The Concept of 'Alea' in Boulez's 'Constellation-Miroir'

Author(s): Anne Trenkamp

Source: Music & Letters, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 1-10
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/733804
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I/S/Cand
Letters
JANUARY 1976
VOLUME

No.

LVII

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THE CONCEPT OF 'ALEA' IN BOULEZ'S

'CONSTELLATION-MIROIR'
BY ANNE TRENKAMP
USE of chance techniques by contemporary composers has
bewildered more than a few theorists and driven others to silence.
Some musicians would agree with Edward T. Cone that, since chance
music has no definitively ordered sequence of events, it can only be
described, not analyzed., Others would agree with Anthony Cross:

THE

The preoccupation with chance on the part of composers like

Stockhausen and particularly Boulez, pinpoints the chief problem
faced by composers of the so-called post-Webern school: with the
abandonment of tonality, of all pre-existing language, how is the
composer to achieve the meaningful articulation of form?2
The problem of chance in music is particularly crucial for twentiethcentury scholars. In the past, major musical issues have been avoided
by negative means: tonality became atonal; themes became athematic; rhythm became arhythmic. Only by linguistic feats such as
'open form', 'circular form' and so on has form not become 'aformal'.
By examining one composer's confrontation of chance the relationship between the articulation of form and chance can be seen from a
more positive viewpoint.
Boulez has made a distinction between chance and alea in his
speeches and essays. For him, al6a is the use of chance under highly
controlled circumstances. While this distinction appears on the
p. 38.

1 'Analysis Today', Probklmsof ModernMusic, ed. Paul H. Lang, New York, I960,
2 'The Significance of Aleatoricism in twentieth-century Music', 77ie Music Review,
xxix (I968), 322.
I

surface to be nothing more than linguistic hairsplitting, the significance of the differentiation becomes apparent in the analysis of a
work such as 'Constellation-miroir', the third and central movement
of Boulez's Third Piano Sonata.3 Close examination of some ideas
Boulez wrote about at the time he was composing the sonata and an
analysis of 'Constellation-miroir' make clear the necessity and
validity of the distinction. In addition, an analysis of this movement
illustrates one meaning of the term 'open form'.
An earlier work by Boulez, Structuresfor two pianos (I 95I-6),
illustrates the composer's attempt to serialize rhythm, dynamics and
attack in addition to pitch. During the completion of Structures,
however, Boulez was already re-examining the validity of the strict
serial procedures he was employing at that time; his writings show a
concern with this problem until the composition of the Third Piano
Sonata (c. I 960). First, Boulez challenged the conclusions serial
composers drew from Webern's works and the manner in which
they 'extended' his procedures:
The model universally chosen is Webern: and in his music the
principal matter for study is the organization of the musical material.
Certain conclusions are arrived at, and these are then deliberately
developed by a process of extension. With real frenzy we set about
[serial] organization as if we were on the threshold of undiscovered
worlds ... Webern organized only intervallic relationships; we now
subject rhythm, tone-colour and dynamics to [serial] organization.
All this serves as fodder for the monstrous multiple organization
which must be renounced forthwith if we are not to condemn ourselves to deafness.4
Second, he questioned the relationship between
elements and the perception of the total form:

the serialized

Each system, carefully worked out in its own terms, could only
cohabit with the others through a miraculous coincidence. The works
of this period also show an extreme inflexibility in all their aspects;
elements in the 'magic squares' which the composer, with his magic
wand, forgot at the birth of the work, react violently against the
foreign and hostile order forced upon them; they get their own
revenge: the work does not achieve any conclusively coherent
organization; it sounds bad and its aggressiveness is not always
intentional.5
These are bitter thoughts from one of the technical masters of
'total serialism'. What Boulez specifically attacked was the applica3 Only two of the proposed five movements have been published: 'Trope' and
'Constellation-miroir'. The latter is designed to be played either forward or in retrograde,
but only the retrograde has been published. Both were completed by I96o.
' In German in 'Einsichten und Aussichten', tr. Hilde Strobel, Melos, xxii (I955),
i62.

