Pierre Boulez: The Musical & Cultural Experimentalist | A Short Portrait - Episode 2

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

When he was doing the music thing he operated at stratospheric levels. When he used to come to my house for dinner he was down to Earth. I was always delightfully surprised to receive a postcard from him from concert tour in a foreign land. Although emotionally reserved he did try to be a good, loyal friend.

[@psijicassassin7166]

His music is not instinctive but intellectualized so as to be a piece of sonic sodoku only computers can grasp. .

[@stephenjablonsky1941]

@@psijicassassin7166 I am sure his music will be well appreciated by the new AI robots being developed

[@stringph]

We could do without the crude marketing attempt at the beginning. Why interrupt Boulez's thoughts on musical gesture with this crud?

[@stringph]

Ah, so in this video 'Africa' is mentioned once, without any discussion at all of what its relevance might be to Boulez's music, and we get a dumbed-down map with the word 'AFRICA' pasted on top of it. Is this not rather an insult than anything to do with a 'keen interest in music of non-European culture' ? If you were actually interested wouldn't you have something to say about Africa, rather than just a stupid map?

[@psijicassassin7166]

High brow blaxploitation.

[@csaponxypan1]

@@psijicassassin7166 So sorry for your misperception. Please try unbiased listening and open up to other worlds than your own.

[@mirandac8712]

I mean not to complain but it's astounding how amateur this thing is, given that it's from DG Polygram. You'd think they'd be concerned about how hard it is for their target audience to muster the concentration required to even be able to hear what PB was trying to do (whether you like it or not is another issue) -- it just seems like civilization is going through a tough time right now lol. I think Boulez's music is extremely hard to understand. For all his cosmopolitanism, it is profoundly french. (I think that explains his obsession with a 'global' career, actually.) It was interesting to hear Stockhausen say that he didn't like Boulez's music at all and couldn't get into it; he said you can't have art that's only 'half of the equation.' A key to PB, for me, was when he publicly

[@mirandac8712]

why did it cut off my comment?

[@stringph]

@@mirandac8712 length? You can take a second bite if needed ..