In early 1945, Boulez, who had been studying with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire,[1] attended a performance of Arnold Schoenberg's Wind Quintet, conducted by René Leibowitz.
)[10] From Webern (via Leibowitz), he inherited not only the mechanics of twelve-tone methodology, but a taste for "a certain texture of intervals"[9] as well as a kind of writing in which he attempted to unify the vertical and horizontal aspects of music.
)[21] Overall, the work is illustrative of Boulez's employment of what he referred to as a principle of "constant renewal"[22] in its rejection of thematic writing, its rhythmic and textural variety, and in the number of different modes of attack.
(This gap can, in part, be explained by the fact that, in the interim, Boulez wrote a piece, later lost, titled Symphonie concertante, that he considered very important in terms of his development.
[30][20]) The Second Sonata, roughly a half hour in duration,[31] frequently features complex, dense three- and four-part counterpoint.
[34][10] The Second Sonata consists of four movements: According to Boulez, the work can be seen as an effort to destroy traditional forms (he later declared that "history as it is made by great composers is not a history of conservation but of destruction - even while cherishing what is destroyed"[35]) and he stated that, following the work's completion, he never again composed in a way that referred to forms belonging to music of the past.
Perhaps I am using too many negative terms, but the Second Sonata does have this explosive, disintegrating and dispersive character, and in spite of it own very restricting form the destruction of all these classical moulds was quite deliberate.
[36] The first movement begins with the presentation of several clearly-defined motifs, in what Dominique Jameux called "an outburst that seems to seize hold of the keyboard, changing its very nature, thrashing it in every direction and dominating it with a passionate intensity",[37] setting the tone for the entire work.
[45] The third movement is the most backward-looking (Boulez referred to it as "one of the last vestiges of classicism that still meant anything to me as far as form was concerned"[46]) and consists of four "scherzo" sections alternating with three "trios".
This gradually builds to a frenzied, loud climax, in which the performer is asked to "pulverize the sound",[48] followed by a calm, slow, quiet coda.
Concerning serial technique, Boulez stated that, in the Second Sonata, he "broke with the 'concept' of the Schoenbergian note-row", and that what attracted him with regard to "the manipulation of the twelve notes... was the idea of giving them a functional significance".
[49] At the same time, Boulez continued to expand his rhythmic vocabulary in ways that illustrate his debt to Messiaen, resulting in music in which a regular sense of meter is usually obscured.
[54] Concerning the Sonata, Cage reported having been "stupefied by its activism"[52] and reduced "to a nearly total absence of comprehension",[55] and that while turning pages for Tudor, he experienced "an exaltation".
[56] After reading Boulez's article titled "Proposals",[57] Tudor began studying the writings of Antonin Artaud, especially The Theatre and Its Double.
[65]A facsimile of the manuscript of the preliminary version of the remaining formant, "Séquence", was published in 1977,[66] but was subsequently continued to nearly twice its original length.