The Boulez-Cage Correspondence

by Pierre Boulez, John Cage, Jean-Jacques Nattiez (Editor)

Between May 1949 and August 1954 the composers Pierre Boulez and John Cage exchanged a series of remarkable letters that reflect on their own music and the culture of the time. This correspondence, together with other relevant documents, has been edited and annotated by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and is now available for the first time in English in a paperback edition.

Genres: Music

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez CBE (26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor, writer and founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of the post-war classical music world.

Reviews

[Thomas Feng · Rating 5 out of 5]

things I would like to remember having read this book:

PB's surprisingly ebullient/playful letter-writing style (and his notably bad English)
PB complaining to JC about how there are no good concerts happening
PB telling JC they're on the same page all the time
PB complimenting JC's headshots
PB dismissing just about everyone JC tells him to check out (and being salty about most everyone else)
PB losing all of JC's letters toward the end of the book and then writing a Joycean prose poem for his "jubilee"

JC's surprisingly sober letter-writing style
JC twice mentioning he's finished a string quartet but is scared to show it to PB
JC occasionally mentioning how he is not feeling well ("I am occasionally unwell", "I need to be alone a little longer...")
JC making extensive plans to try to get PB to come to NYC in 1951 and it just like not happening (and PB telegramming "sry bb can't make it" at the last minute)

both of them supporting each other by trying to procure opportunities for one another: JC trying to get visas and grants and festival engagements for PB, and PB asking JC to send recordings and scores and writings for dissemination in Europe. the brotherhood is real

both of them writing long screeds about how their music works and then following up with "u there" when the other person doesn't respond ("oh hiiii your long letter about _____ totally delighted me, but like I wanted to sit with it for a bit")

that moment in November 1952 where they actually do hang out again (and for which there are no letters)

(Pierre Souvtchinsky and David Tudor just kinda floating around in the background the entire time)

the theoretical explanations are dense dense dense and certainly fascinating, showing two composers with more alike (at least at this point in time) than is generally thought. Cage and Boulez both were exploring methods of classifying and parametrizing composition, but "automating" the process at different junctures (Cage tossed coins and used the I-Ching as part of the composition procedure, Boulez deriving series after series to generate related materials). Cage would say he was aiming for an "un-aesthetic" process ("freed from what I thought was freedom", but was really recourse to memory and taste) and Boulez toward expanding the structuring potential of the series. they were both searching for radical freedom, and took on (in a classic paradox) contrasting constraints to do so.

the collected letters and documents are laid out with care and read like postmodern epistolary novel. the effect, especially toward the end, is actually quite moving. the jargon sometimes gives me a headache, but based on what I could understand, is belied by a real excitement for the exploration and for sharing with each other.

[D Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was hoping for a little more overt sexual undertones, but perhaps those lay in the lost letters.

[James Lavender · Rating 5 out of 5]

"lucky asteroid citizen!"