Le marteau sans Maître by Pierre Boulez as a System of Cycles

Abstract

The article presents the results of the cyclical organization of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître in the aspect of combining the principles of linear and non-linear organization. The composer created a work of a probabilistic type, in which dispersed and localized sub-cycles coexist with each other. Their core is formed by the vocal movements in which René Char’s poems are interpreted. The number of compositional units in these structural-thematic groups coincides with the quantitative factor of the segments of the composition’s main series. The embedding of sub-cycles homogenous in their content into a linear set is analogous to the procedure of interpolation. In the dispersed sub-cycles Char’s title poem stipulates the system of expressive means which is replicated in all the movements at various levels of fullness, but always in recognizable ways. In the localized structural-thematic groups the wholeness is formed in the process of ascertainment of the substantial images and the common elements of musical expressivity in the movements pertaining to various sub-cycles. Here the vocal movement becomes the “point of convergence” which brings to light the coincidences and activates the additional semantic overtones present in the poem. In his Le Marteau sans maîtreBoulez demonstrated the possibilities of compositional variability in the conditions of the system of cycles created by them presuming the simultaneous activity of the linear and non-linear organization with various types of connection.

Keywords: René Char, Pierre Boulez, Le Marteau sans maître, cycle, subcycle, system of cycles, timbre organization, texture organization, cohesion, adhesion