Taking the Hammer by the Handle,

If there is somebody with total control of Le Marteau..., that is the Maître Pierre Boulez. It was an unforgettable experience to see Mr. Boulez conducting and assembling for one week, his landmark piece, Le Marteau sans Maître. This charismatic man, now 76 years old, has the energy and the lucidity to transmit his interpretative ideas with conviction. The rehearsals were conducted always with respect but resolutely; patiently, because he knows the complexity of the piece, but with Boulez assuredly demanding that each player give all they were capable of. No lies, no masks or false modesties; just the transparency of the music through the full command of its creator–the hammer taken by his master with craftsmanship.

The workshop was a lesson of precision and total control that at times seemed incredible. Boulez has in his head the overall sounds, sonorities, rhythms, duration, dynamics and tempos of this intricate piece, and he demonstrated so, bar by bar, with the clarity of his genius. The easiness of his subdivisions and counting when conducting, amazed more than one conductor in the workshop. He was very emphatic about when to subdivide and when not to subdivide, saying that subdivision was a real problem for conductors in Le Marteau sans Maître. He explained how he uses both hands (sans bâton) for giving cues and entries. Movement V was magically conducted, counted and sung by Boulez in the first rehearsal. Considering the difficulty of this movement, with constant tempo and meter changes (2/4, 3/4, 5/16, 4/8...); irregular note groupings and many grace notes, nobody would think that the maestro would stop because a written dotted sixteen-note was played a little too short, or in a fast tempo the dynamic of one of the notes of a quintuplet, marked pianissimo, was slightly loud. But the results, after these small problems were fixed, made a real difference in the sound of the piece. "Livre, mais avec moi", he would demand.

The performers were young musicians residing in the states at the moment, coached by members of the renowned Ensemble Intercontemporain from the IRCAM. The guitarist, a Brazilian who studies in California and has won numerous first prizes in guitar competitions, was coached by Marie-Therese Ghiradi. The first rehearsal started with movement VI, bourreaux de solitude, a slow tempo movement where all the instrumentalists and the singer play. Maestro Boulez said that he first likes to hear what the performers musically propose to him to then react to what has been proposed. Thus, he has an immediate reference of each performer, something like their presentation letter. Of the seven performers that the piece requires (singer–contralto –, flutist–alto flute–, violist, guitarist, xylophonist–playing a four octaves xylophone or xylorimba–,vibraphonist and percussionist) the guitar was the instrument that confronted more problems. Part of the reason for these problems was because of the inexperience of guitarists playing with a conductor. This is not the guitarist's fault, but a problem with the amount of chamber music literature that includes guitar and conducting. Beside Le Marteau..., we have Schoenberg's Serenade op. 24 , Webern's Three Songs op. 18 and that is it. Another problem for guitarists when playing with a conductor is the necessity to constantly look at the fret-board, which creates an obstacle to following the conductor and to reading properly. It was a funny moment when Marie-Therese placed her copy of the score between the guitarist eyes and the guitar fret-board, so as to impede the guitarist from trying to find the notes with his eyes, which he instinctively attempted but in vain. Marie-Therese has performed the work over fifty times and has also recorded it. Probably after all this experience she realizes the disadvantage of playing the guitar looking at the fret-board and trying to follow a conductor at the same time. On the other hand, a topic that presumably has been the reason for composers not to write more chamber works that include the guitar–I am referring to the volume of the instrument–was not a problem at all. Guitar luthiers nowadays craft sonorous instruments since this feature has been a principal demand from performers, plus the technique of guitarists in general has developed enormously in the last years. Le Marteau... is a piece that does not use loud guitar resources such a strumming or full chords, but single and short notes; these notes were heard clearly, and blended perfectly with the other instruments as part of the musical discourse.

When Boulez was asked about whether now he would write differently Le Marteau..., his answer, as all his answers were–fast and sure, as the product of earlier reflections–was yes. "Now I can get the same results with less problems", he said. On the other hand the performers of the Ensemble Intercontemporain agreed that Le Marteau... feels easy to play now, to which Boulez added that they only need one or half a rehearsal before performing the piece. Comparing this little rehearsal time to the sixty rehearsals needed when the piece was premiered (Baden-Baden 1955), we can infer the technical improvement of performers since then. To reach these levels of technical dexterity, Boulez advocated for groups that play constantly together instead of sporadic ensembles. To the question of how his compositions are affected by his conducting, he answered: "I do not want to be limited by my conducting. I am an adventurer when composing and if I do not know how to conduct what I write I will find the way later." The answer to the question of his abandon of the twelve-tone technique was " it is like writing canons the whole life." He predicted that "the future of music is in the most inventive composers of today." A lapidary phrase, proper to the composer's nature, followed by enthusiastic applause closed this section of the workshop : "In composition I prefer rebellion to boredom."