Pli selon pli – Uncovering the Layers of Modernist Aesthetics. A study of performative aspects in Boulez and Mallarmé

Abstract

This thesis is a study of the vocal performances in three recordings of Pierre Boulez's work for soprano and ensemble, Pli selon pli – portrait de Mallarmé, particularly the fourth movement, "Improvisation III sur Mallarmé: A la nue accablante tu". The recordings in question were made in 1969 with soprano Halina Lukomska and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, in 1981 with soprano Phyllis Bryn-Julson and the same orchestra, and in 2001 with soprano Christine Schäfer and Boulez's own Ensemble Intercontemporain. Boulez himself is conducting in all three recordings. The purposes of the thesis are to demonstrate how performance can be viewed as a work of art in its own right, to display the performative qualities in Mallarmé's poem A la nu accablante tu and in Boulez's musical work, and to explore modernist aesthetics and the listener's experience of musical meaning in atonal music.