Gatiss, J. Christopher

English

Goldsmiths, University of London: Journals Online

  Contact :  A  Journa l  for  Contemporary  Mus ic  ( 1971 -1988)  http://contactjournal.gold.ac.uk Citation      Gatiss, J. Christopher. 1971. ‘Olivier Messiaen’. Contact, 2. pp. 3-7. ISSN 0308-5066.. •. -- .. - " '!' ...... . , OLIVIER MESSIAEN n ... Earlier this year, the C.B:s.o., with a choir the Birmingham Schrlol "'f IV!usic, under the :inspired bat ,.In of Louis Fremaux, gave enchanting perr_,.,rmances ·or the 'Trois Petites Liturgies de la :Presence Divine', composed in 1943 • by Olivi··er Messiaen, botp. in Birmingham and in tl:le Royal Hall,'. Ldpdon. Thopgf!. l'ifessiaf3n Is orgqn works have known and · played in Britain f'or ·a good-;many . ·· years, his choral and orchestral cqmposi tions hate . ,· enjoyed: such fame, although his wartime 'Quattuer Pour La !o in Du Temps'·. for violin, clarinet, and piano is fairly · well-known France. . . .. . ' ·· . . ·. Olivier Iv1essiaen, who .has retained · his post as organ--ist at the Church ofS:aint-Trinite . in Paris for forty · :years;. during which tirrie he has developed his unique · --:usieal style as well as his stature a!3 a highly influential teacher, ·can claim b('lth to occupy a _commanding tion ,in the musical aevelopi:nent of h:1.s own country, arid : t() , . made a distinctive and important contribution to tne many-sided ahd cflrriplex elements which constitute the wide · contemporary European culture. His fame is not perhap-s as great as that of his fe .. and pup1l · Boulez, ·whilst it has even said by f?pme ,that • h..ts ·music · is little more than the simplistic .. 9f a sentimentally mystic and imagination. Yet a unique position · in the field of contemporm?y and has by his inspiration as C1 teacher alorie, ._. · helped to mould the future -of music iri Europe. _ -Born in Avignon in 1908, Hessiaen must owe much Qf his powerful 'romqritic' intellect and poetic imagination to his mother, the . pbetess Sauvage, as well as to his· father Pierre r:Ie ssiaen, w11o was also a figure of s orne literary importance. It is probably .Eessiaen's essentially personal and original outlo6k on the universe in general, as much as his technique, which places him at the fore-front of 'French 6ompnsers of this century. It is indeed a great over-sin:ipli'fication to say thnt he lies somewhere · b<t.tween Debussy and Boulez in thought and technique, . -ne can sense in his music elements reminiscent of both t:tJ,c fin-de-siecle· . experimentalism of Debussy and ,h_fs · follower'S, and. the uncompr-omising boldness of Boulez, Stockhausen, -,r Barraque; France, it may be said, has beeh ndt only a nation of but also tha most musically £elf-supporting of all countries. ·The universality or cos mopolitanism of _Messiaen therefore, · is somewhat remarkable, and constitutes ' one· of the reasons why his music is often heard in preference to that of many of his l e sser-known contemporarie-s. I'-'less1aen combines a highly individuallstic vision of the purpose of -hi:a·:·coriJ.posi tions with a burning sincerity & a musical curiGsity·- extending far beyorid his immediate environment. In addition he possesses a technique which a more complete synthesis of the many-sided tendencies of present-day music than that of many of his .contemporaries. In 1936, Messiaen was one of a group which, Co.l l. ln 6 1 LL, J e u_nt: f r an ce 1 , i s sued. a llian i ft s to in which they expressed their combined in-tention to 're-human--ise' music, which they f 'elt was · in many cases being stifled by theories and abstract systems. The human content of a c r [J06iti·.l compositi-onmustbe restored to. a . position of permanent importan-ce . _ _ . "" At this time, two ma in styles ·of composition were in vogue: on the one hand, an adherenee to one of the central-european systems, such as dodecaphony, and on the other, a reversion to classical principles. One eithe r . 