Folding Space and Time

Abstract

Abstract This chapter is saturated with Boulez’s sketches as a reflection of the diversity of his creative processes developed throughout his formative period. Yet, while Pli selon pli represents the culmination of nearly a decade of compositional development, it is also a reflection of a lack of synthesis among his approaches to writing music. Each movement of the cycle is explored according to its order of composition in a cumulative narrative involving changing proportions of self-borrowing, transcription, improvisation, and new serial processes in each movement. The result is a summation of Boulez’s journey as a composer at the end of one creative phase and the beginning of another.