Rhetorics of alternation in contemporary music: analysis of Éclat by Pierre Boulez’ (1965)

Abstract

The theories of the second half of the last century analyze the structures of literary discourses,
their possible interaction with the public and the process of “interpretative cooperation”. The
semiolotic reflection, originating in linguistics, views the works of art as “texts”, i.e. “sign
textures”, characterized by “figures”, regularities and divergences. This perspective appears
suitable to the contemporary musical repertoire, whose pieces can be interpreted as chains of
abstract repeated (and varied) sound structures. The interest of some composers (Boulez,
Donatoni, Sciarrino, Ferneyhough) for the concept of figure suggests that rhetorics can describe
the regularities and irregularities of the pieces and stress the “interpretative cooperation” process.
The analysis of Éclat by Pierre Boulez, carried out according to these principles, aims at an
understanding of its formal structures, seeking answers to the hypothetical questions of a selfconscious
listener trying to recover the constructive strategies of the piece. The coincidence of
results from perception tests on the same piece with those of the rhetoric analysis evidences the
plausibility of the hypothesis.