ABSTRACT
Domaines (for clarinet and six instrumental groups) and Rituel in memoriam Maderna for eight orchestral groups. Since 1977, with the Foundation of IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique), Boulez has been active in research into experimental techniques and acoustical problems (in addition to a lively conducting schedule). The two most impressive outgrowths of this activity (besides the creation of the Ensemble Intercontemporain to perform these works) have been Répons for six instrumental soloists, instrumental ensemble and electro-acoustic equipment. In this work, which requires a spatial arrangement altogether different from the ordinary concert hall, the conductor and the electronic engineer are placed at the centre, the instrumental ensemble is located in front of the conductor, and the audience is seated around the hall, the soloists being situated on the periphery, along with six loudspeakers. The task of the electronic expert is to distribute and manipulate the sound, so that the music is literally deployed within a spatial site. One of his most recent works is similar in nature, ‘… explosante-fixe…’, once again with the disposition of the audience in a space of electronically distributed sound. These works point toward a radically new conception of how music can be produced, and requires a new way of listening-all of these factors being a sort of synthesis of what most contemporary experimental music has been trying to achieve.
