Pierre Boulez – Domaines (1968) pour clarinette et groupes instrumentaux
ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES
Domaines, pour clarinette et groupes instrumentaux
Première partie
Deuxième partie
Michel Portal, clarinette – Musique vivante : Diego Masson
(Avec l’aimable autorisation de Harmonia Mundi) 1971
In 1961, when he set about composing Domaines (which subsequently became Domaines I ),
Pierre Boulez had long been exploring the resources of the solo instrument but had previously
limited himself to the piano. Now he turned to the clarinet – an echo of Alban Berg’s Four Pieces
for clarinet and piano , programmed on three occasions at the Domaine Musical, Igor Stravinsky’s
Three Pieces for solo clarinet , and of the third movement ( Abîme des oiseaux , for solo clarinet)
from Olivier Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du Temps , if not for the simple pleasure of testing
different sonorities in relation to a new language? In this score lasting some 15 minutes,
premiered by the German clarinettist Hans Deinzer in Ulm on 20 September 1968, the soloist
follows an itinerary in keeping with an undetermined order, a new step in Boulez’s open music.
Domaines II , the extension of Domaines I , implements a group of musicians in a highly particular
concertante perspective. Indeed, this ensemble is divided into six instrumental entities, as
follows:
A – a trombone quartet (two sopranos, alto and bass)
B – a string sextet
C – a marimba-double bass duo
D – a mixed quintet (flute, trumpet, saxophone, bassoon and harp)
E – an oboe-horn-guitar trio
F – a bass clarinet
These entities are arranged on stage and punctuate an itinerary that the solo clarinettist must
carry out. A double itinerary: the ‘single’ or ‘original’, and the ‘return’ or ‘mirror’. The soloist
has six sheets marked A, B, C, D, E, F, which he performs in the order of his choosing before
the corresponding group. The group answers him whilst he makes his way towards another group. The order chosen by the soloist for the present recording is: A-D-C-B-E-F.
In the ‘mirror’ section (retrograde form for the pitches, similarity of tempi, intensities and
writing), it is the conductor who decides the order, and the soloist connects with the
corresponding response. The order chosen by the conductor in the present recording: D-C-E-
A-B-F. The figure 6 is at the centre of the arrangement: six instrumental groups, each consisting
of one to six musicians, six corresponding sequences and, within each of them, six structures
(arranged symmetrically on the score and linked horizontally or vertically) that are proposed to
the soloist…
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