“Messiaen and Improvisation” -...

“Messiaen and Improvisation”

Figure 1. Messiaen improvising on “Puer natus est nobis,” La Trinité, Paris, October 21, 1985

“Messiaen and Improvisation”

Vincent P. Benitez, PhD, DMA

Associate Professor of Music Theory The Pennsylvania State University

[email protected]

2015 Lise Waxer Memorial Lecture Keynote Address, Spring 2015 Meeting of the New York State/St. Lawrence Chapter of the

American Musicological Society, York University, Toronto, Canada

May 2, 2015

Messiaen and Improvisation, p. 3

Figure 2. Julien Green’s Description of Olivier Messiaen Improvising at La Trinité in 1949 (Hill and Simeone 2005, 185)

Heard an improvisation by Messiaen. Music which one could say was composed after the end of the world. It is of monstrous beauty, opening up immense caverns where rivers flow, where piles of precious stones glitter. We do not know where we are—in India perhaps. The composer was playing on the organ of the Trinité. Never have the vaults of this hideous edifice heard more disturbing sounds. Occasionally I had the impression that hell was opening, suddenly gaping wide. There were cataracts of strange noises which dazzled the ear.


Figure 3. Organ class of Marcel Dupré, Paris Conservatoire (picture taken at Dupré’s home in Meudon, near Paris).

Messiaen is seated left of center.


Figure 4. Dupré improvising a fugue on the hymn “Veni Creator Spiritus” (in Eß), Saint-Sulpice, Paris, 1961

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOnr5uhoPlE


Figure 5. Charles Tournemire at the console of the Cavaillé-Coll organ at Saint-Clotilde


Figure 6. Jean Langlais describing an improvisation lesson, on “Veni Creator Spiritus,” with Tournemire (Jean and Marie-Louise Langlais:

Lectures and Performances, 1989 [Video Adventures Production, 1994])


Figure 7. Jean Langlais’s Opinions about his Parisian Colleagues as Improvisers in an Interview with Derek Bailey

J. L.: Widor was not a very fine improviser. A great composer, a great organist, but I must confess his improvisation was very boring. . . . Vierne was a fantastic improviser. And Tournemire. Tournemire was a really great improviser. I heard him one day in [Saint-Germain-des-Prés]. He improvised for 45 minutes without any interruption and it was magnificent all the time. . . . D. B.: It’s common to find improvisation described as a type of instant composition, but are they not completely different types of activity producing completely different results? J. L.: Yes, an example of that is the difference between Tournemire’s improvisation and his composition. And the same for Dupré. . . . [For] me right now, the greatest musician for the organ is Olivier Messiaen. He


Figure 7. Jean Langlais’s Opinions about his Parisian Colleagues as Improvisers in an Interview with Derek Bailey (continued)

[has been] a very good friend of mine for many years. . . . If you are familiar with Messiaen's work and then go to the Trinité and listen to his improvisations, you will not recognize him as the same musician. Very different. And sometimes, but this does not apply to Messiaen, sometimes the improviser is more interesting than the composer.


Figure 8. Compositions by Messiaen inspired by improvisation

Messe de la Pentecôte (1950)

Considered by Messiaen to be the summit of his improvisational art. Corresponds almost with the length of a Low Mass.

Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte-Trinité (1969)

Began as a series of improvisations by Messiaen designed to accompany sermons on the mystery of God by Monsignor Charles of Sacré-Cœur in honor of the centenary of La Trinité.


Figure 8. Compositions by Messiaen inspired by improvisation (cont.)

Sketch of “L’Institution de l’Eucharistie” (Livre du Saint Sacrement [1984]; see Hill and Simeone 2005, 344)


Figure 9. Missel grégorien (Solesmes, 1985): Used by Messiaen as a source for plainchant


Figure 10. Messiaen improvising on the first part of “Quis sicut Dóminus,” a Gradual response, during Mass at La Trinité,

29 January 1989 (Missel grégorien, p. 443) © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved


Figure 11. Title page of Messiaen’s notes for his last organ concert on 18 December 1991 (permission to use the notes granted

by the owner, Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars)

Page removed due to copyright restrictions


Figure 13. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert, p. 3 (permission to use the notes granted by the owner,

Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars): List of plainchant themes used on 18 December 1991

(Translated and edited by Vincent P. Benitez) © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved

For the Concert of 18 December 1991 at the Trinity Church

Improvisation on Plainchant Themes

Themes of Plainchant: from the Missel grégorien [Solesmes, 1985]

1) Kyrie “Clemens rector,” page 150

2) Gradual “Qui sedes” (3rd Sunday of Advent), page 175

3) Christmas Introit “Puer natus est” (Mass of the Day), page 198


Figure 14. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert, p. 4: Formal Organization


1) Like an Entrée of the High Mass [“Comme une entrée de [la] grand’ messe”] (based on the Kyrie “Clemens rector” – especially the 1st Christe – )

2) Comb. 4 – Debussyian chords – Nightingale and the Kyrie

“Clemens rector” – 3) Very lengthy – on Comb. 5 with the Gamba, 16, 8, and 4

[supercouplers] – and the sound of bells in the Pedal on the Plein jeu = (see Scarbo [Ravel]) the song of the Blackbird – song of the Blackcap – on Comb. 6 with the Clarinet, Quintaton 16, Nazard, the Staccatos of Grace – (see Judith [Honegger]) – the Gradual of the Third Sunday of Advent


Figure 14. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert, p. 4: Formal Organization (cont.)


