From isbmusic.org

Expression

Posted in: IGCSE

By
Jan 21, 2009 - 4:39:50 PM

This performance of Expression by one of the most famous contemporary music composers, Pierre Boulez was a major achievement for Grade 9. After studying other pieces by Boulez they chose to take on Expression, which is a small but feindishly difficult piece.
After many weeks of practice and hours of recording time, we finally managed to get a recording which we felt did justice to the piece.*

* Actually, we're only kidding. The piece is not by Boulez at all, we were just listening to this piece by Boulez (pictured left) called Sur Incises and we thought that we might be able to make our own 'modern' sounding music by playing some random sounds. So in about ten minutes we got ready and recorded a piece of music. We then did another one and finally mixed them together to make the recording above. The two tracks can be hears separately by listening to the downloads below.

However there was a serious point to all this and that was that in order to actually do our 'random' music, the class couldn't help thinking like composers: selecting the instruments, selecting the sounds, listening to the rest of the ensemble, choosing the right moment to play, the right tempo, the right dynamic and register of the instrument. They also had in mind a purpose, which was for the soundtrack to a scary movie.
So Expression was actually played in a very careful and thoughtful way and it's definitely not random. Admittedly it doesn't have a catchy tune, but it's still a composition of structured sound with a mood and a purpose.