"show us the way" - Thomas Palmer (Aleatoric)

gigilzeg

Dec 8, 20209 min read

Updated: Jan 5, 2021

What is Aleatoricism?

Aleatoricism or aleatoric music was popularized by composer Pierre Boulez for compositions resulting from actions made by chance. It's etymology derives from alea, Latin for dice, and the term was first used "in the context of electro-acoustics and information theory to describe a course of sound events that is determined in its framework and flexible in detail" by Werner Meyer-Eppler a Belgian-German physicist, acoustician and information theorist in 1955. [Wikipedia] Although most often associated with 20th century composers it can be traced back to compositions by Mozart in which the order of measures of a musical piece were determined by throwing dice. Many would argue that aleatory is also indeterminacy or improvisation but in this post we will refrain from such. Boulez would use aleatory and John Cage would use indeterminate music, and the difference between the two could be described as the former purposefully composing to allow certain liberties in regards to sequencing and repetition and the latter composing through application of chance operations without performer liberties. Two other composers who utilized this technique were Karlheinz Stockhausen who attended Meyer-Eppler's seminars in phonetics, acoustics and information theory and interestingly John Williams for his film scores.

About Thomas Palmer:

"Thomas Palmer is a composer and performer based in New York City. His works have been performed by ensembles across the east coast, including the Imani Winds and the Akropolis Quintet. Thomas is the recipient of the John and Lucrecia Herr award for Composition and the Arthur M. Fraser award, as well as the Presser Scholar Award for extraordinary music and academic accomplishments. He was interviewed in 2019 on South Carolina NPR’s Sonatas and Soundscapes, and is published by Murphy Music Press. Thomas is an advocate for new music, and he maintains a full schedule of projects and commissions. Thomas received his B.M. in Composition from the University of South Carolina and currently studies under Dr. Reiko Füting at the Manhattan School of Music in New York." [Palmer]

Other compositions by Thomas Palmer can be found on his SoundCloud; https://soundcloud.com/user-956931348

Composer Thomas Palmer utilizes aleatory in the following piece "show us the way" which is written for 14 trumpets. Throughout the score, shown below, we see clear directions describing what each trumpet should do in terms of timing and pitches to be played.

Who was Pierre Boulez?

Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez lived from March 1925 - January 2016 and was a French composer, conductor, writer and founder of numerous musical institutions. Student of famous composer Olivier Messiaen, Boulez is known as one of the dominant figures of the post war classical music world, avant-garde music, especially playing an important role in the development of integral serialism and controlled chance music better known as aleatoric music.

Born in Montbrison, in the Loire department of central France, Boulez was the third of four children with an older sister, younger brother and older brother who passed away at infancy. At the age of 7 he went to the Institute Victor de Laprade, which was a Catholic seminary where school days lasted 13 hours and was filled with prayer and studying which understandably shaped his religious views considerably. He would later consider himself to be agnostic.

He was an active musician even during this time by participating in the school's choir, playing chamber music with local armatures and by taking piano lessons. Although music was a very obvious love of Boulez, his father, Léon who was an engineer and technical director of a steel factory, hoped that his son would follow in his footsteps as Boulez would study advanced mathematics in Cours Sogno in Lyon and be admitted to Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. It was while in Lyon that Boulez would first experience opera and his father would be persuaded by soprano Ninon Vallin to allow him to study at the Conservatoire in Lyon. Although he was rejected by the conservatory the seed of music being a viable career was planted, and he continued to study piano and harmony with Lionel de Pachmann and his father Léon would support him as he moved to Paris in hopes of studying at the Conservatoire de Paris.

Although the road was rocky, with Boulez failing the advanced piano class at the Conservatoire he admitted in January 1944 but would be described in May 1944 by instructor Georges Dandelot as "the best of the class" in preparatory harmony. Boulez would then be moved to the advanced harmony class and attend private seminars analyzing 20th century works were given to chosen students by Olivier Messiaen. His success was also noted by Andree Vaurabourg with whom he studied counterpoint privately from April 1944 - May 1946, she used his exercises as models in advanced counterpoint until the end of her teaching career. This was not yet enough for Boulez and it was in January 1945 when he attended a performance of Schoenberg's Wind Quintet that he found the missing puzzle piece of his own compositional style. He would organize groups of fellow students to study the 12 tone row technique with René Leibowitz and would then also begin studying works of Anton Webern. This relationship was not to last as Boulez found Leibowitz to be too doctrinaire after a disagreement on one of Boulez's earlier works.

The Premier prize was awarded to Boulez and three other Conservatoire students in 1945, but he would very clearly begin to break from the institution as he found the counterpoint and fugue class taught by Simone Plé-Caussade to be lacking of imagination. Instead he petitioned Messiaen to be given a full professorship in composition and would immerse himself in Balinese and Japanese music as well as African drumming at the Musée Guimet and the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. This lead to his love of ethnomusicology or "the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it" [Wikipedia]

