A couple of weeks ago, after I heard about the death of Pierre Boulez, I really wanted to do something; some sort of "tribute". No matter how insignificant it may be. I Because he was, I think, one of the greatest musicians of this last century. However, I really wanted to focus mainly on his music, rather than on his life, or on his conducting, or his immense influence - as so many do. I wanted this to be a video about his "sound world".
But I intended it to be not too analytical, or technical, or academic! Because I think too often his music is presented that way, and thus give it a "scary" reputation of "extremely complicated", very "intellectual", "unemotional", etc. Putting many listeners off before even hearing one note!
Schoenberg said: 'I cannot often enough warn against the overrating of analysis since it invariably leads to what I have always fought against: the knowledge of how something is made; whereas I have always tried to promote the knowledge of what something is.'
Boulez himself said – a couple of years before writing his famous “Le marteau sans maître”:
“the more complex the formal means are, the less they are perceived intellectually by the listener.”
That doesn't mean that you should not investigate! But the danger with serialist and other “complex” music, is that you can become so overwhelmed with “ the investigation”, so perplexed at how the music is made, that you forget to listen to it. I mean really, listen; and dream; and let yourself be free!
Again, while working on “Le marteau”, Boulez wrote:
“We need not busy ourselves about the mechanism that leads to the work, but rather with the work itself, which, once composed . . . casts into night all the preliminary procedures.”
I'm also trying to give some ideas to those maybe not used to his music, on how to listen to it, what to look for, etc; and hopefully to inspire as many people as I can, to give it a chance! Because often it really is music, of wondrous beauty and sensuality, of great contrasts and vast imagination!
I focus a little on "Notations", "Le Visage nuptial", "Sur Incises", "Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna", "...explosante-fixe..." and "Répons".
The little musical excerpts are fragments from: - Notation no. 5 (Pierre-Laurent Aimard) - Sur Incises (Ensemble Intercontemporain and Boulez) - Rituel in memoriam Bruno Maderna (BBC SYmphony Orchestra, BBC SIngers and Boulez) - ...explosante-fixe... (Ensemble Intercontemporain and Boulez) - Répons (Ensemble Intercontemporain and Boulez)
It turned out longer than I hope, but ...well, here it is, I hope you enjoy some of it!
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