? Boukz on Music Today,tr. Susan Bradshaw and Richard R. Bennett, London, 197I,

p. 25.
2

tion of twelve-note pitch technique to the materials of rhythm, colour

and dynamics, because each of these materials has a different inner
structure. Pitch material in this style is a closed system of twelve
chromatic pitches whose different permutations produce associative
elements at will. Rhythm, on the other hand, does not contain such
a closed system of separate elements; to enforce upon rhythm the
same procedures that govern pitch cannot produce the same
necessary conclusions. This point of logic applies to colour and
dynamics as well., When composers tried to use the same procedures
for all four elements mentioned above, there was no logical or
necessary relationship between them. The resultant 'chance by
inadvertence' occasionally produced homogeneous and logical
simultaneities, but not by rule of the composer.
Boulez, however, did not reject serial technique completely; his
arguments primarily reject the excesses of a system which relinquished compositional decisions to a series of calculations and
tables. For Boulez, the extents and limits of serial technique displayed
in Structuresprovided not a dead end, but a new begining: 'Serialism
provided me with a syntax. In "Le Marteau", I used it to formulate
thoughts'.7
The syntax provided by Structureswas actually a re-definition of
the role of the series. In 'Musical Technique' Boulez presents still
another definition of the series that illustrates this role; he stresses
the importance of hierarchy within the series rather than the
primacy of pitch-order:
The series is ... the germ of a developing hierarchy... ,endowed
with a greater or lesser selectivity, with a view to organizing a FINITE
ensemble of creative possibilities ... ; this ensemble of possibilities is

deduced from an initial series by a

FUNCTIONAL

generativeprocess

(not simply the consecutive exposition of a certain number of objects,

permutated according to restrictive numerical data)."
Boulez's redefinition of the series has direct bearing on the
analysis of 'Constellation-miroir'. First, the recognition of intervalclass and/or pitch-class hierarchy as opposed to pitch-order demands
a reformulation of the role of pitch within a piece. Second, since it is
the interaction between musical elements that produces form, any
change of approach towards one or more elements is bound to affect
the manner in which a composition as a whole is organized. Thus,
the new role of pitch and the disavowal of the serialization of other
elements invite special attention to the formal organization.
Boulez has stated that his concept of form at that time was
6 See Gyorgy Ligeti, 'Pierre Boulez', Die Reihe, iv (i958),
38-63.
7 Peter Heyworth, 'Pierre Boulez', The New rorker,24 March 1973,
$ Boulez on Music Today, pp. 35-36.

p. 63.

influenced more by literature than by other composers, especially

by Stephan Mallarme. 9 He felt that writers had explored structural
possibilities far more extensively than composers, and in Mallarme
he found a system of organization suggestive of what he was attempting in 'Constellation-miroir'. In 'Un Coup de des', the poem after
which 'Constellation-miroir' is modelled, two facets of poetic usage
have bearing on this analysis. First, Mallarme transposed words
from their everyday associations into verbal objects with a poetic
function by concentrating on phonemic qualities and by juxtaposing
words in a manner which gave them a multiplicity of meanings.10
Boulez's task was not dissimilar; he transposed pitches from their
serial matrix into the phonemic state of the smallest recognizable
unit of pitch relationship, serial or non-serial: the interval.
Second, Mallarme in 'Un Coup de des' segmented phrases and
arranged them on the page in such a way that the connections
between phrases would be ambiguous. For example, if a sentence is
diagrammed in the traditional way, the words are segmented and
additional words are joined to them to designate their function.
Even if the words are presented in an unusual order, the functional
designations make the meaning clear:
subject
I

directobject
the bread

verb
took

to my house
prepositional
phrase

uickly
adverb

In 'Un Coup de des', the sentence is fragmented, but there is no

explicit relationship between the fragments, except for a certain
typographical hierarchy:
LE MAITRE
surgi

inf6rant
de cette conflagration
que se
comme on menace
l'unique Nombre qui ne peut pas
hesite
cadavre par le bras"
9 'Sonate, que me veux-tu ?', tr. D. Noakes and P. Jacobs, Perspectivesof New Music,
i(1963),

32.

