...explosante-fixe...

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title: "...explosante-fixe..." type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["compositions-by-pierre-boulez", "computer-music-compositions", "20th-century-classical-music", "serial-compositions", "compositions-for-flute", "compositions-for-violin", "compositions-for-clarinet", "compositions-for-trumpet", "chamber-music-compositions"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...explosante-fixe..." license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

...explosante-fixe... () is a piece of music composed by Pierre Boulez. Initially conceived in 1971 as a memorial for Igor Stravinsky, who died in April of that year, several different versions of the work were composed by Boulez between 1972 and 1993, culminating in a piece for solo MIDI-flute and chamber orchestra.

Title

The title of the work is taken from the concluding line of the first chapter of André Breton's L'amour fou (1937): "La beauté convulsive sera érotique-voilée, explosante-fixe, magique-circonstancielle, ou ne sera pas" (Convulsive beauty will be erotic-veiled, exploding-fixed, magical-circumstantial, or it will not be at all).

History

The first version of ...explosante-fixe... (1971–1972) is a one-page aleatoric work in seven parts entitled, according to one report, Originel and Transitoires II–VII, though the manuscript score (published as two pages of music and twelve pages of instructions) bears the title in the composer's hand [... Explosante-fixe ...], and the indications "Originel" and "Transitoires II–VII" are the names of the groups into which the work is divided. The seven parts each represent one member of a seven-note row found in the "Originel" section: E, G, D, A, B, A, E, an emblem of the Stravinsky memorial for which it was composed (the note E sustained at the beginning is pronounced Es in German, cognate with the letter S for "Stravinsky"). The pitches of this row were later used also in Rituel. In this original form, the instruments were not indicated, Like most of the other pieces in the Stravinsky memorial, this reflects the instrumentation of two brief commemorative works Stravinsky wrote in 1959: the Epitaphium for flute, clarinet, and harp, and the Double Canon (in memory of Dufy) for string quartet.

In the two subsequent years, Boulez developed ...explosante-fixe... into a work for solo flute, accompanied by clarinet, trumpet, harp, vibraphone, violin, viola, cello and electronics.

Boulez, however, was ultimately unsatisfied with the electronics. These revisions involved changes in the order of sections and rewriting six of the eight instrumental parts. In all, there are four different versions for the flute, three versions each for the viola and cello, two versions each for the trumpet, violin, and clarinet, but only one version each for the vibraphone and harp, which differ from one version to the next only in the ordering of their constituent parts. Boulez withdrew the materials for both versions, primarily because of his dissatisfaction with the all-too-audible failure of the electronics, and in particular the computer tape that was intended to direct the conductorless 1973 Proms version, but also as an acknowledgement that the scoring really required a symphony orchestra.

The next version of ...explosante-fixe..., for vibraphone and electronics, was not composed until 1986. In the intervening years, parts of the original material appeared in other works by Boulez, specifically Rituel (1975) and Mémoriale (1985).

Between 1991 and 1993, while at IRCAM, This version premiered in Turin, Italy at Settembre Musica Festival on 13 September 1993, in a performance by the Ensemble InterContemporain.

References

References

  1. Annie Labussière and Jean-Marc Chouvel, "Pierre Boulez: ''Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe... originel)''", ''Musurgia: Analyse et pratique musicales'' 4, no. 1 (1997): 42–66. Citation on 44, quoting André Breton, "L'Amour fou", ''OEuvres complètes'' (Paris, Gallimard, coll. Pléiade, 1992), 2:687.
  2. Javier Alejandro Garavaglia, "Raising Awareness about Complete Automation of Live-electronics: A Historical Perspective", in ''Auditory Display: 6th International Symposium, CMMR/ICAD 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark, May 18–22, 2009'', edited by Sølvi Ystad, 443–45, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 5954; LNCS Sublibrary SL 3 (Berlin and New York: Springer, 2010).{{Page needed. (October 2012)
  3. Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Alexander Goehr, Elisabeth Lutyens, Darius Milhaud, and Roger Sessions, [Supplement]: "In Memoriam: Igor Stravinsky. Canons & Epitaphs, Set 2". ''Tempo'', new series, no. 98 (1972): [13–26 of 27 unnumbered pages (inserted between pages 22 and 23), citation on 13].
  4. Susan Bradshaw, "Comparing Notes", ''Musical Times'' 137, no. 1844 (October 1996): 5–12. Citation on 8.
  5. Annie Labussière and Jean-Marc Chouvel, "Pierre Boulez: ''Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe... originel)''", ''Musurgia: Analyse et pratique musicales'' 4, no. 1 (1997): 42–66. Citation on 44.
  6. Edward Campbell, ''Boulez, Music and Philosophy'', Music in the Twentieth Century 27 (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010): p.206. {{ISBN. 978-0-521-86242-4.
  7. though a possible scoring for two violins, two flutes, two clarinets, and harp is suggested.Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Alexander Goehr, Elisabeth Lutyens, Darius Milhaud, and Roger Sessions, [Supplement]: "In Memoriam: Igor Stravinsky. Canons & Epitaphs, Set 2". ''Tempo'', new series, no. 98 (1972): [13–26 of 27 unnumbered pages, citation on 25–26].
  8. Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, Aaron Copland, Alexander Goehr, Elisabeth Lutyens, Darius Milhaud, and Roger Sessions, [Supplement]: "In Memoriam: Igor Stravinsky. Canons & Epitaphs, Set 2". ''Tempo'', new series, no. 98 (1972): [27 unnumbered pages, editorial note on 27].
  9. Paolo Dal Molin, "Introduction à la famille d'oeuvres ''...explosante-fixe...'' de Pierre Boulez: Étude philologique", PhD diss. (Nice: Université de Nice—Sophia Antipolis, 2007): 17.
  10. Susan Bradshaw, "Boulez at 65", ''Musical Times'' 131, no. 1765 (March 1990): 127–28. Citation on 127.
  11. Susan Bradshaw, "Comparing Notes", ''Musical Times'' 137, no. 1844 (October 1996): 5–12. Citations on 8 and 11–12.
  12. "Pierre Boulez – ... explosante-fixe ...". [[Universal Edition]].

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compositions-by-pierre-boulezcomputer-music-compositions20th-century-classical-musicserial-compositionscompositions-for-flutecompositions-for-violincompositions-for-clarinetcompositions-for-trumpetchamber-music-compositions