Analysis Task #2

Messiaen – Quarter for the end of Time

Fragmentary imitations of birdsong, played by the clarinet and violin, are heard

alongside unchanging and continuous material played by the cello and piano – without

beginning or end.

The clarinet’s opening music, imitates the song of the blackbird. Its freedom from the

musical constraints of baronies and easily assimilable tonal organization makes it likely

to be heard not so much as a melody that merely suggests birdsong, however, but more

as a literal attempt to transcribe elements of the blackbird’s characteristic song within

the limitations of the instrument chosen. Indeed, Messiaen’s program note speaks of

Heaven’s ‘harmonious silence’ – a condition his music cannot hope to attain but merely

to represent. Something of this obverse would thus apply to the music of the piano and

cello, since what they play cannot signify Heaven other than symbolically. Nonetheless,

their music ‘is’ without beginning or end – the same patterns cycled and recycled with

no apparent articulation in time1.

Chords:

the choice of chords, how they are constructed, that is, a symptom of ‘synesthetic’

experience? If yes, then how can we understand his approach? how does it help the

listener or to study his music? effect of resonance on sound perceived as color?

1Pople, Anthony ‘Messiaen: Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps’ ‘Liturgie de cristal’ (UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998)
pp. 17,18

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The most direct evidence of the composer’s concern with color in the music is to be

found in his description of the piano music at the opening of the second section as

‘gentle cascades of blue-orange chords…[a] distant carillon’. The example of ‘Liturgie

de Cristal’ suggests that the function of the piano is to play the music of something

ethereal which is seen or felt but not heard, so that the quasi-plainsong ‘vocalise' is

understood to be accompanied by an aura, rather than a harmonization, just as the

presentation of its notes at [({a} mm 1-3, {b} mm 6-7) see table of annotated examples]

is accompanied merely by resonance.

Although the vertical arrangement of the notes is quite different to that of the textbook

‘chord of resonance’, this consistent with the phenomenon of the upper class notes’

being transformed into resonances at the entry of the bass dyad 2.

Concepts of time:

Clarinet solo. ‘The abyss is Time, with its sorrows and its weariness. The birds are the

opposite of Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows and joyful songs’!

The use of ‘Bar’ only as a point of psychological orientation for the performer. View of

rhythm as arising from an extension of durations in time rather than from a division of

time.The opening four ‘bars’ of the first presque vif constitute the first example of

birdsong Messiaen gives in Technique. This passage combines elements of the two

birdsongs – those of the blackbird and the nightingale – that are heard separately in

‘Liturgie de cristal’ 3. Notes on clarinet taken in different registers, ascending towards the

2Pople, Anthony ‘Messiaen: Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps’ ‘Vocalise, pour l’Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps’ (UK:
Cambridge University Press, 1998) pp. 34-35
3 Ibid. ‘Abime des oiseaux’ pp. 40-41

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highest reaches of the instrument and then descending (Is this a pictorialism influenced

by the image of the birds’ flight?). The rhythm is transformed into even quavers and the

presentation is fortissimo; an echo follows in the next bar.

Regarding Birdsong/Bird imitation – seen as the ‘authentic’ voice of divinely created

nature, what challenges were faced transcribing actual bird calls for musical

instruments? Obstacles for performer?

Challenges in transcribing actual bird-song for musical instrument, clarinet in this case:

• Melodic tempo: most cases slowed down considerably to become reproducible as well

as clearly audible;

• Timbres: That of avian voices, unlike those produced by the instruments of western

classical music;

• Pitches: Those allocated to lower octaves and almost always be tempered with twelve

equal semitones.

Tempo:

Like the fifth movement, this ‘Louange à l’immortalité…’ is cast in an extremely slow

tempo – extrêment lent is the composer’s own marking – which Messiaen associates

with a state of ecstasy. He made significant use of the second mode of limited

transposition; its rhythms, however, are devoid of the added values4.

