# Pli selon pli



## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Pli selon pli (Fold by fold) is a piece of classical music by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is for solo soprano and orchestra, and is based on the poems of Stéphane Mallarmé. At over an hour, it is Boulez's longest work.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The vocal writing is worse than Chinese opera


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Pugg said:


> The vocal writing is worse than Chinese opera


Some peope can't stand jumpy and ornamented falsetto.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

La vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui
Va-t-il nous dérichirer avec in coup d'aile ivre
Ce lac dur oublié que hanter sous le givre
Le transparent glacier des vols qui n'ont pas fui !

Un cygne d'autrefois se souvient que c'est lui
Magnifique mais qui sans espoir se délivre
Pour n'avoir pas chanté la région où vivre
Quand du stérile hiver a resplendi l'ennui.

Tout son col secouera cette blanche agonie
Par l'espace infligée à l'oiseau qui le nie,
Mais non l'horreur du sol où le plumage est pris.

Fantôme qu'à ce lieu son pur éclat assigne,
Il s'immobilise au songe froid de mépris
Que vêt parmi l'exil inutile Le Cygne.


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## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Pugg said:


> The vocal writing is worse than Chinese opera


No!

(OK, I know that's Japanese, but why let facts get in the way of a pun?)


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)




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## Guest (Jan 8, 2016)

Listening to this for the first time today, as recommended by my older brother - he said he would be listening to this as a memorial. I will try to get all the way through it, but I have to say that I'm not really drawn to it at all.


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Oh, the first time I listened I didn't get it at all. It was better to digest it by chunks, at least for me.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> La vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui
> Va-t-il nous dérichirer avec in coup d'aile ivre
> Ce lac dur oublié que hanter sous le givre
> Le transparent glacier des vols qui n'ont pas fui !
> ...


I just find Mallarmé really impenetrable. It would be great if someone would help me understand what this is about. (I mean what it means - I speak French, I don't need a translation.) The music according to Boulez really is supposed to relate very closely to the poem, it's supposed to help make clear what Mallarmé was saying. But I don't get it at all.

Re pli selon pli, the premier, conducted Boulez in Donaueschingen 1962, is special IMO. You can hear it here

https://archive.org/details/C_1964_03_07

I like this piece of music a lot, it's a real masterpiece I think: full of wonderful melodies and rhythms and textures.


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