Image Source: YouTube.com 'Chants de la style de Mozart' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYpKI4jxpQ
Messiaen’s musical output can be described in terms of contrasts. There are many organisational layers to his music, some with specific philosophical connotations for the composer, providing discussion for analysts and commentators alike. In terms of pitch organisation, his early ‘modes of transposition’ are juxtaposed with pitch structures, distinctly artificial instrumental and vocal sound effects contrasted with the replication of natural elements such as bird-song, and serially orientated passages co-existing with contrasting ones.[1]
Born in Avignon in 1908, Olivier Messiaen’s upbringing was somewhat unusual. He was presented with musical scores throughout his childhood ranging from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. He travelled around France, following the most prestigious teachers, and studying at the Paris Conservatoire.[2] We quickly build an image then, of a philosophy and religion-obsessed, synesthetic artist with a keen interest in ornithology….
Image Source: Ballet and Opera.com 'Olivier Messiaen' http://www.balletandopera.com/people/olivier_messiaen/?sid=GLE_1&play_date_from=01-Sep-2013&play_date_to=30-Sep-2013
“The human being is flesh and consciousness, body and soul; his heart is an abyss which can only be filled by that which is Godly...” O. Messiaen
Benitez describes Messaien as a ‘Composer-theologian’. His favourite subjects within philosophy included a fascination with the concept of time, specifically the idea of eternity, and divinity, specifically the God in the Christian faith and heaven. He also showed interest in the inter-relation of God as creator and ‘time’, as we experience it, as one of his creations.[3]
Many scholars have considered how these fascinations manifest themselves in his music, which leads to analysis of his works from different perspectives. Straus describes some of his serial music as ‘the myth of serial orthodoxy’, dismissing it as non-conformist to THE way of writing serial music. By contrast, Forte regards him as an original twelve-tone composer. Whatever we think of his capabilities of using serialism, Benitez reminds us that rhythm was his favoured musical parameter, with pitch being secondary to temporal features. ‘It is more useful to concentrate on the way Messiaen consistently treated pitch, rhythm, instrumentation and form as separately composeable elements in his music,[4] which is littered with applications of mathematical order, demonstrating another connection: to the construction of twelfth century plainsong. It is important then to understand his music as evolving out of the Western art tradition, but not being bound by its conventions.[5] His ‘continual effort had been to synthesize the music of all times and places…continuing Debussy’s tradition of absorbing disparate musical elements, exploring Gregorian and Oriental modes and pursing systematic studies of Indian rhythms…’[6]
Quartet for the End of Time
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth .... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever ... that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished ...”
Messiaen, from Preface to Quatuor pour la fin du temps.
The preface to the score describes how this piece was inspired by the Book of Revelation, although we should also consider the work in its compositional context, written while Messiaen was held as a prisoner of war, and premiered in 1941. This music shows Messiaen’s prioritisation of rhythm as a musical and expressive element. He has a specific definition of rhythm, rhythmic music is ‘music which eschews repetitions, bar-lines, and equal divisions, taking inspiration from the movements of nature.’[7] Right from the opening of the piece, ‘fragmentary imitations of birdsong, played by the clarinet and violin, are heard alongside unchanging and continuous material played by the cello and piano.’[8] Pople interprets this textural setup in terms of Messiaen’s theology. The cello and piano represent heaven, and (given the title) the eternity which it represents. The representation of blackbird song in the clarinet music represents the capturing of a fleeting moment. Messiaen sets the opening movement as ‘between three and four in the morning’ (the connection of music to certain times of day another link with the musical traditions of India and the far East), so perhaps we might hear the birdsong as the dawn chorus.
