OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

1940

(b Avignon, Dec 10, 1908; d Paris, April 27, 1992). French composer, organist and teacher. He was a musician apart. The sources of his music may be traced on the one hand to the French organ tradition and on the other to the innovations of Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartók, but right at the start of his career he found a modal system that has a completely individual sound, and to this he remained true, even when he vastly extended the possibilities of his style after World War II. He was alone, too, among major 20th-century composers in his joyously held Catholic faith, which again was unswerving, however much he came to value non-European cultures, especially Indian and Japanese. As a teacher he instructed many of the most prominent composers of the next two generations.

LE BANQUET CELESTE - 1926

This is only 25 bars long, but according to the metronome mark

Messiaen added for the second edition (1960), because he

found organists were playing the work too quickly, the duration

should be six minutes. Lasting for seven seconds, the first

chord becomes less an element in a musical discourse than an

event all by itself, a harmonic atmosphere. At this speed there

can be no sensation of metre, even though the phrasing is so

square ... Similarly, there can be no sensation of tonal

movement. This music is not going anywhere, …

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THE TECHNIQUE OF MY MUSICAL LANGUAGE –

OLIVIER MESSIAEN, 1944

Indian talas - rhythmic modes

Non-retrogradable rhythms

Non-transposable modes

Modes of limited transposition

Prime numbers

JOIE ET CLARTÉ DES CORPS GLORIEUX

1939

QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME

1940

Eight movements, 1st, 5th and 8th frame work with contemplation of eternity.

Messiaen was a prisoner of war

allowed to keep scores, given music paper

other musicians – cellist (3 strings), clarinet, violin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSVu1zbF94&t=29s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSVu1zbF94&t=29shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeSVu1zbF94&t=29s

PREFACE TO THE SCORE,

TEXT FROM THE BOOK OF REVELATION (REV 10:1–2, 5–7)

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 swore 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 ....

LITURGIE DE CRISTAL

I. "Crystal liturgy", for the full quartet

The silent halo of God’s presence at each new dawn with the silent

harmonies of Heaven

Probably composed last, birdsong is most differentiated

Recording

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BIRD SONG IN VIOLIN AND CLARINET

“Their songs . . . make extremely refined

jumbles of rhythmic pedals”

Blackbird and nightingale as representatives of

heaven

Birds caught on the wing

Fragment heard in many forms

CELLO AND PIANO

= heaven, heaven’s eternity

Structured so it is perpetual, without beginning or

end

Eavesdropping on something everlasting

Messiaen speaks of Heaven’s harmonious silence

Repeating sounds stand for shimmer in stillness of

morning

PIANO

Rhythm from 13th-century text on Indian music,

17 durations repeat over and over

29 chords repeat

Repeated bass note described by Messiaen as

“effect of a stained-glass window”

Uses octatonic scale, with many possible triads

(most common chord in pre-20th-century music)

MODES OF LIMITED TRANSPOSITION

Contradicts previous idea of moving toward a

tonal goal

Whole step scale one of Messiaen’s seven

modes of limited transposition—used in

Movement 1

C D E F# G# A# C

C# D# F G A B C#

REPEATED MELODY AND RHYTHM: CELLO

Cycle of 15 notes, does not coincide with

barline

Messiaen says it is analogous to a single instant

C E D F# B-flat repeats three times in 15 notes

but rhythms are different

Nonretrogradable rhythm

4 3 4 then

4 1 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 4

33 complete statements of piano’s rhythm for

cello to coincide again at the entry point

29 complete statements of piano’s rhythm and

melody to coincide again

Use of prime numbers means we never reach

the beginning point again

Hypothetical 230 minutes to complete cycle

“PEDALS”

In cello and piano: A rhythmic pedal, “an

independent rhythm which constantly repeats

itself without paying heed to the rhythms which

surround it.”

Cello repetition is a melodic pedal

Piano repetition is a harmonic pedal

Bird songs “make extremely refined jumbles of

rhythmic pedals analogous to violin and clarinet

MESSIAEN ABOUT THE

“CHARM OF IMPOSSIBILITIES”

“It is a glistening music we seek, giving to the aural sense voluptuously refined pleasures. At the same time this music should be able to express some noble sentiments (and especially the most noble of all, . . . The truths of our Catholic faith). This charm, at once both voluptuous and contemplative, resides particularly in certain mathematical impossibilities [in] the modal and rhythmic domains.

VOCALISE, POUR L'ANGE

QUI ANNONCE LA FIN DU TEMPS

II. “Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the

end of time,” for the full quartet.

MOVEMENT 2, A B A’ A Some of birdsongs were also used in Movement 1

Blackbird and nightingale

Fast, two alternating tempos

B = angel’s vocalise

Slow, link between this melody and fastest part in A

Chanted recitation of poetry or scripture like plainsong

“Only plainsong possesses at once the purity, the joy and the lightness necessary to send the soul towards Truth. . . .