10Hans R. Zeller, 'Mallarme and Serialist Thought', tr. Margaret Shenfield, Die
Reihe,vi (I964), 7.
11 Mallarme, ed. Anthony Hartley, Harmondsworth, I965, p. 2I8.

Despite the seemingly fewer choices in the Mallarme poem, the

musical continuity in 'Constellation-miroir' has been segmented in
the same fashion, and the choices of segment-sequences in performance create ambiguity similar to that found in the Mallarme poem.
Interesting as these artistic influences are, it is the process
through which Boulez turned to aleatoric procedures that is important. Boulez stated: 'Actually, the only thing one can play upon
is the interaction between style and form'. 12 He developed a postserial style and sought-by analogy perhaps-a formal procedure
with which it could interact. The result of this search was a particular
form of chance called alea, in which the composer controls precisely
the areas in which chance may enter into the composition."I Alea,
then, was not an outside influence, used in and for itself. Rather, it
was the adoption of a literary viewpoint to create a formal procedure
which could interact with a particular style.
The intrinsic use of alea as a formal device in 'Constellationmiroir' can be seen by a glance at the score. The idea of an openform, aleatoric movement is enhanced through the typographical
layout of the movement. The score consists of nine pages, i8 ins. x
24 ins., over which 58 segments of varying length are arranged.
These segments are printed in either red or green, red standing for
the chordal blocs sections and green for the points sections of pointillistic texture. Signs before and after each segment mark the routes
that can be taken.
In addition to the many signs surrounding the segments, two
different types of tempo indications are used. First are the specific
tempo modifications often found in the blocs sections; these may
indicate rapid changes of tempo in a short space, as in blocs i:

Ex. 1.

