Résumé
Discussion of the topic of musical material is prominent in several of Boulez’s College de France courses, and in this paper I set out to establish first of all the main elements of his thinking on the concept, as he elaborated it throughout the lectures.
I then explore the fact that Boulez’s concept of musical material is not just focused on his own practice of composition; that it is open-ended in its envisioning of what musical material might be and responsive to the imaginative needs of individual creative musicians.
In the final part of the paper, I go on to relate Boulez’s concept of musical material to the work of Theodor Adorno, Helmut Lachenmann and later composers/theorists, considering the ongoing relevance of Boulez’s ideas and what his reflections might continue to offer to composition and musical thought today.
