Pierre BOULEZ (1925-2016). Autograph musical manuscript, Le Visage nuptial, [1952-1953]; 35 pages on 18 folios (35 x 27 cm). Complete manuscript of the second version of Boulez's first major vocal cycle, based on poems by René Char. In 1946-1947, Pierre Boulez wrote the first version of Visage nuptial, based on a suite of five lyric poems by René Char dating from 1938, and collected in Seuls demeurent (Gallimard, 1945), for soprano, contralto, ondes Martenot, piano and percussion; this version, in two movements, was premiered in 1947. In 1951-1952, he elaborated a second version with the two soloists, a women's choir and orchestra (in which, for the first time, he used quarter tones), which, after several abortive attempts, was finally premiered in Cologne on December 4, 1957 under the direction of the composer (to whom Hermann Scherchen had left the baton), and published by Heugel in 1959; it has never been recorded. But Boulez was dissatisfied, and undertook a new revision of his work, without micro-intervals, which was completed in 1989. The present manuscript is the working manuscript of the orchestral score for the second version of the work, here for voice (solo soprano, solo alto and women's choir) and large orchestra (60 strings, woodwinds in fours). The manuscript is carefully notated in fine black pencil on 30- or 32-line paper. The notation is tiny, almost microscopic, but extremely clear and precise, with numerous interpretative indications (e.g., a sign means pizz - and let the string fall violently back on the key). It is complete in all five parts. I. Conducting (4 pages, numbered 1 to 4, on 2 double-sided pages): Passage. The sidereal spade in the past... II. Gravity. L'emmuré (6 pages, numbered I to VI, on 5 ff. recto-verso and sheet V anapistographe): If he breathes he thinks of the notch ... III. Le Visage nuptial (17 pages, numbered 1 to 17, the first 3 on the verso of the first pages of the previous movement, pages 4 to 17 on 7 other leaves, page 11 written on the verso of page 10, and page 17 on the verso of p. 4): Now be gone, my escort... IV. Évadné (4 pages, numbered 1 to 4, on 2 double-sided sheets): Summer and our life were one ... V. Post-scriptum (4 pages, numbered a to d, on 2 double-sided pages): Éctez-vous de moi qui patiente sans bouche ... Le Visage nuptial is a work of lava and delirium, sensuality and supreme lyricism (Antoine Goléa), one of Boulez's most incandescent scores (Christian Merlin), in which Boulez's music combines magnificently with the concise concentration of Char's texts. Dominique Jameux sees in it, in the almost graphic sense of the term, a parable of love [...], of anxious waiting for the Other (Conduite), of contemplation and interiorization before the beloved object (Gravité), of the shared dazzlement of the encounter (Le Visage nuptial), of the serene but already somewhat detached calm that follows (Évadné), of the solitude finally irretrievably rediscovered (Post-scriptum) . Provenance: manuscript given by Boulez to his friend, musicologist Pierre Souvtchinsky (1892-1985); then his wife Marianne Souvtchinsky, née Karsavina (1911-1994), who donated it to the current owner. Bibliography: Dominique Jameux, Pierre Boulez (Fayard 1984), p. 41-45. Christian Merlin, Pierre Boulez (Fayard 2019), p. 56-61. Discography, 1989 version: Pierre Boulez, BBC Symphony Orchestra (Erato 1990).