Certain portions of this site are restricted to oncampus use only. About the PerformersMessiaen composed Quatour pour la Fin du Temps in 1940-41 for the following performers, who gave the premier performance on January 15, 1941 at Stalag VIIIA in Gorlitz, Silesia, the concentration camp in which they were imprisoned. Jean Le Boulaire, violin. Henri Akoka, clarinet. Etienne Pasquier, cello.
Quatuor pour la fin du temps. It was premiered in 1941. The piece is scored for clarinet (in B-flat), violin, cello, and piano; a typical performance of the complete work lasts about 50 minutes. Messiaen wrote the piece while a prisoner of war in German captivity, and it was first performed by his fellow prisoners.
Olivier Messiaen, pianoIn Freshman Studies we are using the 1976 RCA recording of the Quartet, performed by Tashi, an innovative ensemble of four musicians that formed in the 1970s in order to perform music from outside the mainstream classical tradition. Tashi is:.
Peter Serkin, piano. Ida Kavafian, violin. Fred Sherry, cello. Richard Stoltzman, clarinet. 'Rhythmically the most characteristic piece of the set.
The four instruments in unison are made to sound like gongs and trumpets (the first six trumpets of the apocalypse followed by various catastrophes, the trumpet of the seventh angel announcing the consummation of the mystery of God). The use of added values, augmented or diminished rhythms, and non-retrogradable rhythms.
Music of stone, fearful granite sonorities; the irresistible movement of steel, enormous blocks of purple fury, of icy intoxication. Listen above all to the terrible fortissimo of the theme in augmentation and the changes in register of its different notes, towards the end of the piece.' 'Certain passages from the second movement return. The mighty Angel appears, and above all the rainbow which crowns him (the rainbow: a symbol of peace, wisdom, and of all sounding and luminous vibrations). In my dreams, I hear recognized chords and melodies, I see known colours and forms; then, after this transitory stage, I pass beyond reality and submit in ecstasy to a dizziness, a gyratory interlocking of superhuman sounds and colours.
These swords of fire, these flows of blue-orange lava, these sudden stars; this is the tumult of rainbows.' TextureMuch as the texture of a fabric arises from the distinctive qualities of its individual threads and the way in which the threads are woven together, texture in music arises from the various qualities of the instrumental or vocal parts and the ways in which the parts are combined. In a piece of fabric, threads might differ in color, weight, and thickness, and they can be woven together in various ways; similarly, in a piece of music each part has its own distinctive timbre (tone color), register (highness or lowness), and dynamic (loudness or softness), and it can be combined with others in different ways.
The heterogeneous instrumentation of Messiaen's quartet – violin, clarinet, 'cello, and piano – promises a rich and varied musical texture, and indeed part of the composition's appeal is its exploration of the sonic and textural possibilities of this distinctive combination of instruments.Musical textures can be thick or thin, simple or complex, and all gradients in between, depending on the number of parts being played and on the way in which they interact. Musicians make a basic distinction between ('one voiced') and ('many voiced') textures, but especially in the latter category there are many possibilities. The following examples from Messiaen's quartet give some sense of the range of possibilities. Monophonic textureThe entire third movement, for clarinet solo, is a straightforward example of a monophonic texture: one instrument playing a melody.
Here is an excerpt from the end of the piece. Polyphonic textureThere are several types of polyphonic texture, and the next example, from the beginning of the eighth movement ('Praise to the Immortality of Jesus'), illustrates a common type and one that Messiaen uses frequently in the Quartet:.
In this instance, the 'cello melody is accompanied by repeated chords in the accompaniment. The succession of chords can also be heard as consisting of four distinct parts, but because they are played by the same instrument in the same rhythm, they have a timbral and rhythmic identity that is characterisitic of a ('same voiced') texture. Thus the polyphonic texture of the passage as a whole consists of a monophonic melody and a homophonic accompaniment. Another common type of polyphonic texture features individual parts that, while unified by harmony and key, are distinguishably independent melodies. This texture, called after the practice of combining melodies in, occurs infrequently in Messiaen's Quartet; the following illustration (Example 4) is from a string quartet by Joseph Haydn (1832-1809).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is said to have compared the classical string quartet to 'a conversation among four educated equals' – an apt description of the contrapuntal texture often found in chamber music, in which each instrumental part is clearly independent from the others while unfied by the common topic of 'conversation': the musical themes and variations. In the course of such a conversation, one instrument might present an idea, develop it a bit, be interrupted by another which develops the idea further or digresses before yet another introduces a new idea altogether, the first now perhaps pausing to reflect a bit before offering a rebuttal or posing a question. Perhaps the closest Messiaen comes to a genuinely contrapuntal texture is in the fourth movement – the most traditional in form, harmony, and rhythm and meter. Although the movement begins (Example 5a) with the violin, clarinet, and cello in rhythmic unison – each playing the same melody but in three different octaves – the texture subtly changes in bar 10, when the instruments diverge and play different melodic lines, though still in the same rhythm. This is a step toward the harmonious independence of melodic lines that is the hallmark of counterpoint.