Vif

J126

126

t;=

J126

J5

~~~~ Il~~~~~~

sffz
sffz

___!

uJ
a-----!

iPed.

U{.C.

Lecture at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, March 1971.

Pierre Boulez, 'Alea', La NouvelleRevuefranfaise, xlix (I 957), 845. In this article
Boulez distinguishes between the different uses of chance in music by the composer's
intent. Two other uses are 'chance by inadvertence' or total serialism (p. 839) and random
techniques (p. 841). There is no ready-made noun to go with the adjective, aleatory. Mr.
Cross prefers 'aleatoricism', while I would like to see the word alia taken into the English
language.
12

13

Second are the 'if. . . then' tempo markings, those which are indicated by the same sign that indicates the choice of segment. They state,
in effect, that if the composition is to proceed from segment x to
segment y, the latter segment must be played at z tempo; on the
other hand, if the composition is to proceed from segment q to
segmenty, the latter must be played at w tempo, as in pointS 2:
Ex. 2.

(mobile)
J 80
= 5
4=76 -(stable)
J= 96
(mobile)
=86 -

tressec et rapide
*

.|

--

absolument

Pedale

sants

All of these signs add to the visual complexity of the score.

The use of different colours and the resemblance of the layout of
the score to extra-musical elements provide additional amusement
for the performer; the multiplicity of signs gives the illusion that the
pianist has more choices than are really important or available. At
the highest level of organization there are six sections: Melange,
points3, bloCs2, points 2, blocsi and pointsi; these sections must occur
in the order stated. At the next level, individual segments are linked
together by the other segments in whose company they are allowed
to occur. Thus, although a section may have twelve segments, these
linkings may cause the segments to create three units. Within these
units, the choice of order for individual segments may remain free.
For example, Milangehas six segments. The pianist must start with
the first segment and end with the sixth. Of the remaining segments,
the third must follow the second and the fifth must follow the fourth.
Segments 2 and 3 belong to one textural density and segments 4 and
5 to the other. Thus there are only four units and only one choice;
the choice is whether segments 2-3 will precede or follow segments
4-5, or, in other words, which density will come first.
The other sections, by the very nature of the signs which surround
them, divide into units in the same way. When unit groupings are
taken into account, there are actually only 17 units, although there
are 58 segments. The following table shows the number of segments
and units in each section:

SECTION

SEGMENTS

UNITS

Mllange

points3

IO

blocs2
points2

24
8

3
3

blocsI
pointsI

II

Tempo does not really affect the number of units. Of the two
types of tempo modification discussed earlier the first occurs within a
segment. The frequent changes in tempo measure the time relationship between chords or pitches (see Ex. i). In music with a basic
pulse this measurement is accomplished by the rhythmic values
assigned to pitches. In his earlier compositions Boulez's notation was
characterized by highly complex rhythms in music that sometimes
lacks a basic pulse. He found that the realization of these rhythms in
performance was an approximation of the notation and that simpler
notation, combined with fluctuating tempo, would serve him
better. 1 As a result, the rhythmic notation in this movement has
actually been simplified. Fluctuations in tempo replace many of the
earlier, complex rhythmic patterns; in their place one finds simple
quavers or semiquavers.
The connective, 'if . . . then' tempo indications between two
segments (see Ex. 2) might appear to be a further usage of chance
techniques, but their primary purpose is to assure a smooth transition
from one segment to the next. Since the order of segments within a
unit is not predetermined, tempo must be considered within the
multiple possibilities of contexts for each segment. This planning can
be seen in the two choices offered by Boulez for the main unit of
points 2 (in the diagram each crotchet or quaver represents a segment):
Ex. 3
---j

138

A J---~~~41-26-121

endu

72

------------s2

8 1---------

126,-152 1/J 52-

26

The pianist, then, actually has far fewer choices than one would
expect from the notation of 'Constellation-miroir'. While there is
choice among individual segments, the organization of these
segments into units prevents random chance and provides a subformal structure. In addition, the tempo markings, which at first
14

iAl6a', pp. 841-2-

glance appear to promote the use of chance, perform two longestablished functions: the control of the rate of musical events; and
the control of smooth transitions between segments.
To this point we have eliminated some misunderstandings about
the use of chance in 'Constellation-miroir' and have determined how
many genuine notational choices are given. In short, it has been
shown that Boulez has loaded the dice. To determine the extent of
the loading an examination of the pitch structure is necessary.
Boulez has stated that his prime concern with serial organization in
this piece was to create horizontal and vertical sonorities related to
each other in a manner that could be perceived by the listener. If
this movement is to be considered serial, it must be considered so in
light of Boulez's definition of the series, with its emphasis on
hierarchy as opposed to pitch-order.
The pitch organization of 'Constellation-miroir' is similar to that
of 'Trope', the other published movement of the Third Piano Sonata.
The same series can be considered the foundation from which Boulez
develops his pitch material:
15

IEFF#BI

G# I

GAACA

I CDD#I

The four main subdivisions of the chromatic set, when reduced to

an unordered, elemental state, consist of: (a) two semitones and a