Messiaen’s approach to ‘serialise rhythm’ (which would continue throughout his career even into the period when he abandons serial principles), began around this time.[9] Rhythmic and pitch structures begin to move in different paths at this point in his writing. ‘Messiaen talks about the ‘charm of impossibilities’ in music: modes which cannot be transposed more than a limited number of times without reproducing the original scale, and their counterpart in rhythm.’[10] Another notable feature of the first movement is the rhythm of the cello part, which obscures the sequential progression of pitches, creating a cyclic connotation, in keeping with the theme of contrasts in his music. This rhythm is a fifteen-note palindrome and forms, therefore (paradoxically for a pseudo-serial composer) a ‘non-retrogradeable’ sequence. There is a seventeen-note sequence in the piano part, identical to rhythms in other Messiaen works including Chants de terre et ciel and Visions de l’Amen.[11] Messiaen describes how he ‘used a rhythmic system based on added note-value, prime numbers, diminutions followed by their augmentation, inexact diminutions and augmentations, and a number of procedures borrowed from Indian antiquity…’[12]
Pople also elaborates on other examples of Messiaen’s rhythmic features in the quartet. The second movement, ‘Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps’ contains notable rhythmic features. He catalogues Messiaen’s rhythmic strata and describes how rhythms are transformed from one to another, implying a mathematical and sequential manipulation. In the third movement, ‘Abîme des oiseaux’ ‘The rhythmic freedom which Messiaen instils into the unaccompanied melody is counterbalanced by a secure sense of form: B, C and D, together with the last bar of A, constitute a second section in two parts, giving the movement an overall shape, which may be summarised as abc-a’c’-coda. ’[13]
 |
| Image Source: YouTube.com 'Chants de la style de Mozart' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpYpKI4jxpQ |
Messiaen’s musical output can be described in terms of contrasts. There are many organisational layers to his music, some with specific philosophical connotations for the composer, providing discussion for analysts and commentators alike. In terms of pitch organisation, his early ‘modes of transposition’ are juxtaposed with pitch structures, distinctly artificial instrumental and vocal sound effects contrasted with the replication of natural elements such as bird-song, and serially orientated passages co-existing with contrasting ones.[1]
Born in Avignon in 1908, Olivier Messiaen’s upbringing was somewhat unusual. He was presented with musical scores throughout his childhood ranging from Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. He travelled around France, following the most prestigious teachers, and studying at the Paris Conservatoire.[2] We quickly build an image then, of a philosophy and religion-obsessed, synesthetic artist with a keen interest in ornithology….
 |
| Image Source: Ballet and Opera.com 'Olivier Messiaen' http://www.balletandopera.com/people/olivier_messiaen/?sid=GLE_1&play_date_from=01-Sep-2013&play_date_to=30-Sep-2013 |
“The human being is flesh and consciousness, body and soul; his heart is an abyss which can only be filled by that which is Godly...” O. Messiaen
Benitez describes Messaien as a ‘Composer-theologian’. His favourite subjects within philosophy included a fascination with the concept of time, specifically the idea of eternity, and divinity, specifically the God in the Christian faith and heaven. He also showed interest in the inter-relation of God as creator and ‘time’, as we experience it, as one of his creations.[3]
Many scholars have considered how these fascinations manifest themselves in his music, which leads to analysis of his works from different perspectives. Straus describes some of his serial music as ‘the myth of serial orthodoxy’, dismissing it as non-conformist to THE way of writing serial music. By contrast, Forte regards him as an original twelve-tone composer. Whatever we think of his capabilities of using serialism, Benitez reminds us that rhythm was his favoured musical parameter, with pitch being secondary to temporal features. ‘It is more useful to concentrate on the way Messiaen consistently treated pitch, rhythm, instrumentation and form as separately composeable elements in his music,[4] which is littered with applications of mathematical order, demonstrating another connection: to the construction of twelfth century plainsong. It is important then to understand his music as evolving out of the Western art tradition, but not being bound by its conventions.[5] His ‘continual effort had been to synthesize the music of all times and places…continuing Debussy’s tradition of absorbing disparate musical elements, exploring Gregorian and Oriental modes and pursing systematic studies of Indian rhythms…’[6]
Quartet for the End of Time
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth .... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever ... that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished ...”
Messiaen, from Preface to Quatuor pour la fin du temps.
The preface to the score describes how this piece was inspired by the Book of Revelation, although we should also consider the work in its compositional context, written while Messiaen was held as a prisoner of war, and premiered in 1941. This music shows Messiaen’s prioritisation of rhythm as a musical and expressive element. He has a specific definition of rhythm, rhythmic music is ‘music which eschews repetitions, bar-lines, and equal divisions, taking inspiration from the movements of nature.’[7] Right from the opening of the piece, ‘fragmentary imitations of birdsong, played by the clarinet and violin, are heard alongside unchanging and continuous material played by the cello and piano.’[8] Pople interprets this textural setup in terms of Messiaen’s theology. The cello and piano represent heaven, and (given the title) the eternity which it represents. The representation of blackbird song in the clarinet music represents the capturing of a fleeting moment. Messiaen sets the opening movement as ‘between three and four in the morning’ (the connection of music to certain times of day another link with the musical traditions of India and the far East), so perhaps we might hear the birdsong as the dawn chorus.
