Le marteau sans maître - I.

[Ooger77]

@soben001 Do tell how I do not understand. Enlighten us.

[roquefort88888]

I think music students like this music because of what it's not - it's not romantic, it's not classical. But the problem for me is, it's not actually anything - except an annoying interruption of silence.

Most types of music I can find something I like about it - or some composer or performer who seems to transcend the form's limitations. But this and commercial R&B are about the only types I just find no merit in. When I listen to it I can feel no reason for its existence.

[aggelosf1]

oh my god! absolutely marvelous!

[HappySkyDiver33]

When the piece ends don't even clap, when you're listening to it live - neither to the composer, nor to the players - they just did their job, the whole jazz has ended, the task is done for everybody.  Go home. Don't tell anybody a thing about it. don't try to recall the event even. Just live your life and be well. And most importantly: listen - as frequently as possible.

[HappySkyDiver33]

These days judgement of this kind of music is meaningless. One has to listen only, to the sounds that are. Not make up any mind, not create ideas or any inner comments even to himself about it. This is pure sound, as it is, and our task is to be open and pure perceivers of sound. I intentionally don't use the word 'music'.

[TheUnforgivent]

LOL

[zacharyrod1st]

Lol, no...

[GGbreizh]

If you listen to John Williams' soundings (available on YouTube), you will be stick to the screen, because of the complexity of the piece, the dialog between the orchestra and the Hall, the richness of orchestration, the great lyrism... For me Soundings is what atonal music should be like.

[GGbreizh]

Well, I don't like this piece. For me this is not "music". When I listen to this piece, I feel nothing (sometimes, I want to laugh...). The impression that this piece give to me is that this has been played by children who wanted to have fun.

But, it is not that I dislike atonal music. But I only like true atonal music.

[Brightwind]

imagine conducting that.

[ee111111100]

must be mad difficult to play. but beautiful, harrowing

[janinthesky88]

What is this?! Clearly not music!?

[Schapie93]

@janinthesky88 Never heard of other genres other than justin bieber did you?

[janinthesky88]

@Schapie93 I´m studying consonant and dissonant sounds which is why I was asked to look this up and this is definitely dissonant. In the paper it was used it, it created negative emotional impact. If you enjoy it, so be it but by definition it is not music. Btw, I actually don´t listen to Justin Beiber... is he worth looking up?

[Schapie93]

@janinthesky88 It certainly is music. After the romantic period you had the Expressionism, which certainly is a music genre. Pierre Boulez made serialistic compositions, which is by the definition music. (Excuse me for my bad english, I learned all this with the dutch word)

[luxemkingII]

I looked this music style up to do some personal research on music (note that I've only played music for 4 years, 1 year of classical music)

So I've found out that some music is looking for the celestial harmony like O Magnum Mysterium by Francis Poulenc, then funk is looking for rythmic variations with please

now after searching and searching I haven't found out where this music is trying to express itself and why? somehow this style wkes an interest in me eventhough it sounds so imperfect...

[petezilla]

@luxemkingII It is targeting the subconscious, the wasteland of logic. This music is written influenced by the surrealist poetry of Pierre Reverdy....read him, then you'll really be in love!

[cizzin]

I looked this up looking something clever and complex...I found shit.

[zacharyrod1st]

@cizzin Same

[dou40006]

Boulez is a pedantic talker who spend more time explaining what is useless means means than he spends time to play it. The truth is that intellectual approach never made good music and Boulez's music is the perfect example of this. Once Boulez die (which shouldn't be long) this music will be forgotten for good.

[rancodanca]

everyone just stop trying to impress the internet with your useless knowledge and admit this is butt-ugly music

[zacharyrod1st]

@rancodanca Lol, yes...

[humanwarnings]

Just because something is a reaction against and a opposed to evil, does not make it good.

Boulez and Wagner are practically identical when compared to real composers like Bach or Mozart.

The differences between and Boulez and Wagner are too superficial to even mention with a straight face.

[ee111111100]

@humanwarnings

shut up..

[RaRaLandEQ]

dance puppets dance! >: )

[dhype3]

I don't understand how people who don't understand modern music arrive on these kinds of videos....And I myself love a good polemical essay. Read "Orientations", a compilation of his early essays - he's much less black and white than you'd think, and offers more than enough justification for his views. And since then, one of his main traits is his ability to question and even contradict his earlier statements, which is the mark of an intelligent human being.

[NaKasieWBiedronce]

@dhype3

Because we an exam where we have to know how it sounds and what is the name of it..

[666daniel234]

Do u Know how hard is to play and entire song in ⅔/2 great!!