3) [cont.] – finally with comb. 2 (Gambe[,] Voix celéste – solo Quintaton 16, Nazard, alternating with solos Bourdon 16 and Quinte – ) – ending – ppp

4)  Like a Sortie of the High Mass [“Comme une sortie de [la] grand’

messe”] – fff (with the Introit of Christmas morning: “Puer natus est” – )


Example 1. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert, p. 8: Enhanced mode 2 progression on D (Transcribed by Vincent P. Benitez)

© 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved


Example 2. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert, p. 8: Non-modal harmonic progression traversing a 3-cycle pathway

(Transcribed by Vincent P. Benitez) © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved

Ex. 1: Enhanced mode 2 progression


Example 3. Chordal refrain of Improvisation 1 (p. 8): Drawn from the beginning of Les deux murailles d’eau,

XIII of the Livre du Saint Sacrement © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved

2CCR/Eb 2CCR/Bb

Example removed due to copyright restrictions


Figure 15. Formal scheme of the Entrée © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved

A [Chordal Refrain] – B [Kyrie] – C [Christe] – A – C1 –D [Quasi- Birdsong] – A – C2

Example 4. Kyrie “Clemens Rector” (Missel grégorien, p. 150)


Example 5. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert: Chord successions and birdsong used in Improvisation 2

(Transcribed and edited by Vincent P. Benitez) © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved


Example 6. From Messiaen’s notes for the concert: Opening chord succession of Improvisation 3 (Transcribed and edited by Vincent P. Benitez)



Listening example: Beginning of Improvisation 3 from Messiaen’s last organ concert



Example 9. “Puer natus est nobis” (Missel grégorien, p. 198) © 2015 Vincent P. Benitez. All rights reserved

Listening examples: First two sections and close of the Sortie on “Puer natus est nobis” from Messiaen’s last organ concert



Figure 16: Olivier Messiaen, La Trinité, ca. 1990

Selected Bibliography


Bailey, Derek. Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1993.

Benitez, Vincent P. “A Creative Legacy: Messiaen as Teacher of Analysis.” College Music

Symposium 40 (2000): 117–39. ________. “Pitch Organization and Dramatic Design in Saint François d’Assise of Olivier

Messiaen.” Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University, 2001.

________. “Simultaneous Contrast and Additive Designs in Olivier Messiaen’s Opera Saint François d’Assise.” Music Theory Online 8.2 (August 2002). http://mto.societymusictheory.org/issues/mto.02.8.2/mto.02.8.2.benitez_frames.html

________. “Aspects of Harmony in Messiaen’s Later Music: An Examination of the Chords of Transposed Inversions on the Same Bass Note.” Journal of Musicological Research 23, no. 2 (2004): 187–226.

________. “Messiaen as Improviser.” Dutch Journal of Music Theory 13, no. 2 (2008): 129-44.

________. “Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist.” Music Analysis 28, nos. 2–3 (2009): 267–99.


Bernard, Jonathan W. “Messiaen’s Synaesthesia: The Correspondence between Color and Sound Structure in His Music.” Music Perception 4/1 (Fall 1986): 41–68.

Gillock, Jon. Performing Messiaen’s Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.

Griffiths, Paul. Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Hill, Peter, ed. The Messiaen Companion. Portland, Ore.: Amadeus Press, 1995. Hill, Peter and Nigel Simeone. Messiaen. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.

Holloway, Clyde. “The Organ Works of Olivier Messiaen and Their Importance in His Total

Oeuvre.” D.S.M. document, Union Theological Seminary, 1974.

Johnson, Robert Sherlaw. Messiaen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Marti, Jean-Christophe. “Entretiens avec Olivier Messiaen.” In Saint François d’Assise:

Messiaen. Special Bilingual Program Book of the Salzburg Festival. Paris: L’Avant-Scène Opéra, Opéra d’aujourd’hui, no. 4, 1992, 8–18.


Messiaen, Olivier. Technique de mon langage musical. Texte avec exemples musicaux. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 2000.

________. Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie (1949–1992). 7 vols. Paris: Alphonse

Leduc, 1994–2002. Missel grégorien des dimanches. Solesmes: Abbaye Saint Pierre de Solesmes, 1985. Nettl, Bruno, ed., with Melinda Russell. In the Course of Performance: Studies in the World of

Musical Improvisation. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1998. Peterson, Larry Wayne. “Messiaen and Rhythm: Theory and Practice.” Ph.D. diss., University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1973.

Samuel, Claude. Musique et couleur: Nouveaux entretiens avec Claude Samuel. Paris: Belfond, 1986. Translated as Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel by E. Thomas Glasow. Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994.

Sholl, Robert. “Making the Invisible Visible: The Culture, Theology and Practice of Olivier Messiaen’s Improvisations.” (Unpublished paper).


Solis, Gabriel and Bruno Nettl, ed. Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2009.

van Maas, Sander. The Reinvention of Religious Music: Olivier Messiaen’s Breakthrough Toward the Beyond. New York: Fordham University Press, 2009.

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