Répons

“Oh yes, there is a metre, slightly irregular on one level but very regular on another. There are so many irregular things in this piece that at one point you need to have a regular metre as you say – a bass and a regular pulse anyway – but also a series of harmonies which are all symmetrical. The harmony always gives this impression of something followed by its inverse; there is always a centre – an axis of symmetry. This symmetry of harmony corresponds in harmonic terms to a regular metre. This is very important. There are three types of time. That which is chaotic and irregular such as you have in the beginning (in the speed I mean). Then you have, in the speed, the very regular rapid repeated notes – always in semiquavers. Finally at the end there is a regularity, a kind of metre – but with much ornamentation. The ornamentation is in fact very irregular, but the metre itself is very regular”. Pierre Boulez

布列茲石
Пьер Булез
Structures I & II
HOMAGE

Ohne ihn wäre die Geschichte der Musik seit 1945 eine andere: Pierre Boulez – Ikone der Neuen Musik, dessen Vehemenz eine der tiefsten ideologischen Spaltungen in der Musik bewirkte. Mit brillanter Polemik forderte er etwa die Sprengung aller Opernhäuser. Seine Kunst des Komponierens machte ihn so einzigartig wie seine Art zu dirigieren.In den 1950er Jahren etablierte sich Boulez definitiv als einer der Komponisten seiner Zeit. Beeinflusst von der Wiener Schule entwickelten die Franzosen Techniken und Kompositionsmethoden, die zum großen Teil auf mathematischen Prinzipien beruhten. 1951 komponierte er Polyphonie X für 18 Instrumente und Structures I für zwei Klaviere, serialistische Stücke schlechthin. Boulez war einer der Schöpfer des integralen Serialismus, ein Konzept, das sich aus Schönbergs Dodekaphonismus ableitet.

EONTA
“Eonta (beings) is so entitled as a homage to the ancient Greek philosopher and poet Parmenides. The original printed form of the title word is Cypriot orthography of Creto-mycaenean origin, lost for over 24 centuries and only recently deciphered. Eonta, written in Berlin during 1963-64, was first performed at the Domaine Musical concerts in Paris, conducted by Pierre Boulez, in December 1964. It makes use of stochastic music (based on the theory of probabilities) and symbolic music (based on logistics). Some of the instrumental parts, notably the piano solo at the opening, were calculated on an IBM 7090 computer at the Place Vendôme, Paris.”
(Iannis Xenakis)

PITHOPRAKTA
During the 1950s and early 1960s‚ Iannis Xenakis represented an alternative avant­garde‚ with a radical approach to form and texture that rejected the serial mechanics of Boulez and Stockhausen‚ and involved a uniquely intense interpretation of ideas about probability and randomness. A world away from John Cage’s laid­back experiments[…] The two short orchestral works‚ Metastasis and Pithoprakta‚ are undoubtedly far more austere‚ more primitive in their overall effect‚ than the exuberant‚ hyperactive Eonta‚ whose ferociously demanding writing for piano and five brass players pulsates with the kind of creative energy that the orchestral pieces seek to suppress.