'grew · forward 1 to Sch•enberg, or ., back 1 to Bach. 1 La Jeuhe France 1 however, showed a middle way. To the members of this group, the basic problem lay not:· so much in evolving a musical lan guage, as in defining· the. human e l e men_t in music. fr:om which a language would \pring . This 'humanism' did not however mean exactly the same thing to e ach member· of the group. · . . To 1'1essiaen- an:d Jolivet ( t<rho were at adds here with Baudrier and Lesur, other members of the grou-p), man is parit ·; of_ st>mething beyond hi mself: eternal, .. univers_al and -spiri--tual, and art is the r e fore not limited to-- the : expre ssivn merely of a personal. e xpe rience; it must not :'Qe li rni ted to the technical proble ms of a particular a ge, and e ven less to the arbitrary solution of any one particular composer. For i-1e-ssiaen, the wa y to discover this universal human music was to reach out to th& beginnings of human con-sciousness:... to pri rJ itive and· oriental civilisp.tions, exotic modes and rhy thms, the world of nature, and recog--nition of the role. of the divine in the visible universe. In comparison 1,vith a composer such as Stravinsky( tci select a f ,ig,ure of paramount i mportance in t he development ef twentie th century music ) i it may be said t hat Messiaen's music, like that of the more monumental Russian's, is a -creative synthesis of many diffe rent eleme nts - including oriental modes and rhythms and bird song, b ut tha.t strangely enough the Fr enchman sho'<Vs a l e sse r degree of sophistication and a :gr e·a·t e r fr ee dom of insti nct t h an the _Hussian. Among 1 s t e ache rs a t the Paris Cons e rvatoire · were lVlarcel- Dupre, lfaur ice Emmanue l and Paul Dukas ·. Heturning later to the Conservatoire as a professor, he has e x erted as much i n fluen ce as a t e ache r as he h a s as a compos er, by his ins·truction of musicians such a s Boule z Barraque , ·to mention only two. method, including hi's hi ghly significant cla s ses in 'Ae sthe tics,. Analysis and Hhythm' also involve s open discussion about unknown r egi ons of music, such as Eastern music, rhythms and :Africari music. h e has enable d the g eneral listene r · to grasp the purpose a nc1 structure of his music by the com-· -pletion .ln 1944 of his book.' The Te chnique Of l'lY Hus.lcal Language 1 • lie is·_ also a fre que nt -performer of his own music, e spe cially a t the organ of Pe rhaps his -works can only unde rsto od, howe ver, by me ans of a duel a ssess-- 11.ent - ·involving a review of the many-si de d aspects of his pe rsonality, and a glance at _ the more fun de mental e l e ments of his t e chn i -que . It is probably He sslaen!,.s ori gina lity of thought and expre ssion which give s his mt1sical l an guage ·such richne ss. Though his music h as an apparently mystical t ee ling :and . 1 i • ..... .. J r ' si§,nificance, he himself descr.ibes ·h,i,s thought as being 1 theological 1 rathe r than 'myg'tfcaJ>, If one were to endeavour to define thes e two vague and somewhat "1ver-used"· . ()ne might reach the conclusion that mysticism is ' · ... · s:tate of ,mind in 1"hich, by contemplation,a man may reach • himself and· experience contact with the Divine. the other hand, is the soience of religion is very.-- inuch concerned withman 1 s human · conc{i tl,on. Its func.tJQn is t;o re.conc;ile the imperfe9tions . of the world, __ (when -practise¢!._ conjunction with s·ome system of religious observance) with glory; is surely Messiaen 1 s purpose, too. · His is. indeed at the root of. hi.s creativ_e - thought, and he uses theology as a me ans to interpret the __ themes of his works in thought and mysic. The _ commorl:y-st of these ·· themes are love, de9- th, b..j,rd-song ahd ·· the ; ,ch;ieJ ::.fe als. o:t: Chl"i s_ ti a n ··m];'l:lrchJ · such as Ch;t:',iB ,tmas, '.A,$ce:-rtsTon :and .Penticest. songs and son-g-cy91es,he ht!Jlsel.f w-rites the ipoem:.s. . , . . · . · · To emphasise how· tbe abb\te-m-en tione d themes dominate muoh of Hesslaen ,ts ' wo:rk, i .t inay:: ':Suffice to mt,l§ic which h,e between 1944': and 1948, 1 t will be apparent -that the theme of love occurs agairt·· ana again. In 1944, • Mes.siaen explpred the language. oJ_ mystical love (as he says in .. hi;.s in 1Vingt rega-rd!-l- ·su.r--·-· 1 1Enf·arit Jesus 1 • of Peruvian· Tri·starl· ·and-· · · Ieoiae forine. the LHarawi' (whicn .. _;. .. +., ... ... . - .. . ,- cc/E'dmbe -v-erte· t·:frihich was compos·e·a -·1n .. thJ3 ': -· .f.O:'illow1ng year, whilst the 1 Turangalila 1 symphony ( ...:. 