Later in the movement the texture becomes even more contrapuntal (Example 5b), when the principal and accompanying melodies are clearly differentiated by rhythm. In bars 41-44, the violin and cello introduce a melody that will become the principal theme of the sixth movement while the clarinet accompanies with staccato repeated notes. In bar 45 the conversation takes a different turn, as the clarinet takes over the melody while the strings (in rhythmic unison) play a more active accompaniment. The dialogue continues in bar 49-51 as the violin and cello echo the end of the clarinet melody and are themselves echoed by the clarinet.
Heterophonic textureThe term ('different voiced') can be understood in at least two ways. Ethnomusicologists use it to describe textures in which a melody in one part (e.g., a sung part) is simultaneously combined with a varied form of the same melody (usually more elaborate) played by one or more of the other parts (e.g., instruments). Heterophonic textures of this kind do not occur in Messiaen's Quartet; whenever a melody is simultaneously sounded in more than one part, it is always exactly the same except for possible octave transpositions.However, the term can also describe certain polyphonic textures, like that of the first movement of Messiaen's Quartet, in which there is no discernable relationship among some of the parts. This is highly unusual in music of the 18th and 19th centuries, in which the different parts of a polyphonic texture, even if recognizably distinct, are generally unified in some way: by being in the same key, by using the same or similar melodic or rhythmic ideas, or by imitating one another at some interval other than an octave (as in a fugue by Bach). In 'Liturgie de cristal,' however, the violin and clarinet parts, which are meant to evoke birdsong, are so independent of the cello part and, especially, the homophonic piano part that they seem to occupy a wholly different sonic world. Rather than a 'conversation among equals' on a topic of common interest, here four characters are speaking simulatneously, unresponsive and perhaps even oblivious to the others. Instead of a harmonious counterpoint between independent but related melodies, we hear a juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated ideas – a true heterophony.
Rhythm & MeterLike many composers of the 20th century, Messiaen sought to free from the metrical regularity that is characteristic of western classical music of the 18th and 19th centuries and of much popular music even today. Minuets and waltzes in triple, marches and polkas in duple – each gives rise not only to a steady beat but to a regular grouping of beats: 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3 or 1-2, 1-2, 1-2. Messiaen's music abounds in rhythms that defy such regularity. This is not to say that Messiaen's rhythms are free, unpatterned, or incoherent, but rather that, even when patterned, they include irregularities and complications that defy any sense of regular metrical grouping.In The Technique of My Musical Language (1944), a treatise written only a few years after the Quartet was composed, Messiaen credits his study of ancient Greek and Hindu rhythms as stimulating his experiments in unmetered ('ametrical') rhythm. He cites three specific techniques, examples of which abound in the Quartet:. use of added rhythmic values. rhythmic augmentation and diminution.
non-retrogradable rhythms. Scale & ModeLike many composers, Messiaen bases his harmonic and melodic language upon. Consciously or not, composers use scales and modes to generate the pitches of a composition; listeners can hear them as the abstract patterns that underlay a particular melody or harmonic progression. For example, in the principal theme from the last movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, we can hear the C major scale as the source of the melody's pitches and its structural basis.
Although the melody consists of many more than seven pitches, each is a member of the the major scale whose first and most stable degree is C. The numbers 2 and 1 below the scale refer to the size of the interval (in ) between adjacent pitches of the scale. Two semitones make a whole tone.Now listen to a portion of the main theme from the well-known first movement of the same symphony. This theme is based upon a C minor scale, which has a very different sound and character from the major scale built on the same pitch. Notice that some of the wholetones (2) and semitones (1) appear in different locations compared with the C major scale and that the sixth and seventh tones of the scale (A-flat and B-natural) are separated by 3 semitones.
These different patterns of intervals give each type of scale its distinctive tonal quality. The major and minor scales shown above are each modified by the pitch letter-name C, which refers to their first – and, in these scales, most stable – pitch. This is a convenient way of differentiating among various forms of the same scale, such as C major versus B-flat major or C minor versus F-sharp minor. Transposition of scalesWe can build any scale or mode beginning on any pitch and still recognize it as the same type as long as we maintain the pattern of of between successive pitches. This process, known as, preserves the interval content of the scale but changes its pitch content. Thus in the following example the major scales built on C, E, and B-flat consist of the same series of intervals (represented by the arabic numbers below the staff), even though each scale is a distinct collection of pitches – higher or lower as the case may be.
