Pierre Boulez - Répons/ Dialogue De L'Ombre Double

"I take the title in the first place because it's vague. When you use words like sonata and symphony you are tied. Répons can mean many things - but not nothing! In its original sense it means responsorial singing, between a soloist and the chorus, in alternation, as in Gregorian chant. And this notion can be enlarged: for me, that's important, to go back to notions and to go further, to go beyond the idea of a dialogue between one and several, one instrument and many instruments. There are many conjunctions and dialogues in this piece: between soloists (there are six) and a central group, certainly, but not just in alternation. There are all sorts of ways in which the material can be proposed by the central group and taken up by the soloists, or vice versa, or the same music played by different groups of instruments and in different rhythmic patterns. But, above all, there's a dialogue between the instruments and the technology: a solo instrument plays and what it plays can be enlarged, expanded. Not only the sound itself can be transformed but what happens to it in time and space. The technology acts on the sound according to the programs I have established. No question of chance operations!" (Gramophone, March 1999)

Répons (1981 - 1984)

1) Introduction [6:26]

2) Section 1 [2:58]

3) Section 2 [2:04]

4) Section 3 [2:23]

5) Section 4 [5:40]

6) Section 5 [3:58]

7) Section 6 [5:23]

8) Section 7 [5:52]

9) Section 8 [3:12]

10) Coda [4:34]

Ensemble Intercontemporain

Pierre Boulez

Andrew Gerzso

Dialogue de l'ombre double (1985)

11) Sigle initial [1:05]

12) Strophe I [2:03]

13) Transition I à II [1:01]

14) Strophe II [1:26]

15) Transition II à III [1:43]

16) Strophe III [1:23]

17) Transition III à IV [0:51]

18) Strophe IV [1:55]

19) Transition IV à V [0:26]

20) Strophe V [1:07]

21) Transition V à VI [0:43]

22) Strophe VI [1:36]

23) Sigle final [2:54]

Alain Damiens

Andrew Gerzso

"(...) there is a metre, slightly irregular on one level but very regular on another. There are so many irregular things in this piece that at one point you need to have a regular metre as you say - a bass and a regular pulse anyway - but also a series of harmonies which are all symmetrical. The harmony always gives this impression of something followed by its inverse; there is always a centre - an axis of symmetry. This symmetry of harmony corresponds in harmonic terms to a regular metre. This is very important. There are three types of time. That which is chaotic and irregular such as you have in the beginning (in the speed I mean). Then you have, in the speed, the very regular rapid repeated notes - always in semiquavers. Finally at the end there is a regularity, a kind of metre - but with much ornamentation. The ornamentation is in fact very irregular, but the metre itself is very regular." Boulez, about Répons. (Peter McCallum; Pierre Boulez, "An Interview with Pierre Boulez" The Musical Times, Vol. 130, No. 1751. (Jan., 1989), pp.9-10.)