On The Function Of The Conductor In The Second Movement Of 'Pli Selon Pli' Of Pierre Boulez

Pli selon pli,which consists of five movements,was composed by the famous French composer and conductor,Pierre Boulez,for soprano and instrumental ensemble in 1957.In its second movement,which was also called Mallarmé impromptu I,Boulez combined ethereal vocals with an irregular instrumental ensemble,integrated aleatory music with percussion music,and let them all collide to produce different sparks in order to convey to the audience the beauty of modern music.As his masterpiece,Pli selon pli not only showed Boulez's excellent and “logical” composition style,but also displayed his charm as a conductor.In this essay,which consists of three parts,the author analyzes and explores the second movement of Pli selon pli by giving a background overview of it,the conducting method that it involves,and the different versions of conducting this piece.The first part introduces Pierre Boulez's life story,his representative works,musical achievements,composition style and ideas.It also gives a background introduction to Pli selon pli and a background overview and discussion of the composition method of its second movement.The second part summarizes and analyzes the musical structure of and organization and instrumentation of the ensemble for the piece's second movement.It mainly consists of the analysis of the full score,wherein the author ferrets out the difficult points and suggests the solutions for them.,and discusses the conducting method that is demanded by such a score.The third and last chapter compares Pierre Boulez's and Matthias Pintscher's different versions of conducting the piece in terms of their different conducting rhythm and conducting sound.These,combined with the author's acquired knowledge of and skill in conducting,lead her to a conclusion regarding the function of the conductor in the performance of the second movement of Pli selon pli.