the architecture of antiphony 100

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

viii Con ten t s

Pitch in the répons sections 107

7 Dérive 1 and harmonic control 116

8 Mémoriale and polar mechanics 128

9 Anthèmes and virtual thematics 160

10 Incises and the play of recognition and surprise 174

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

1.1 Notation 4 ( C Copyright 1985 by Universal Edition AG,

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18310) 5

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18310 and C Copyright 1958 by

Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/UE 12855) 33

AG, Vienna/UE 19992) 65

AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 72

by Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/PH 398) 93

Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/UE 17746) 94

1954 by Universal Edition (London) Ltd, London/PH 398) 95

Edition AG, Vienna/UE 32934) 106

Vienna/UE 15941) 113

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 121

1984 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 121

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x List of music examples

7.3 Anticipations in upper voices of Dérive 1, m. 7 ( C Copyright 1984

by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 123

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 125

1984 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18103) 126

Edition AG, Vienna/UE 32934) 129

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 130

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 130

Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 130

1985 by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 131

by Universal Edition AG, Vienna/UE 18547) 132

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