Stereophony and Spirals

Abstract

Abstract Premiered less than one year apart, Doubles and Poésie pour pouvoir are two large-scale orchestral works that represent distinct trends in Boulez’s output. Doubles demonstrates Boulez’s growing exploration of blocs sonores as the basis for a variety of compositional techniques, including “diagonal” polyphony, pulsed and non-pulsed duration, and “virtual” themes, all of which connect to poststructuralist tendencies in his music. By contrast, Poésie is based in the exploration of the spiral as a figurative, graphic, and literal concept. This chapter treats each composition in turn. As a successful composition that was later expanded, Doubles exhibits postmodern notions of time and repetition that imbue numerous future works. Meanwhile, Poésie is connected to the spiraling sea shells of Paul Valéry in a critique of Boulez’s reliance on modernist influences as a backward tendency that parallels his earliest experiments in integral serialism.