HISTORY AND CONTEXT

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Pierre Boulez (© Universal Edition/Eric Marinisch)

Pierre Boulez (right) with the pianist Géza Anda, around 1951 (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)

About Pierre Boulez's Douze Notations

Douze Notations pour piano have a special place in the musical output of Pierre Boulez (1925-2016). For one thing, ever since their belated publication in 1985 these short piano pieces have headed the work list of this extremely self-critical composer. For another, Boulez frequently drew on these fledgling compositions in his later music. Finally, this collection of 1945 offers fascinating insights into the compositional workshop of the then 20-year-old composer.

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A journeyman composition

Pierre Boulez's years of study took place under the formative influence of Olivier Messiaen and René Leibowitz. Both musicians introduced him to musical worlds he had never known before. Douze Notations pour piano reflects these influences, while bearing witness to the young composer's originality.

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Composing within narrow confines

Pierre Boulez's Notations is a prime example of the productive powers that can result from radical self-restriction. The limits that the 20-year-old composer imposed on himself were unimaginably narrow: 12 pieces, each 12 bars long, and all based on the same 12-note row.

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Musical metamorphoses

Up to his death in 2016, Pierre Boulez returned time and again to his Douze Notations pour piano. In the late 1970s he produced a series of orchestral pieces that adopt, rethink and rework the musical material of the earlier collection. But he had already returned to Notations in works of the 1950s. 

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Inside the score

In five interactive scores Pierre Boulez guides you through selected pieces from Douze Notations. They are performed by Boulez specialist Tamara Stefanovich, who also addresses questions of technique and interpretation.

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Boulez video interview

In 1945, at the age of 20, Pierre Boulez began to develop his musical language with Douze Notations. In a video interview from 2012 the composer introduces and discusses this early collection of piano pieces.

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