[humanwarnings]

This is what Boulez's brain sounds like. Total "con-art" by a "con-artist" anyone who claims to like this, is a mindless soulless sheep.

[LazyTranslator]

@humanwarnings Wow, you're a dick, and I don't normally jump to such black and white conclusions like you do here. (Jesus? When will the complexity wars end? I don't wanna fight anymore!)

[humanwarnings]

Lol that's like an american preaching freedom and non-violence, despite the fact that their country was based on murdering the original inhabitants.

Boulez's fame was based on nazi-like statements like "All the art of the past should be destroyed." Who is the one making black and white conclusions? If you don't want to fight, then don't support nazis.

[Nathan81706]

@humanwarnings Why is it you feel the need to convince people that this music is impossible to be liked? How well do you think you've gotten this point across to anyone without appearing to be a little asshole? And I don't really care at all about Boulez himself. What could his personality have to do with my way of interpreting his music? What could you even know about the way anyone you've never met interprets this or any music?

[liveloud4life]

@humanwarnings The whole point of the movement you're referring to was in response and opposition to the Nazi party. The nazis loved Wagnerism and Romantic era music and therefore every post-war German composer for the next 50 years and everyone ever involved in the Darmstadt conferences wanted to be as far away from that as possible and ignore every traditional element of music that the Nazis supported. So saying that Boulez was a Nazi is about the most ass-backwards, ignorant thing ever.

[BennyGaberMusic]

@humanwarnings piss off

[beethomozart]

very original score by Boulez composeed between 1953-55 after texts of Rene Char

[smyrnaballet]

claude francois was so jealous of the Boulez Piece (Hammer without master) that he decided to counterattack and released (Si j'avais un Marteau - If i had a Hammer). , very connected with the italian futurist (russolo) Cloclo, decided to eletrocute himself in order to make electricty part of its inner essence. He died and reincarnated as Blixa Bargeld, the leader of the experimental group , einsturzende neubauten

[olenabella]

It's just really horrible...I don't even can to say the music...Sorry...

[Robusto103]

horrible audio and video quality..... this kind of music needs to be heard in good quality, otherwise it can lose its meaning almost completely

[Improvizer]

Not that great really... Boulez is an important figure in 20th century music, but his music is too cold and calculated. Thank God he has concentrated mostly on conducting...

[FFFKeys]

@Improvizer Thank God he wrote this music...

[MrAkihiros]

I use the term 'dated' from the point of view of a student of composition - been there done that, dissected, analyzed, taxidermied, and then hung on the wall of the academe. Just because a piece of music is 'dated' doesn't comment on its quality. A Rachmaninoff piano concerto is dated but it still never fails to touch me with its sincere pathos and lyricism. In fact all great music are dated as opposed to the current, contemporary, 'neue' musik which however experimental is 'sterile.'

[CyberHarlock]

Remember those Czech animated shorts they used to play to school kids during the 70s and 80s on TV ?

It must be why I can appreciate compositions like this now in my 40s?

Brainwashing. ;-)

[TheRyval]

actual ear rape

i don't care what anybody else i just really don't like it...

[Maarttttt]

Wonderful

[lifeisart37]

what about it exactly? I understand the concept of Absolute Serialism, but how is this music even enjoyable. It just sounds like cluttered noises. Is this even possible to enjoy without analysing and "apprecating" it?

[Maarttttt]

I'm no expert in music theory, but I think it sounds great. It's a matter of taste I guess, like abstract paintings are nothing but composition for me. For mostly I know nothing of their concepts and can judge based only on my aesthetics. Kind of a naive way to look at art, but it works for me.

Knowing the concept that drives them only enhances the pleasure I take in these works.

[LuciferSam2]

@lifeisart37 Yes.

[MjoEm32]

@lifeisart37: I certainly do enjoy it, and although I know all about pitch class set multiplication, which is one of the techniques he's using hear, I enjoyed it before I knew anything about this. You just need to let it wash over you and get into it - I find it really seductive actually.

[rahmalec]

@lifeisart37 Yes it is. :-)

[spicchiotube]

Una porcheria, sorry Mr Boulez. i dislike completely

[georgernstheike]

Una porcheria not do be interested in such unusual music!

[labouboulkikol]

C'est d'un moche!!!

ça n'a ni queue ni téte,pas de la musique ça!

De la branlette d'intellectuel!

[jwf3148]

Wonderful composition !!! Thank you !!!

[ToastMusic]

are you serious? you couldn't cut the first minute off of this recording? nobody needed to watch everyone walk out to their instument.

