BOULEZ le MAÎTRE
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If one
had to single out just one figure whose contribution to 20th century music
has been inestimable, it must surely be Pierre Boulez. Not only by his own
ground breaking compositional output but also by his pioneering programming
of 20th century music in concerts globally as a conductor of many of the
worlds greatest orchestras. Born in 1925 we almost lost Boulez to a career in higher mathematics and engineering as these were his first major studies and intended career but thankfully he went to the Paris Conservatoire and attended Messiaen’s composition and analysis classes in 1942 as well as counterpoint with Vauraboug-Honegger and 12 note technique with René Leibowitz and never looked back. |
Together with Stockhausen,
Boulez quickly rose to fame (or notoriety) with compositions that pushed instrumental
virtuosity to new extremes using total serialisation of all musical elements
sparked off by Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensites (1949) and the crystalline
precision of the works of Webern. (Speaking of notoriety and notorious comments,
it’s interesting to remember that all three composers, Messiaen, Stockhausen
and Boulez all made derogatory remarks about the future of opera in Western
music with Boulez orating the now famous quote that all opera houses should
be burnt down yet all three in their later lives have major involvement with
opera, Messiaen’s St. Francis of Assisi, Stockhausen’s Licht cycle and of course
Boulez’ conducting work on Wagner’s Ring cycle and it is rumoured that he himself
is to write an opera at some stage). Boulez has said that ‘serialism’ was a
short period in the 50’s that gave composers strict discipline and rigid constraints,
but in turn that forces one to find solutions where you think there are no solutions.
Works of this period include Structures Bk 1, Notations (piano), Sonatina (flute
/ Piano) and Sonata for 2 pianos. By the time of the immensely significant Le
Marteau sans maitre Boulez was beginning to go beyond these constraints, trying
to make the discipline more flexible, as he says “ if you have too strict a
discipline, it kills your ideas”. As a person of great intellect he became associated
with many writers and artists of the time, including Paul Klee, Theador Adorno,
Jean Genet, Michael Foucault, Mallarmé and René Char whose poetry supplied the
text for Le Marteau sans maitre.
People often remark: “I don’t like 20th century music - it has no tune” we’ve
all heard this. Boulez points out that it pays to remember this same remark
was said of Beethoven and Wagner when their music was heard for the first time.
As with painters of the 20th century, who increased their colouristic palette
and changed perspectives to enrich their language, so musicians also began to
enlarge their melodic vocabulary, and it is melody that is the key to Le Marteau.
This work is for small ensemble of alto flute, xylorimba, vibraphone, percussion,
guitar, viola and mezzo soprano and is divided into nine sections five of which
are purely instrumental including three ‘commentaries’ on the poems which also
have no vocal part. Boulez uses an ornamental vocal style of writing where melodic
lines are decorated (ornamented) by groups of little (grace) notes so there
is a complete absence of chordal accompaniment. This style of writing looks
to two different musical traditions: 1) Gregorian chant where the lines were
sung without accompaniment and where figures were constantly ornamented and
2) the Far Eastern vocal traditions of Japanese and Chinese song which also
has a strong tradition of ornamental vocal lines. Le Marteau paved the way for
a completely new style of song cycle writing by many of his contempararies.
(This work was given an impeccable reading by the new music group Psappha at
this year’s ISCM world music days in Manchester and they will repeat this work
on July 18th at Cheltenham.)
As Stockhausen forged ahead creating new forms and languages with each new composition,
Boulez was slower to develop compositionally and more pieces emerged that were
‘works in progress’ or he often updated, re-polished and adapted works as years
went by. He insists that while some compositions are definitely finished and
remain untouched others are like a labyrinth which constantly change and become
interelated.
Boulez’ gift as a conductor began to manifest itself and in 1953/4 he became
musical director in the Theatre Concerts Marigney later to become Domaine Musical
whose ensemble under Boulez performed a wealth of European contemporary music
and, in my opinion, the best ever recorded versions of Messiaen’s Et Expecto
and Couleurs de la Cité Celeste.
In the mid 60s he became more and more sought after as a conductor of outstanding
quality who’s phenomenal ear and outstanding talent for interpretations of the
most complex scores meant he was in demand on both sides of the Atlantic (most
notably the BBC Symphony orchestra and the New York Phil). Inevitably, composing
was forced into a back seat, however, Boulez saw it his job to programme as
much contemporary music as politically possible in all the conducting situations
that he has been in which has resulted in many works becoming repertoire pieces.
In 1969 President Pompidou decided to create a National Centre for Contemporary
Art at the Pompidou centre Paris and Boulez was instrumental in persuading the
French government to create an institution that would devote itself to the development
of technology in music and science. This became L’Institut de Recherche et de
Co-ordination Acoustique/Musique or IRCAM whose aims are many-fold but principally
it is a purpose built establishment solely for the production and development
of contemporary music using information technology in all its forms. This differs
from the old analogue studios of the 50s (e.g. Utrecht, NHK Tokyo, WDR) which
were primarily radio or TV studios with a few tape recorders and effects where
composers had to ‘book in’ and twist the arms of producers to use these facilities
for their work. IRCAM has state of the art equipment and a ‘moveable’ performance
area that can accommodate almost any acoustic situation and composers from all
around the world are invited to work and research there. In 1976 IRCAM also
spawned one of the greatest contemporary music ensembles in the world, Ensemble
InterContemporain (ranking along side Germany’s Ensemble Modern, Holland’s Asko
Ensemble and our own London Sinfonietta) and again Boulez was in on its inception
attending all the auditions to choose the musicians, and performs everything
from Varese to Frank Zappa.
Boulez’ interest in ‘live’ electronics and computer interaction in works continued
to develop in pieces such as ...explosante-fixe... which again first appeared
in 1972 when technology was very primitive, reworked in 1989 for solo MIDI flute,
electronics and ensemble and most notably Repons where the computer transforms,
extends, repeats, re-distributes the notes in space that are played by the instrumentalists
instantaneously.
In 1989 Pierre Boulez signed a long term recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon
and has re-recorded many of this centuries masterpieces again with top orchestras
such as Cleveland PO (Debussy, Stravinsky, Messiaen and Mahler),Chicago SO (Bartok
& Stravinsky), Berlin PO (Ravel and Webern), Concertgebouw (Schoenberg) and
Vienna PO (Mahler).
©Malcolm Ball 1998
Harry Partch ~ Steve Reich ~ Early electronic Instruments ~ Pierre Boulez ~ Markus Stockhausen ~ Karlheinz Stockhausen ~ Peter Erskine