Messiaen’s approach to ‘serialise rhythm’ (which would continue throughout his career even into the period when he abandons serial principles), began around this time.[9] Rhythmic and pitch structures begin to move in different paths at this point in his writing. ‘Messiaen talks about the ‘charm of impossibilities’ in music: modes which cannot be transposed more than a limited number of times without reproducing the original scale, and their counterpart in rhythm.’[10] Another notable feature of the first movement is the rhythm of the cello part, which obscures the sequential progression of pitches, creating a cyclic connotation, in keeping with the theme of contrasts in his music. This rhythm is a fifteen-note palindrome and forms, therefore (paradoxically for a pseudo-serial composer) a ‘non-retrogradeable’ sequence. There is a seventeen-note sequence in the piano part, identical to rhythms in other Messiaen works including Chants de terre et ciel and Visions de l’Amen.[11] Messiaen describes how he ‘used a rhythmic system based on added note-value, prime numbers, diminutions followed by their augmentation, inexact diminutions and augmentations, and a number of procedures borrowed from Indian antiquity…’[12]
Pople also elaborates on other examples of Messiaen’s rhythmic features in the quartet. The second movement, ‘Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps’ contains notable rhythmic features. He catalogues Messiaen’s rhythmic strata and describes how rhythms are transformed from one to another, implying a mathematical and sequential manipulation. In the third movement, ‘Abîme des oiseaux’ ‘The rhythmic freedom which Messiaen instils into the unaccompanied melody is counterbalanced by a secure sense of form: B, C and D, together with the last bar of A, constitute a second section in two parts, giving the movement an overall shape, which may be summarised as abc-a’c’-coda. ’[13]
Cantéyodjayâ
This twelve minute, single-movement work for piano was written in 1948. Healey describes how it occupies a pivotal position in Messiaen’s output. This is an abrupt change of direction for him, with a small number of musical ideas and an unusually economical keyboard style, and without the inclusion of overtly virtuosic birdsong references. Thematic elements from earlier in the 1940s are combined with trials of new procedures which would dominate many of his later works. Analysis of this piece, in the conventional sense at least, is difficult because of Messiaen’s ‘magpie approach’, however Messiaen’s score annotations, sign-posting us to his own musical borrowing allow consideration of the piece’s construction.[14] The piece also demonstrates some procedures and techniques with which Messiaen would become intrinsically linked.
Messiaen’s use of rhythm is also of interest here, specifically contrasting opinions about it within scholarship. Healy wholeheartedly disagrees with Reverdy’s claim that the work should be studied from a rhythmic perspective ‘because it is a true rhythmic catalogue’[15]. ‘Not only do the rhythmic devices in Cantéyodjayâ fail to surpass the those seen in previous works, but also they may all be observed in … Vingt regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus. Messiaen reprises his rhythmic procedures without any attempt at alteration or combination.[16]
Other notable features of the work include the seemingly random application of ‘total serialism’, still being trialled by Messiaen at this stage; applying serial laws to pitch, rhythm and dynamics. Messiaen couldn’t himself account for his technical application of these procedures, but the harmonic thinking points to a new direction, abandoning his created framework of modality for a ‘collage’, or disparate collection of ideas. The work gave him licence for experiment and uncharacteristic freedom and leads from the achievements of the 1940s into his ‘experimental period’ from 1949 to 1951.[17]
Image Source: YouTube.com 'Ile de feu 2 by Olivier Messiean' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZdfefg2HKU
[1] Benitez, Vincent, 'Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist', in Music Analysis, 28/2 (2009), 293.
[10] Johnson, Robert Sherlaw, 1975. Messiaen. (London: Dent) p.36.
[16] Healey, 2007, p.68.
Image Source: WordPress.com 'The Well-Tempered Ear' https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/classical-music-qa-what-makes-french-composer-olivier-messiaen-great-madison-pianist-ankie-foell-plays-a-recital-and-gives-a-lecture-in-tribute-this-sunday/
References and Bibliography
Benitez, Vincent, 2009. 'Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist', Music Analysis, 28/2.
Bernard, Jonathan W., 1986. 'Messiaen's Synaesthesia: The Correspondance Between Colour and Sound Structure in his Music' in Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 4/1. p.41-68.
Griffiths, Paul, 1985. Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press).
Griffiths, Paul, 2001. ‘Olivier Messiaen’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn. (London, MacMillan).
Healey, Gareth, 2007. 'Messiaen's "Cantéyodjayâ": A "Missing" Link', The Musical Times, 148/1898, p.59-72.
Hsu, Madeline, 1996. Olivier Messiaen, the Musical Mediator, (London: Associated Musical Press).
Johnson, Robert Sherlaw, 1975. Messiaen (London: Dent).
Nichols, Roger 1975. Messiaen: Oxford Studies of Composers, (London: Oxford University Press), p.7-8.
Pauly, Reinhard G., 1994, Olivier Messiaen Music and Colour: Conversations with Claude Samuel. (trans. Glasow, E.) (Portland: Amadeus Press).
