Exposition

An Analytical Study on Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître (2020)

Saman Samadi
open exposition

About this exposition

Since its 1955 premiere, Le Marteau sans maitre, by Pierre Boulez, has consistently been regarded as one of the more important modernist compositions of the post-war era. Certainly, it ranks among the best-known works of Pierre Boulez and our purpose is to see if we can uncover some of its structures. This composition, based on a text by René Char, was written for alto voice, flute, viola, guitar, vibraphone, and percussion. Before Le Marteau, Boulez had created some other serial works: Structures I for two pianos, Polyphonie X for eighteen instruments, and another tour-de-force, known as the Second Piano Sonata which gained him an international reputation back in 1950. Although many have attempted to analyze Le Marteau's serial organization, Lev Koblyakov has been considered successful in analyzing it. Boulez’s multiple serial compositional techniques have been greatly illuminated through Koblyakov’s work; taking this as my touchstone, I will herein discuss a few of the compositional strategies utilized by Boulez.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsmusic analysis, composition, boulez, music theory
date29/10/2019
published28/09/2020
last modified28/09/2020
statuspublished
share statuspublic
copyrightSaman Samadi
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/718708/718709
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/rc.718708
published inResearch Catalogue


Simple Media

id name copyright license
718710 Pierre Boulez, 1957. Susanne Schapowalow All rights reserved
721806 Boulez - table 1.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved
721807 III - first 4 measures.jpg Boulez, Pierre. Le Marteau sans maître. London: Universal Edition, 1957. All rights reserved
721808 example of PDA.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved
721809 PDA - movement VI.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved
721810 Boulez - table 2.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved
721811 Boulez - table 3.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved
721812 Boulez Pierre - Le Martaeu sans maitre (6).jpg Boulez, Pierre. Le Marteau sans maître. London: Universal Edition, 1957. All rights reserved
721813 Boulez - table 4.png Please insert copyright information All rights reserved

Comments are only available for registered users.