4Pople, Anthony ‘Messiaen: Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps’ ‘Louange à l’immortalité de Jèsus’ (UK: Cambridge University
Press, 1998) p. 81

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Technique:

In terms of musical organization, the greatest rigor is to be found in the material played

by the cello and piano. Cello: its material is simply a fifteen-note melody which is

repeated continuously throughout. As the melody repeats, the positions of its notes in

relation to the bar-lines change, but the note-values remain the same. This melody

exemplifies a number of aspects of Messiaen’s technique. (I) Pitches: only C, E, D, F#

and Bb are heard, all of which lie within the whole-tone scale (modes of limited

transposition) although the used this mode sparingly. (II) the sequence C-E-D-F#-Bb

itself repeats three times within the fifteen-note melody.

Messiaen's characteristic methods in the compositions analyzed are as follows:

1. Each tala may become an independent ostinato rhythmic pedal which is placed in

polyrhythmic structure. Semi-rhythmical structure be made up of other talas, non-

retrograde rhythms and systems of proportionally reduced and increased values.

2. The second most common method used by Messiaen was the addition and joining

together of his three favorite talas (ragavardhana, candrakala and laksmisa). The

newly-created artificial tala becomes the ostinato rhythmic pedal in the super-

imposed rhythmic pedal structure as in first case (Quartet for the End of Time - first

movement of the Crystal Liturgy).

3. Talas may also be organized into rhythmic strophes. The strophes do not have to be

built up solely from Indian talas, but may also be combined with rhythmic patterns

resulting from the composers's invention, may be taken from other sources. (Exotic

Birds - eighth section, grand central tutti).

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4. One way in which the tala is used is through alteration of its ration within the

composition, the tala's duration being increased or increase5.

FINAL REMARKS:

Messiaen's thought as a composer was concentrated on the problem of note values,

rhythm and time. In this he strived towards infinity eternity, in which no such concepts

exist. The Indian attitude to time is close to his way of thinking, and, for this reason, he

enriches the traditional rhythmic elements in his music with rhythmic material from

classical Indian music. The idea of duration of a note, existing separately from bar and

independently of meter, becomes the guiding light in his new approach to rhythm6.

Ultimately, however, while we can have no grounds for disputing Messiaen’s account of

his own perceptions, we cannot know just how he saw colors in this music.

5S̆imundža, M. (1988). ‘Messiaen's Rhythmical Organization and Classical Indian Theory of Rhythm’ (II). (International
Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music,19/1.) pp. 16-17
6 Ibid. p. 18

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Benitez, V. ‘Oliver Messiaen: A Research and Information Guide’ (1st ed. New York:

Routledge Music Bibliographies, 2007)

Healey, G. (2013). ‘Messiaen's Musical Techniques: The Composer's View and

Beyond’ (1st ed. Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group)

Messiaen, O. and Satterfield, J. ‘The technique of my musical language’ (Paris:

Alphonse Leduc, 2007)

Morgan P. Robert ‘Twentieth-Century Music’ (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.,

1991)

Pople, Anthony ‘Messiaen: Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps’ (UK: Cambridge University

Press, 1998)

S̆ imundža, M. (1988). ‘Messiaen's Rhythmical Organization and Classical Indian Theory

of Rhythm’ (II). (International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music,19/1.)

Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/836445 [Accessed 29 Dec. 2017]

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 Table of Annotated Examples
Ex 1 from ‘liturgie de
cristal’
Example of a ‘non-
retrogradable’
rhythm

Mode 2 and its

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Mode 3 and typical
chords derived from
it.

Chord of resonance
{a} mm 1-3

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Chord of resonance
{b} mm 6-7

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Clarinet solo from
third movement
‘Abime des oiseaux’

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Chord of
resonance taken
from Messiaen’s
Musical Techniques

At A: arpeggio of
the clarinet and
chords of the
piano, chord on the
dominant

At C: Birdstyle
melodic contours

A: last effect of
resonance

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