Pople, Anthony, 1998, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Cantéyodjayâ
This twelve minute, single-movement work for piano was written in 1948. Healey describes how it occupies a pivotal position in Messiaen’s output. This is an abrupt change of direction for him, with a small number of musical ideas and an unusually economical keyboard style, and without the inclusion of overtly virtuosic birdsong references. Thematic elements from earlier in the 1940s are combined with trials of new procedures which would dominate many of his later works. Analysis of this piece, in the conventional sense at least, is difficult because of Messiaen’s ‘magpie approach’, however Messiaen’s score annotations, sign-posting us to his own musical borrowing allow consideration of the piece’s construction.[14] The piece also demonstrates some procedures and techniques with which Messiaen would become intrinsically linked.
Messiaen’s use of rhythm is also of interest here, specifically contrasting opinions about it within scholarship. Healy wholeheartedly disagrees with Reverdy’s claim that the work should be studied from a rhythmic perspective ‘because it is a true rhythmic catalogue’[15]. ‘Not only do the rhythmic devices in Cantéyodjayâ fail to surpass the those seen in previous works, but also they may all be observed in … Vingt regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus. Messiaen reprises his rhythmic procedures without any attempt at alteration or combination.[16]
Other notable features of the work include the seemingly random application of ‘total serialism’, still being trialled by Messiaen at this stage; applying serial laws to pitch, rhythm and dynamics. Messiaen couldn’t himself account for his technical application of these procedures, but the harmonic thinking points to a new direction, abandoning his created framework of modality for a ‘collage’, or disparate collection of ideas. The work gave him licence for experiment and uncharacteristic freedom and leads from the achievements of the 1940s into his ‘experimental period’ from 1949 to 1951.[17]
 |
| Image Source: YouTube.com 'Ile de feu 2 by Olivier Messiean' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZdfefg2HKU |
[1] Benitez, Vincent, 'Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist', in Music Analysis, 28/2 (2009), 293.
[2] Nichols, Roger 1975. Messiaen: Oxford Studies of Composers, London: Oxford University Press, 7-8.
[3] Benitez, 2009, p.267.
[4] Benitez, 2009, p.268.
[5] Griffiths, Paul, 1985, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press) p.15.
[6] Hsu, Madeline, 1996, Olivier Messiaen, the Musical Mediator, (London: Associated Musical Press) p.17.
[7] Hsu, 1996. P.88.
[8] Pople, Anthony, 1998, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p.17.
[9] Griffiths, Paul, 2001, ‘Olivier Messiaen’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn (London, Macmillan).
[10] Johnson, Robert Sherlaw, 1975. Messiaen. (London: Dent) p.36.
[11] Pople, 1998, p.21.
[12] Pauly, Reinhard G., 1994, Olivier Messiaen Music and Colour: Conversations with Claude Samuel. (trans. Glasow, E.) (Portland: Amadeus Press), p.80
[13] Pople, 1998, p.38 and 41.
[14] Gareth Healey, 2007, 'Messiaen's "Cantéyodjayâ": A "Missing" Link', in The Musical Times, 148/1898 p.59-72.
[15] Reverdy, Michèle, 1987, L’Ouvre pour piano d’Olivier Messiaen. (Paris) p.60-65.
[16] Healey, 2007, p.68.
[17] Healy, 2007.
 |
| Image Source: WordPress.com 'The Well-Tempered Ear' https://welltempered.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/classical-music-qa-what-makes-french-composer-olivier-messiaen-great-madison-pianist-ankie-foell-plays-a-recital-and-gives-a-lecture-in-tribute-this-sunday/ |
References and Bibliography
Benitez, Vincent, 2009. 'Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist', Music Analysis, 28/2.
Bernard, Jonathan W., 1986. 'Messiaen's Synaesthesia: The Correspondance Between Colour and Sound Structure in his Music' in Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal. 4/1. p.41-68.
Griffiths, Paul, 1985. Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time. (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press).
Griffiths, Paul, 2001. ‘Olivier Messiaen’ in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edn. (London, MacMillan).
Healey, Gareth, 2007. 'Messiaen's "Cantéyodjayâ": A "Missing" Link', The Musical Times, 148/1898, p.59-72.
Hsu, Madeline, 1996. Olivier Messiaen, the Musical Mediator, (London: Associated Musical Press).
Johnson, Robert Sherlaw, 1975. Messiaen (London: Dent).
Nichols, Roger 1975. Messiaen: Oxford Studies of Composers, (London: Oxford University Press), p.7-8.
Pauly, Reinhard G., 1994, Olivier Messiaen Music and Colour: Conversations with Claude Samuel. (trans. Glasow, E.) (Portland: Amadeus Press).
Pople, Anthony, 1998, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