Finally, it should be sung with proper respect for the neumes . . . Neumes are also found in the songs of birds, the garden warbler, the blackcap, the song thrust, the skylark and the robin sing neumes. And what is admirable about the neume is the rhythmic suppleness it engenders. . . . ”

Melody in B derived from A, but A has the joy and B the flexibility

Messiaen described the piano chords in B as “Gentle cascades of blue-orange chords. . . A distant carillon

A’ = inversion of last seven bars of A

Closely related to 4th movement

Develops birdsongs from 3rd movement

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Gregorian Chant

Mass for Christmas

Day

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ABÎME DES OISEAUX

III. "Abyss of birds", for solo clarinet

Rev 11:7 The beast ascendeth out of bottomless pit

Rev 9:1-6: "And the 5th angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.......And to them it was given that they shoud not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months..."

Possibly written earlier at transit camp.

ABC-AC’-CODA

Sections defined by tempo changes

In score on fast parts: “bathed in sunshine, like a bird, very free in movement”

“birds are the opposite of time”

Combines two birdsongs heard separately in Movement 1, blackbird and nightingale

Bird = Christ image, but for prisoners, bird = freedom

Recording

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INTERMÈDE

IV. "Interlude", for violin, cello, and clarinet

“A scherzo of more superficial character than the other movements, but linked to them nonetheless by melodic reminiscences.”

Written earlier at transit camp, less complex

Regular rhythms and phrasing

Clear tonal movement and form

Rondo-like pattern

Recording

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musical lightheartedness

regular rhythm and phrasing

tonal orientation - E

8 bar phrases- in octaves

repeat, varied from 3rd bar, "thickening" of melody (not unison) - move toward dominant

contrast clarinet flourish two times, blackbird

reprise of 4 bars

episode – 4 bar melody accompanied with G then C then F

link to E thru V of E

LOUANGE À L'ÉTERNITÉ DE JÉSUS

V. "Praise to the eternity of Jesus", for cello and

piano

Transcribed from an earlier work for city of Paris, 1937, sound,

water and light show

Prelude to the second act: renewing the focus

on eternity which provides the frame for the

apocalyptic personages and events that will

reappear in the following two movements.

Infinitely slow, ecstatic

FOR ONDES MARTENOT

Originally Fête des belles eaux, 1937

Messiaen cites this as an example of his

song-sentence:

Theme (antecedent and consequent)

In E

Middle period

A melodic development of the theme . . . In which

some fragments of the theme are repeated in the

initial key upon different degrees, or in other keys,

and are varied rhythmical, melodically and

harmonically.

Final period

Return to tonic harmony

Recording

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DANSE DE LA FUREUR,

POUR LES SEPT TROMPETTES

VI. "Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets",

for the full quartet

A Dance of frenzy in unison or octaves

After fourth trumpet a brief moment of reflection in the scripture and in the music

Principal theme = example of added value Feel of 4/4 bar slightly off at opening

Four bar units

Theme is anticipated in mvmt. 4

M. 5-6 “the added value . . . And Hindu melodic color are united” “Hindu music ‘ abounds in curious, exquisite, unexpected melodic contours which the native improvisers repeat and vary following the rules of the raga.”

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Other possible Biblical parallel:

Revelation 8:13: "And I beheld, and heard an

angel flying thru the midst of heaven, saying w/

a loud v, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of

the earth by reason of the other voices of the

trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to

sound!

ANOUSHKA SHANKAR

Live at Carnegie Hall

Raga Madhuvanti

Alap

Gat in rupak

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First section

Four statements of same material. a a’ a a’

Middle section

Nonretrogradable rhythms

Repeating 16-pitch pattern 7 + 7 + 2

Recapitulation,

but altered

Coda

Ideas of opening and middle, conclusion

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FOUILLIS D'ARCS-EN-CIEL, POUR L'ANGE

QUI ANNONCE LA FIN DU TEMPS

VII. "Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who

announces the end of time", for the full quartet

Seven is perfect number—days of creation, Sabbath rest:

“the seven of this rest is prolonged into eternity and

becomes the eight of everlasting life, of eternal peace.

Depicts events in sequence

“Variations of the first theme separated by variations of the second”

First theme recalls second movement’s second section

Second theme a direct quotation of second movement

Rhythm has regular motion, one tempo throughout

Materials presented contrapuntally, but don’t harmonize as Brahms or Schoenberg would have

Ends on pitch of beginning

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Tempo extremely slow associated with a state of ecstasy.

Contemplation of an eternity in which the tensions surrounding the events of the apocalypse have been resolved through the ending of time.

When he plays organ version it takes 9 minutes (for 3 pages)

Overwhelms the senses through accumulation and superimposition of music material

Instruments more independent

Much material from 2nd movement

LOUANGE À L'IMMORTALITÉ DE JÉSUS

VIII. "Praise to the immortality of Jesus", for

violin and piano

Transcribed from an earlier work for organ (1930)

Clear and simple overall architecture

Theme

Two three-bar phrases

First commentary

Theme

Second commentary

Movement in E, ends on E

Recording

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RECEPTION OF QUATUOR

"In the midst of thirty-thousand prisoners, I was

the only man who was not one."

5,000 prisoners heard it, complete silence for

an hour

LATER WORK