Pli Selon Pli - Movements and Poems

Movements and Poems

The composition is in five movements, each based on a poem by Mallarmé:

  1. "Don" - based on "Don du poème"
  2. "Improvisation I on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "Le vierge, le vivace et le bel aujourd'hui"
  3. "Improvisation II on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "Une dentelle s'abolit"
  4. "Improvisation III on Mallarmé" - based on the sonnet "A la nue accablante tu"
  5. "Tombeau" - based on the poem of the same name

The title is taken from another Mallarmé poem, "Remémoration d'amis belges", that is not used in the piece, in which the poet describes how a mist that covers the city of Bruges gradually disappears :

Comme furtive d'elle et visible je sens
Que se dévêt pli selon pli la pierre veuve
("As if by stealth and visible I sense
That fold by fold the widowed stone unrobes itself")

"So, fold by fold, as the five movements develop, a portrait of Mallarmé is revealed," Boulez said.

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