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As you listen to the examples you can hear how the scales appear the same yet different. Messiaen's Modes of Limited TranspositionWhile Messiaen occasionally uses traditional scales like major and minor, he is more interested in a category of scales he calls 'modes of limited transposition.' The term is unique to Messiaen and a bit confusing, since as we've seen any scale can be transposed to begin on any pitch. What Messiaen means by 'limited transposition' is that, depending on the mode, only a limited number of transpositions will actually produce a new collection of pitches while preserving the mode. Certain transpositions will result in the same collection of pitches as the original form.
As we'll see, only a few scales feature this property. Major and minor scales, for instance, do not; every transposition of either of these scales produces a different collection of pitches (having at least one different pitch). Mode 1: the whole-tone scaleLet's take a look, then, at the first of Messiaen's modes of limited transposition, otherwise known as the. A whole-tone scale is a six-note (hexatonic) scale built on successive whole tones (e.g., do-re). In the following example, a whole-tone scale is generated step-by-step beginning with C. If we now consider all of the possible transpositions of the whole-tone scale, we find that they fall into two groups on the basis of pitch content; each of the transpositions in Group 1 contains the same six pitches (ordered differently as a result of the different tranpositions), while each of the transpositions of Group 2 contain the remaining six pitches (likewise in different orderings according to the particular transposition).
(Some pitches have alternative spellings; e.g., A-sharp is the same as B-flat.). Mode 2: the octatonic scaleMessiaen makes extensive use of the octatonic scale throughout his compositional career and particularly in the Quartet. As its name suggests, the octatonic scale consists of eight distinct notes, as opposed to five in the pentatonic scale, six in the whole-tone scale, or seven in both major and minor.
The symmetry of the octatonic scale is readily apparent in its alternation of semitones (1) and wholetones (2) between successive pitches. Whereas the whole-tone scale has two distinct forms, the octatonic scale has three: those at t=0, t=1, and t=2 (Examples 9a-c).
Group 3t=0CC#D#EF#GABbt=1C#DEFGG#A#Bt=2DEbFF#G#ABCt=3D#EF#GABbCC#t=4EFGG#A#BC#Dt=5FF#G#ABCDEbt=6F#GABbCC#D#Et=7GG#A#BC#DEFt=8G#ABCDEbFF#t=9ABbCC#D#EF#Gt=10A#BC#DEFGG#t=11BCDEbFF#G#AAs mentioned above, Messiaen uses the octatonic scale throughout the Quartet and in a variety of ways. In the opening section of the third movement (Example 10), the melody of the A section slowly unfolds the t=4 (Group 2) form of the octatonic scale. Messiaen gives prominence to certain notes and intervals through repetition, duration, register, accent, or melodic patterning: the E in bars 1, 6, 10, and 12; the interval of a tritone (first two notes of bar 1, bar 6, several instances in bar 11); and the many minor thirds (e.g., the last two notes of bar 1). Tritones (6 semitones) and minor thirds (3 semitones) are characteristic intervals of the octatonic scale. Messiaen uses the same form of the octatonic scale at the beginning of the fourth movement (Example 11a).
As in the previous excerpt (and indeed in several movements of the quartet, notably V and VIII) he emphasizes E but here goes a step further by emphasizing the notes of the melody that are members of the E major triad (Example 11b). This is one reason why the opening of the fourth movement sounds so traditional – much like a piece in the key of E major with a few 'wrong notes' tossed in.
Comparative listening to the two melodies (Exx. 10 and 11) provides insight into another of Messiaen's statements about the modes of limited transposition: that they 'are at once in the atmosphere of several tonalities, without polytonality more than one tonality sounding simultaneously, the composer being free to give predominance to one of the tonalities or to leave the tonal impression unsettled.' ( The Technique of my Musical Language, 58; emphasis original).
In the clarinet solo (Example 10) we sense E as a prominent tone but not in any particular key; in the fourth movement melody (Example 11), we hear E strongly in the context of E major. In the opening of the Intermezzo (Example 11a), the single melody played in octaves gives way, in bars 11-14, to a true three-part texture in which the instruments play different melodic lines in counterpoint.
Coinciding with this textural change is a change of modal transposition from t=4 to t=11 of the octatonic scale. This transposition, by the interval of a perfect 5th (7 semitones), and the emphasis on the B major triad (last chord in bars 12 and 14) make this passage sound much like a modulation to the dominant in tonal music — another way in which the fourth movement evokes Messiaen's compositional antecedents. The opening of the seventh movement (Example 12a) offers another example of Messiaen's compositional use of the octatonic scale.
