Teasing the Ever-Expanding Sonnet from Pierre Boulez’s Musical Poetics

Abstract

Abstract Pierre Boulez composed several related pieces during the latter half of the 1950s. These pieces all share both serial structures and wholesale notational borrowings. Importantly, when Boulez reused notated material, his focus shifted from executing organizational processes to nuancing the contour, dynamics, and instrumental character of his musical figures, a concern I equate with “revision” in the broadest sense. His habit of revising works in this way altered his stylistic priorities in future works.