[MrAkihiros]

This is the first time I've heard this 'groundbreaking' music and after all the praises heaped by Stravinsky himself I'd say it does sound 'dated.'

[CyberHarlock]

@MrAkihiros

Isn't all music dated? You show me a piece of music that you think has not dated, and I say it is a sorry sign that music has not progressed on since the time it was written!

When I hear a composition I like to be drawn in and experience what history 'sounded' like at that time! Sound is a very powerful experience; isn't that why often when you are captivated by a musical sound you find yourself drifting off into a trance like state.

Or maybe it just me?

[Uberloinvongenchler]

@CyberHarlock jazz improvisation = composing on the fly...

[zutflutefleur]

This is hilarious music. Can't you just envision a disgruntled cartoon hammer? No point in getting upset about people that take these auditory autopsies seriously, it's dated anyway.

[ragtimemarkbirnbaum]

no way

[lorenzarthur91]

I personally can't stand serialism. I really like Webern, I actually play the piano variations of his now, but I cannot really appreciate what the succesors of his music have done...

But, unlike other commentors here, I understand that it is very elaborate and thought - through music.

[EntropiaMusic]

If you want to play like a 5-year old , then why bothering studying music for so many years ?

[ThorSpirit]

pointless nihilist garbage

[ofatheroartificer]

nihlist...good one

[lendallpitts]

The more one listens to the "Marteau," the more one realizes why it was such a paradigmatic piece for an entire generation of composers -- and why it should be once again. What I love about this piece especially is that Boulez eschews the melodramatic emotionalism and theatrical posturing so characteristic of the 19th century -- and which lived on into the 20th in the guise of "expressionism." I don't agree with whoever said "rock is the first head music since the Baroque," but this may be.

[Fallbr00kwhat]

your need to be the smartest guy in the room is pretty annoying however thanks for the info

[BigJplkoplko]

@lendallpitts You're high.

[Bagas]

@BigJplkoplko You're a cunt

[limpboobsthewhoo]

@Bagas I love

[zacharyrod1st]

@BigJplkoplko This could make a person high... Lol.

[HolyMotherofGrid]

ok.........complete genius but WIERD!!! I love it.

[CyberHarlock]

I've lost count how many times I've heard this piece of music used on animated films over the years. ;-)

[AlexZyka]

A cat walking on a piano.

[ITubeSheTubes]

To the ears of another cat, maybe.

[Lumidar]

Take that meshuggah.

[angoranimi07]

..... HAHAHA well that's pretty unusual!

[coryvibe]

Are there any more performances of this piece out there on video? I would love to see them closer;especially the guitar.This piece is a masterpiece of rythm.Very difficult to pull off exactly as written in the score.Learning this piece makes my head swim,but i still love it.

[spacitydrummer4JC]

What is the time signature to this song?

[rgxb2807]

ha!

[lendallpitts]

3/4 (2 measures), 2/4 (3 measures), 6/8 (one measure), 3/8 (one measure), 3/4 (one measure), 6/8 (one measure), 5/8 (2 measures), 3/4 (one measure), 6/8 (one measure), 2/4 (four measures), 2/8 (two measures), etc. As pointed out by another poster, there are also many tuplets (triplets, fives, etc.)

[ThorSpirit]

Yes Ive seen all the time signature changes and tempo changes too. Ive got the score. It must be a nightmare for musicians to play this rubbish. And to what end ?

A waste of time.

[dnanfield10]

⅔/4

4/3/ 2

i don't think all of it is that though, crazy isn't it?

[spacitydrummer4JC]

two-thirds four?? Lol. Why?

[HerrWozzeck]

Nope, it's not two-thirds four. Actually, to pin a particular time signature to this is really hard, as it constantly changes and to add to the confusion there are triplets, quintuplets, septuplets, and all other sorts of time signature-bending rhythms all over the place. Makes it hard to count, and makes it all the more testament to Boulez's mastery of rhythm.

[spacitydrummer4JC]

Interesting piece.

[kx3kx3]

Sans contredit mon mouvement préféré du Marteau.

[japanesesweet]

This sounds a bit static as a performance.

I remember it (Boulez`s recording from the 70s)being more chaotic than this.

[HairWithAttitude]

this is the sort of pretentious aural crap that gave carte blanche to the likes of Ionesco and Genet to write their avant garde gibberish plays in France in the Fifties at the same time almost

[Loux7]

wow!

[kristopaivinen]

It's about time this was added. I've been looking for it a long time. I'm not a big fan of Boulez, but this work interest me.

[crowe]

WOW! I've heard this many times, but to see it (no matter how far the camera is) adds hugely to the experience.