Exploding Boulez

Synopsis

On today’s date in 1973, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center premiered a new work by Pierre Boulez for solo flute and seven instruments, plus interaction with an electronic computer program, which generated sounds that reacted to (and interacted with) the solo flute. The piece was titled explosante-fixe, which translates as “exploding-fixed.”

At the time, however, Boulez was frustrated by the still primitive computer technology.

“You still had connections with wires and so on,” he recalled. “It was clumsy and unreliable.”

Twenty years later, Boulez presented a new version of explosante-fixe, employing updated computer technology and midi-flute, controlled by a computer. This version was recorded, in effect “fixing the explosion.”

Boulez once quoted with approval French dramatist Antonin Artaud, who described music as “collective hysteria and spells.” Yet Boulez carefully plotted out his compositions in obsessively meticulous detail.

And, speaking of explosions, Boulez once suggested that as a radical break with the past, all opera houses should be blown up. Yet, as a conductor, Boulez was a devoted interpreter of some past composers, such as Debussy and Stravinsky — and, if you listen closely, echoes of their music can be heard in his own.

Music Played in Today's Program

Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) explosante-fixe; Sophie Cherrier, solo midi flute; Ensemble Intercontemporain; Pierre Boulez, cond. DG 445 833

On This Day

Births

• 1792 - American composer Peter Wolle, in New Herrnhut, St. Thomas, West Indies;

• 1871 - American composer Frederick Shepherd Converse, in Newton, Massachusetts;

• 1880 - Russian composer and pianist Nicolai Medtner, in Moscow (Julian date: Dec. 24, 1879);

• 1881 - Russian composer Nicolai Roslavetz, in Dushatino, Chernigov region, Ukraine (Julian date: Dec. 24, 1880);

Deaths

• 1869 - Russian composer Alexander Dargomizhsky (Gregorian date: Jan. 17);

• 1970 - Catalan-born British composer Roberto Gerhard, age 73, in Cambridge, England;

• 1979 - American jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus, age 56, in Mexico City;

Premieres

• 1677 - Lully: opera "Isis," in Paris;

• 1727 - Bach: Sacred Cantata No. 58 ("Ach Gott, wie manches Herzeleid" II) performed on the Sunday after New Year's Day as part of Bach's third annual Sacred Cantata cycle in Leipzig (1725/27);

• 1745 - Handel: musical drama "Hercules" at the King's Theater in London (Gregorian date: Jan. 16);

• 1868 - Bruch: Violin Concerto in g, Op. 26 (final version), in Bremen, with Karl Martin Rheintahler conducting and Joseph Joachim the soloist; An earlier version of this work had been premiered on April 24, 1866, which Bruch substantially revised with the assistance of Joachim;

• 1884 - Gilbert & Sullivan: operetta, "Princess Ida," at the Savoy Theatre in London;

• 1932 - Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, in Vienna, with Vienna Symphony conducted by Robert Heger, with Paul Wittgenstein (who commissioned the work) as soloist;

• 1941 - Mark Blitzstein: opera "No for an Answer," in New York City;

• 1949 - Henry Cowell: Symphony No. 5, at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by the National Symphony, Hans Kindler conducting;

• 1949 - Morton Gould: symphonic suite, "Fall River Legend," Pierre Monteux conducting San Francisco Symphony Orchestra;

• 1961 - Easley Blackwood: Symphony No. 2, in Cleveland (commissioned by music publisher G. Schirmer to celebrate its centenary);

• 1962 - Ross Lee Finney: Piano Quintet No. 2, in Los Angeles;

• 1973 - Pierre Boulez: ". . . explosante/fixe" at a concert by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.