Boulez would later hold the post of musical director of the Compagnie Renaud-Barrault where he would arrange and conduct incidental music, by composers he very little cared for such as Tchaikovsky, but this would allow him to mingle with those in power and compose during the day. He would teach mathematics to his landlord's son to earn additional money so that he would be able to afford to tour with the company to locations such as Belgium, Switzerland, London and other tours to various spots in South America and North America. It is important to note that during this time he played the ondes Martenot which was an early electornic instrument, composed pieces such as "Polyphonie X" which caused audience members to hiss and whistle, a great scandal, at the premier at the Donaueschingen Festival but also met John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Cage and Boulez had a very intense friendship beginning in 1949 in Paris. Between introducing Boulez to two publishers and Boulez helping arrange a private performance of Cage's Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano it was no surprise that their friendship would continue with a 6 year correspondence about the future of music even as Cage returned to New York. However they did cool to one another around 1951 when Boulez went to New York and stayed in Cage's apartment. They had disagreed on Cage's commitment to compositional procedures based on chance and they would eventually cut off contact together entirely. Stockhausen and Boulez were a more obvious pairing despite the language barrier between them as Stockhausen came to Paris in 1952 to study with Messiaen. Their intensity and spark for music innovation was evident even through wild arm flailing and the need for translation. In 1952 Boulez would attend the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt and he as well as Stockhausen would become close with a number of other influential composers. It was, however, Boulez that all felt was a leader of the post-war modernist movement. "at all times he seemed absolutely sure of what he was doing. Amid the confusion of postwar life, with so many truths discredited, his certitude was reassuring." Stated American music critic Alex Ross, an expert of this area. [Wikipedia]

Boulez's connection with the aforementioned Barrault and Renaud company was not yet over as he would begin a series of concerts at the Petit Marigny theatre called the Domaine musical. This series would initially focus on pre-war classics still unfamiliar in Paris like Bartok and Webern, works by the new generation like Stockhausen and neglected masters from the past like Machaut although the last of these three categories would be forgotten as time went on. They were a complete success and in 1955 Boulez's best known work "Le Marteau sans maitre" was premiered. William Glock, British Music Critic, wrote "even at a first hearing, though difficult to take in, it was so utterly new in sound, texture and feeling that it seemed to possess a mythical quality like that of Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire." and Stravinsky would describe it as "one of the few significant works of the post-war period of exploration." [Wikipedia] Boulez and Stravinsky would later dine together on a number of occasions, but their friendship would not last due to artistic hardships. Nor did Boulez's friendship with Stockhausen as by 1962 Boulez saw the other becoming the new leader of the avant-garde movement.

Beyond just being a phenomenal composer in his own right Boulez was also an accomplished conductor. In 1959 he left Paris for Baden-Baden to work as a composer-in- residence and to conduct smaller concerts for the South-West German Radio Orchestra. As an added bonus he also had access to an electronic studio to work on a new piece titled "Poesie pour pouvoir" and he would move into a small villa where he would spend most of the remainder of his life. He conducted the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras an the Orchestre National de France. The repertoire he conducted included Stockhausen's "Gruppen", Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, where the piece had had its riotous premiere, Berg's "Wozzeck" notably the first opera Boulez ever conducted, Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" and "Parsifal," and Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande."

Boulez would make his orchestral debut in the United States with the Cleveland Orchestra and become its principal guest conductor from 1969-1971, under which they would win five Grammy Awards, and would also take on the role of music advisor for two years although his actual involvement is iffy due to other commitments in London and New York. In London he conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra which started with unlikely choices in repertoire and location, but he would then conduct at Carnegie Hall and make tours to Moscow and Leningrad, Berlin and Prague. Not being one to step down from a challenge he conducted also the New York Philharmonic and was offered the chief conductorship after Leonard Bernstein. He was enticed by the the opportunity, despite fears that it would distract him from his other positions, "to reform the music making of both these world cities." [Wikipedia] This included trying to find venues where music could be presented more informally and would spark the series titled "Rug Concerts" where seats in Avery Fisher Hall (now titled David Geffen Hall) in New York City's Lincoln Center, would be removed and audiences would sit on the floor.

President Pompidou asked Boulez to return to France in 1970 to set up an institute specializing in musical research and creation at the arts complex. The Instut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) would open in 1977. Its aims would include research into instrumental design, acoustics, and the use of computers in composition. It was often criticized not just for the compositions but also for the state subsidy it absorbed and for Boulez having too much power especially as five original directors in the departments resigned. Boulez's body of work would increase dramatically during this time, composing new works for the IRCAM electronically to transform sound in real time but also radically reworking earlier pieces. He would eventually give up power and return to conducting in 1992. His remained extremely busy until an eye operation in 2010 left him with severely impaired sight, and he suffered a shoulder injury from a fall in 2011. After conducting in Salzburg in 2012 he cancelled all remaining conducting engagements. Pierre Boulez would die on January 5th 2016 in his villa in Baden-Baden and would be buried 8 days later in the main cemetery there following a private funeral service. [Britannica]

Piano Sonata No.3

One example of Boulez's use of aleatory is his Piano Sonata No.3 premiered in Cologne and at the Darmstadter Ferienkurse in 1958. This is a preliminary version because although it was written between 1955-57 only two movements were completed and published in 1963 and a fragment of a third in 1967. The other formants, as Boulez called them, remain unfinished by the composer but others such as Schatz and Strobel, 1977, published them. The five movements in their various stages are as follows:

"Antiphonie" (unpublished except for a fragment, called "Sigle" [Siglum])
"Trope"
"Constellation" (published only in its retrograde version, as "Constellation-Miroir")
"Strophe" (unpublished)
"Séquence" (unpublished, except for a facsimile of the preliminary-version manuscript) [Wikipedia]