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Music 2003 History of Music IV

Lecture 15: Serialism and multiple serialism - Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen 1908 - 1992

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Born in Avignon from a cultivated background. His father was a translator of English
literature; his mother a poet of mystic-bent
He studied music from a young age and began composing as a youth
At the Paris Conservatoire he excelled in organ and composition which he studied with Paul
Dukas
In 1930 he assumed his first teaching posts, as well as the position of organist at Trinity
Church, Paris
Shortly after he began the group La Jeune France which included Jolivet, Lesur and Baudrier
His triple career as organist, composer and mentor was already established.
From 1939 to 1942 he was a prisoner of war
From 1942 he was appointed to teach at the Conservatoire and his career as the mentor of the
young avant-garde was established. His influence extended not only from his position at the
Conservatoire, but also at Darmstadt (from 1950 to 53) and Tanglewood (1948)
Among his followers from this period was the young Pierre Boulez
The broad outlines of Messiaen's musical style were set in the 1940s
He laid out his musical beliefs in a treatise published in 1944 entitled La Technique de mon
langage musical in which he elaborates on his personal musical style under three broad
headings: rhythm, harmony and melody.

Rhythm
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Concepts of beat and measure are no longer operative, but replaced by a basic invariable unit
called simple "short value"
This results in music which is both a-metric and additive (as opposed to divisive)
Within this construct there are three specific durational phenomena which are unique

- added value: the alteration of the basic "short value" be the addition of a note, dot or rest. This
technique will alter the rhythmic shape of a phrase (often a repeated phrase) and create an effect of
acceleration or ritard.
- augmentation or diminution: the classic contrapuntal technique is here extended to asymmetric
structures using complex factors of augmentation or diminution or using inexact factors of same
which have the effect of producing a set of rhythmic variants of the same idea.
- non-retrogradable rhythms: whether read from left to right or from right to left, the order of
values remains the same. A durational palindrome. (Illustrate with simple example.) This produces a
rhythmic invariable which is horizontally analogous to the vertical phenomenon of "modes of limited
transposition" (see below). It also produced the effect of a rhythmic pedal.

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Harmony
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Messiaen saw himself as the natural descendent of Debussy

A stated preference for certain harmonic sonorities
-chords with an added sixth (analogous to the added value)
ths
-chords containing augmented 4
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-the "chord of resonance", i.e. V with 4 5 7
ths)
-quartal harmonies (mixing augmented and perfect 4
Perhaps his most important harmonic theory was modes of limited transposition. Like nonretrogradable rhythms the modes of limited transposition produce an invariable pitch structure.
Each mode can only be transposed a limited number of times before it begins repeating the
same pitch set. Modes of limited transposition are not necessarily aurally perceptible, but will
create the "theological rainbow" of a musical language. Messiaen also had a deep belief in an
association of colours with harmonic identity: synaesthesia. The modes were numbered and
classified:

#1 The whole tone scale (produces augmented triads); only 2 transpositions before repeating its pitch
set.
#2 sT (produces the octatonic scale and the diminshed 7th chord); only three transpositions before
repeating the same pitch set.
#3 Tss (a variant of #1) only four transpositions before repeating the same pitch set.
#4 ssTs 6 transpositions
#5 sTs 6 transpositions
#6 TTss 6 transpositions
#7 sssTs 6 transpositions

Melody
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Messiaen proclaims the supremacy of melody

Features of his melodic style are determined by his harmonic language
His favourite melodic sources are

- folk song
- plainchant
- Hindu ragas
- bird song
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His preferred melodic intervals are descending A4, M6 and m2

Common melodic techniques include

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- elimination
- interversion of notes (rearrangement of their order within a melodic cell)
- registral displacement

All these features are evidenced in his early masterwork

Quatuor pour la fin du temps (1941)

Read his commentary from the score which introduces the subject of the work and the first
movement. NB: the second paragraph on mysticism and the tonal support of such.

"I saw an angel, all powerful, descending from heaven and having a rainbow surrounding his head.
His face was like the sun; his feet like columns of fire. He stood with his right foot on the sea, his left
foot on the earth. Straddling both, he raised his hand toward the heavens and swore by Him who
lives for eternity, saying: 'Time no longer exists; but on the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel,
the mystery of God will consume us.

"Conceived and written during my captivity, the Quartet for the end of time was first performed at
Stalag VIIIA on January 15th 1941. It was directly inspired by the citation above from the
Apocalypse. Its musical language is essentially immaterial, spiritual, and catholic. From modes
which are manifest both melodically and harmonically there emerges a kind of tonal ubiquity which
reaches the listener in an eternity of space. Special rhythms - beyond all measure - contribute
powerfully to the attenuation of the temporal.

"The first movement, Crystalline Liturgy: between three and four in the morning, the awakening of
the birds; a robin or a nightingale soloist improvises, surrounded by sonorous dust; a halo of trills is
lost very high in the trees. Transpose all this to a religious plane: you will have the harmonious
silence of the heavens."

Look at first movement for the rhythmic language in particular

The clearest application is in the cello part

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the pitch set (color in isorhythmic motet terms) is 5 notes only drawn from the whole tone
scale (Mode #1): c e d f b
the durational set (talea) is a 15 member set: 4-3-4-4-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-4
Thus there is a simple ration of 3:1 between the durational: pitch sets, establishing a relative
clarity to the pedal effect
the pitch series becomes a subset of the rhythmic series
there are 7 complete statements of the whole across the movement
there is one example of added value over the bar line of mm. 32-33
But the durational set is more complex than first appears since there is a non-retrogradable
rhythm embedded within it:

4-3-44-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-4
Thus a double statement of the series would be
4-3-4 4-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-4-4-3-4 4-3-1-1-3-1-1-1-1-3-1-1-4

The application to the piano is much more complex. The absence of synchronization or coordination
between color and talea produces a complete absence of repetition, i.e., a series of infinite variation.
It is here that one hears, in Messiaen's words, the "harmonious silence of heaven."

The duration series is 17, repeated to a total of 9 2/3 statements across the movement
The chord series is 29, repeated to a total of 5 2/3 statements across the movement

the clarinet part demonstrates a freer application of his technique and her espoused preference for
melody. It is based in part on bird song with a prominent use of A4 and m2. Variation technique is
revealed in a comparison of mm. 1-7 with mm. 8-15.

The violin part is pure bird song.

Look at subsequent movements, especially the fourth for its manifestation of the #2 Mode of Limited
Transposition with the pitch series e f g g a b c d e.
By 1949 Messiaen had extended his principles of serial composition to all parameters of composition
in his work Modes de valeurs et d'intensit

Here he serialized Duration

Dynamics

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Mode of attack
Pitch (though not duodecaphonic, continuing to prefer his modes)

From this work the principal European multiple serialists of the early 50s took their point of
departure, chiefly Boulez and Stockhausen.

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