perfect fourth; (b) an isolated pitch; (c) a pattern of tone, semitone,
tone; and (d) two semitones. In addition, the second and fourth
elements of the series can be combined, forming exactly the same
intervallic relationships as the first element.
From these initial pitch elements Boulez creates short, easily
recognizable patterns that are repeated vertically or horizontally at
random; the only hierarchical organization is the inclusion or
exclusion of certain intervals, or the favouring of a few intervals,
such as the minor second. This type of technique-the use of basic,
simple intervallic structures as a replacement for the more highly
organized serial pitch structure-has been seen as an extension of
Webern's ideas. 16 It has also been considered related to the investigation of the phonemic quality of words by Mallarme.'7 The pitch
structure results from units so basic that they can not be broken
down further:
15 Lecture at Case Western Reserve University, March 1971.
16
17

Zeller, 'Mallarme and Serialist Thought', p. 7.

Ibid., p. sO.

EL 4.

Vif 4=126

-w

accel

C ?ts0u:F--t;

xxf

~v gf

fff

Mf ff

Ih

ff

sYffr

J152.

-127
ft

-j

ff

Discussion of prominent pitches and intervals alone does not lead

to significant insights about Boulez's piece. Two points should be
noted, however. First, the lack of definitive, hierarchical pitch
organization results in a bland uniformity of horizontal and vertical
pitch structures. This uniformity allows basic sonorities to be easily
grasped by the listener, unless the texture becomes too dense. At the
same time it offers an ideal background for textural manipulation.
The absence of a strong hierarchical plan makes possible the
reduction in emphasis of the very element to which we are most
attuned: pitch. Second, there is a basic difference in the pitch
organization of the principal points and blocs sections. The points,
through their sparser texture and concentration on the horizontal,
allow the listener to perceive at least part of the pitch structure.
Many of the blocs, on the other hand, are so dense that pitch comprehension is impossible; these dense sections correspond in Boulez's
terminology to ordered chaos. In this manner the pitch structure
does support the main structural divisions while remaining a
secondary element suitable for textural manipulation.
Each texture is further reinforced by dynamics and range. The
points sections employ moderate dynamics and a middle register,
while the blocs use extremes of both dynamics and range. Within
each section various facets of each type of texture may be presented,
allowing subtle differences in texture. The structural organization of
this work, then, depends upon juxtapositions of textures. Since pitch
organization is not a major determinant, especially at the subformal
level, the options left open to the performer are really of little
significance. To be sure, different routes will cause higher or lower,
slightly more dense sonorities to be heard in different orders, but
since textural organization does not create the same degree of
expectation as pitch organization the choices have a minimal effect
on the perception of form. The basic six-part structure of alternating
textures remains primary.
This is the way Boulez has loaded the dice of chance: he has only
conceded to the performer the things that do not matter; the
9

perceptible structure is decided by Boulez himself. The structure of

this movement is no more 'open' than the other compositions were
'closed' structures, unless one is to substitute 'pitch-orientated' for
closed and 'non-pitch-orientated' for open. The composition has an
ordered succession of textures. The movement consists of six sections.
The first, Milange, introduces the two textures, the first of which can
be described as sparse and pointillistic, and the second as more dense
and chordal. These two basic textures are presented in alternation
for the rest of the movement, ending with a pointillistic section. The
variety of orders possible within each section gives renewed interest
to each section without removing a sense of structure.
The conclusion is inescapable that 'Constellation-miroir' is
composed within a strong structural framework. Aleatoric procedures do not weaken the structure, especially at the highest formal
levels. The term 'open form' has no relevance here, unless it is
re-defined as referring to a composition whose structure is determined
primarily by elements usually given secondary status. This is a piece
whose form is articulated by what are generally considered the lesser
materials of music: texture and timbre (in the sense of range, spacing
and specially devised effects for the piano).
This is the essence of Boulez's search for a type of controlled
chance, or alia. In the past, while reaching for new means of organization, he relied only on musical elements to which past history
assigned certain expectations: pitch focus, symmetry, rhythmic
periodicity and so forth. If these elements were to serve as both the
newly organized elements and the organizational basis of the
composition, it was possible for chance to combine these elements
and purposes in such a way that unintentional distortions appeared.
The solution was twofold: first, to recognize chance as an adversary
and plan every point at which it might enter; and second, to base
the musical structure on a non-expectational element, such as
texture.
If chance engaging with structure is seen from this perspective,
it becomes clear that the analyst's job is not to engage in fruitless
pursuits of various routes through a composition, nor to endlessly
count pitches in search of even a changing hierarchy of pitches. His
task is to recognize the tremendous vitality of these collections of
pitches as textures and to begin to develop a vocabulary suitable
first for describing, then for analyzing them.

I0