Article:

Presque une image matérielle. Die serielle Musik von Jean Barraqué

This article addresses the problem of the series in serial composition. Serial music developed in the 1950s from twelve-tone composition. Confronted with new technologies of electronic sound production, serial composers searched for ways to address sounds. The organization of various parameter values into a set of series, however, resulted in a style that resembled mere chance operation. Against this background, French composer Jean Barraqué asked how –– within serial composition –– sounds could be distinguished among each other, how a musical form could emerge, and how semantic coherence could be created. Analyzing his piece Chant après chant, this article discusses Barraqués distinction of the musical ‘note as sound and as symbol', his technique of the ‘proliferating series', and his concept of a ‘development in absence'. It shows how these notions and devices constitute an ‘outer side' of music that enables him to re-conceive the phenomenality of the series.