The passage consists of a melody played 'dreamily' in a high register by the cello and accompanied by a fairly static harmonic progression that is activated by a steady rhythm and by leaps between registers; in the example the piano part is reduced to the basic chord progression ( The Technique of my Musical Language, II: 54). The octatonic scale is divided between the two instruments; each phrase of the cello melody (bars 1-3, 4-6, and 7-12) introduces five pitches of the scale (the other notes are repetitions), while the piano reinforces those while also containing the three remaining pitches.Focussing now on the melody alone, notice how each of the three phrases gradually descends and broadens to the last two notes, which span a minor third: A-F# in bar 3, F#-D# in bar 6, and Eb-C in bars 9-12. Now comparing the three statements, notice how they too gradually descend from one to the next – and that they do so in a patterned way. The first two form what is known as a melodic sequence, in which a melody is repeated exactly except that it is transposed to a different pitch level. The interval of tranposition here is none other than the minor third (3 semitones), the most common and characteristic iinterval of the octatonic scale; for example, the Bb in bar 4 that begins the second phrase is a minor 3rd lower than the Db in bar 1 that begins the first, and so on for each pair of corresponding pitches. Although the third phrase does not continue the sequence exactly (rhythms and intervals subtly change), it continues the transpostion by minor third (e.g., it begins and ends a minor 3rd lower than phrase 2).
This choice of this transposition is significant, because it allows Messiaen to preserve the same form of the octatonic scale for the entire twelve bars. But it does so in a way we find interesting, because we hear different subsets of the scale in each of the three phrases. This lends a sense of harmonic unity or stasis to the opening passage as a whole while allowing an easy, mild drifting quality from phrase to phrase – much like we experience in a dream. Mode 3Messiaen's third mode of limited transposition is a nine-note scale that can be generated from a single three-note cell, C-D-Eb (Example 13a). Transposed a major 3rd higher, the cell becomes E-F#-G; yet another major 3rd higher, it is Ab-Bb-Cb(=B).
Mode 3 has four distinct forms (t=0, t=1, t=2, and t=3), of which the remaining transpositions are reorderings of the first four. Although Messiaen rarely uses Mode 3 in its complete form, there is a remarkable passage in the first movement in which the clarinet – for once sounding more like a clarinet than a bird – plays an ascending run consisting of forms of Modes 1, 2, and 3 in succession (Example 13b). BirdsongMessiaen heard in birdsong an intimation of the divine and attempted to represent it in his music, not literally, as he indicates in the following quotation, but imaginatively.' Paul Dukas Messiaen's composition teacher at the Paris Conservatory used to say, 'Listen to the birds. They are great masters.'
I confess not having awaited this advice to admire, analyze, and notate some songs of birds. Through the mixture of their songs, birds make extremely refined jumbles of. Their melodic contours, those of merles especially, surpass the human imagination in fantasy. Since they use untempered intervals smaller than the semitone, and as it is ridiculous servilely to copy nature, we are going to give some examples of melodies of the 'bird' genre which will be transcription, transformation, and interpretation of the volleys and trills of our little servants of immaterial joy.' ( The Technique of my Musical Language, p. 34; translated by John Satterfield.)Here is the first of the examples Messiaen provides, from the third movement clarinet solo, of which he elsewhere writes: 'The birds are the opposite of Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows and joyful songs!' (Preface to the score, p.
Ii; translated by Anthony Pople.). The representation of birdsong also figures prominently in the violin and clarinet parts of the first movement (Example 2), where again it seems to evoke a liminal state between the physical, temporal presence that birds themselves embody and the qualities of transcendence and timelessness to which, as Messiaen suggests, their songs point. What is the effect of the other two instruments in this passage (cello, playing harmonics and piano; not shown in the notated example)? Do they sound related in any way to the birdsong representations?
If not, what is the effect?
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Coupons applied to an order over $35 USD will not affect eligibility for discounted shipping. We reserve the right to discontinue or change the terms of this offer at any time. Ends at 9:59 GMT on 12 September 2019. Born in Avignon in 1908, Messiaen entered the Conservatoire de Paris at the young age of eleven. He earned five First Prizes: counterpoint and fugue, piano accompaniment, organ and improvisation, music history, and composition.
In 1941, Messiaen was named Professor of Harmony at the Conservatoire de Paris and later named Professor of Composition in 1966. In 1969, he received the Calouste Gulbenkian Prize, in 1971 the Erasmus Award and in 1975 the Ernst von Siemens Award. In this same year, Messiaen was also elected as Associate Member of the Royal Academy of Science, Literature and Art of Belgium.
He died in Paris in 1992.Search all Olivier Messiaen.