1948) depicts' on one l e vel, the violent twf;en; · passionate physical love, and an ideal·_' ·, . The 1 Cinq He 1948 re turri ' , ,I;fol:r':l.w--vian folk-song and the physical tmion o:f two · lovers. · · ··· It must be rememheJ:ie.d that corpus of work, .irre·spective of' w.hether it·s· theme is love or bird_,_ song, an underlyin:g act of faith. ·_-. This is nowhere more apparent than in the work with which · Nessiaen first cqme before the public( ::-i the 1 Banqtiet Celeste 1 ( 1928), · a work in which a· highly spiritual inter--pretation of o,n_e -of the most emotive :and myst.i'cal 'scenes of the epiQ ,1The Last_ is b;y, a :t;echnically S.J1::eeessful :$·$yle of' c.Dmpbsi tion which · one might call a techniqu'et, . .::•repetition of phrases of an origina4:- f·,!v stanza, . which are: re::.:s tated and modified in r; subsequen;t , s tan.zas, powerful caden t\ai·' phrases b e ing used. as 1 r,·' to ," rol,l.nd o,ff · indi vidua;.t s ta!)za .. :: as) the de.v(3lopment of Me ss-iae n 1 s f e chnique is concer'ned, it may be . saiid t '- the fii'ghly personal use of . "' _, , _1_ e mployed in-. .• 'Le.· was gradually -abandoned, _ (for example·,_ ln the 1 Liturgies 1 of 1943. and the .. · 1 of 19.4:4) , . :: until total chromaticisniwas a(b <pt-ed '1n works compos-ed after 1950. The central ·an.q. ,J?eriod of his : c:rteat -ivel life)? which we epd_s . , ... _; r., rSymphony ·,( '1948) , was 'I¥thy .. .. which i!Uwi:.e.rleed in > :c·· . J: '. ' ·<"T-e6l]:p1que Of ITJl. 1 • ' _ · · • ·' .. c -\ . : · its -particularly ·;;.. . .: . and __ _ modes _ ' ... of limited transposition',.Thc; re a re seve n of the s e , the se cond and-third bding and dach mode b8ing formed of ·s e veraf; syr:q.me :trical gr:oups, the last note of each group always being .the s-ame as. t ,he :first of the following group. For example, · the se cond _mode, V>Jhich is · transposable three times, and is perhaps one of the most easily recognisable, ie divided int• four symmetrical or: three notes each. Ea6h group contains a semi tone anc1 a tche,. aS" shown in th.E! following:-- --, < modalism is a coherent system based on vigorousand logical harmonic thought, and in the resulting chn:.,d systelll all the notes appear which belong to the mode used. Each has its own harmony; and is ncit harmonised by chords mad made up of notes fdreign . to it. Becatise of their polytomal flavour, Iviessiaen' $ modes can cbmbined with a tonality, or with ohe of the traditional ecclesiastical modes. Their use led inevitably to the abandonment of tonality. · .Hessiaen's contrapuntal. treatment of rhythm in· a system which recalls Bach or the earlier madrigal composers, · emb-odies a three-fold 0an.on of rhythmic princi..ples. Firstly, rhythm; -is entirely free -from· the domination. of ·the bar-line. Hl-s music ' 1-s without regular me tre, but very precisely notated. He will . add' to any rhythm a small pulse-unit, in the form of a dot, a note or -a rest, wh-ich wi-ll transform its balance. The re suiting rhythm .·is . subtle -and refined. Secondly, rhythm be augmented or .dimini.shed by fractional amounts. vJhereas Bach enly halved or doub.le·d not.e values, lfessiaen achieves similar results by augmenting notes by a quarter, a third; a balf, or twice, or four times their value, and in dimim.ition . l:;>y reducing them by inverse proportion of the system used in augmentation. · · Lastly, s use of non-re trogradable rhythms . produces a certain un1ty10f rhythmic move ment, just as a certain ubiquity of tona lity results from .the use of the ' modeo of limited trans-position'. Thus:- · '" ·<' • ! ! I i I . r:-: I J · d J "J I • ... .J These three principles are contaJned in the Hiri.du rhythm 'Raga-vardhana', and it comes as no _surprise , therefore,. that Messiaen employ$ oriental or non-Europe Em rhythms and melodic throughout his works:-.. I . i i d I I JJ.J . 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Olivier Messiaen

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Olivier Messiaen

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