Extrêmement Rapide By Bouulez Snique Analysis
Major work of the composer's early style. It is also a landmark piece of XX.th century piano music. Premiered in 1950 by Yvette Grimaux this Sonata is stupefying by the accomplishment of a young composer aged 23.
Even though molded in the classical Sonata model it also displays an amazing novelty in its discourse. Showcasing a high rhythmical complexity, probably inspired by Messiaen's researches it also distinguishes itself by its departure from the Schoenberg concept of the tone-series. Sonic cells here create rhythmical "themes" and make, as the composer pointed out, a large step towards a total (integral) serialistic world for the pieces to come.
The first movement: "Extrêmement rapide" (extremely fast), still shows, in its boundaries, …show more content…
Contrasting textures like repeated notes, uniform rhythms interrupted by melodic lines or interjected chords over held notes or harmonic resonance chords/notes constitute the main aspect of the composition. The opposition between what the composer calls "temps strié" (regularly subdivided time/rhythm; a metric based on a regular impulse) and "temps lisse" (no regular impulse can be recognized) is the most striking aspect of Incises.
The "sister-piece" of Incises: "Sur Incises" is composed few years later. A two-movement work for three pianos, three harps, and three percussion parts. The material of Incises is distributed to the harps and percussion, and they are deployed across space by spreading the three groups apart in the performance area.
Tim Page on a performance of the piece wrote: "Incises is charged with a bright, cold, hard brilliance, like a spray of crushed ice. It is dense with events - even when it is silent for a moment, Boulez's music never really 'rests' - but also far more generous in its emotional expression than much of his earlier work."
It is actually very interesting to compare and see the changes and the evolution of the composer, with the Second Piano Sonata (1948) and Incises (2001). More than half a century separates the two major
Even though molded in the classical Sonata model it also displays an amazing novelty in its discourse. Showcasing a high rhythmical complexity, probably inspired by Messiaen's researches it also distinguishes itself by its departure from the Schoenberg concept of the tone-series. Sonic cells here create rhythmical "themes" and make, as the composer pointed out, a large step towards a total (integral) serialistic world for the pieces to come.
The first movement: "Extrêmement rapide" (extremely fast), still shows, in its boundaries, …show more content…
Contrasting textures like repeated notes, uniform rhythms interrupted by melodic lines or interjected chords over held notes or harmonic resonance chords/notes constitute the main aspect of the composition. The opposition between what the composer calls "temps strié" (regularly subdivided time/rhythm; a metric based on a regular impulse) and "temps lisse" (no regular impulse can be recognized) is the most striking aspect of Incises.
The "sister-piece" of Incises: "Sur Incises" is composed few years later. A two-movement work for three pianos, three harps, and three percussion parts. The material of Incises is distributed to the harps and percussion, and they are deployed across space by spreading the three groups apart in the performance area.
Tim Page on a performance of the piece wrote: "Incises is charged with a bright, cold, hard brilliance, like a spray of crushed ice. It is dense with events - even when it is silent for a moment, Boulez's music never really 'rests' - but also far more generous in its emotional expression than much of his earlier work."
It is actually very interesting to compare and see the changes and the evolution of the composer, with the Second Piano Sonata (1948) and Incises (2001). More than half a century separates the two major