Unpublished assignment of Messiaen studies.
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pp. 9-16
“Messiaen has described himself as ‘compositeur et rythmicien’, which underlines the dominant importance played by rhythm in his musical language.”[i] It is vital to realize that ‘rhythm’ plays a central role in his music. Of the total nineteen chapter in Messiaen’s Technique de mon Langage Musical, rhythm occupies six chapters.[1]
It seems rather odd that in Western music traditions the time, silence, duration, and rhythmic quality of a sound was not as important as the tone or the pitch or the timbre; since a sound exists in time, and music is an artistic creation in time produced by sound being heard, and sound not being heard, so called ‘silence’[2].
.....It is interesting and necessary to see and understand how Messiaen stated these two elements, and the notion of rhythm.
About rhythm:
Let us not forget that the first, essential element in music is Rhythm, and that Rhythm is first and foremost the change of number and duration. Suppose that there were a single beat in all the universe. One beat; with eternity before it and eternity after it. A before and an after. That is the birth of time. Imagine then, almost immediately, a second beat. Since any beat is prolonged by the silence which follows it, the second beat will be longer than the first. Another number, another duration. That is the birth of Rhythm.[iii]
..... Because “since any beat is prolonged by the silence”[v] indicated there would have to be a heard-sound before silence can be realized, as it was mentioned previously.[3] It can be said that the essence of rhythm is the time and the essence melody is the sound. Furthermore, it is unmistakable to see that the birth of a beat contains two elements – sound and time, which would have to be created together.
On the other hand, technically, the duration of a no-time-limited sound would be forever, just as well as without a second sounded point the duration of the first beat would exist for entire after.
A traditional western listener would rely upon the harmony to a great and unconscious extent to produce the dynamic of the music. “A harmonic system which is static and not dynamic raises acute problems of formal structure in his music. The sense of growth and development which was so important to the structure of the classical symphony is lost.”[vii]
Nonretrogradable Rhythms
Messiaen represented a great interest in nonretrogradable rhythms because the charm of that impossibility produces a sense of theological rainbow, and the charm is “one point will attract our attention at the outset”[viii]. The intangible sense – the aural sense of voluptuously refined pleasures - seems to become the moment he tried to reach in his music “…theological rainbow which the musical language, of which we seek edification and theory, attempts to be.”[ix]
The sense of theological rainbow will attract the listener immediately, using his own words “…he will not have time at the concert to inspect the nontranspositions and the nonretrogradations, and, at that moment, these questions will not interest him further; to be charmed will be his only desire.”[x]. After the initial attraction the listener would be “…in spite of himself he will submit to the strange charm of impossibilities… a certain unity of movement (where beginning and end are confused because identical) in the nonretrogradation, all things which will lead him progressively to that sort of theological rainbow…”[xi]
Ametrical Rhythm[5]
Another great interest was paid to the concept of ‘Ametrical Rhythm’[xii], which would be able to be achieved by several fashions such as adding value, augmenting or diminishing rhythms, and using polyrhythm and rhythmic pedals. Combining those techniques, the sense of the ‘ametrical’ and ‘variety’, would be represented under a ‘precise rhythmic’ pattern. Nevertheless, it would be noticed the composer had full control of the ‘ametrical rhythm’ rather than using the technique of chance or indeterminacy music.
Messiaen gained the inspiration of adding value, and augmenting or diminishing rhythms from various resources such as the study of the Hindu Rhythms, the rhythmic patterns of ancient Greece, the plainchant[xiii], and the birds song, which had the ‘refined jumbles of rhythmic pedals’[xiv]. Especially the merles’ song was described as being able to “surpass the human imagination in fantasy”[xv], which serviced Messiaen’s notion of music just as well: “It is a glistening music we seek, giving to the aural sense voluptuously refined pleasures.”[xvi]
Altogether, by using those techniques, the sense of variety will “instill in us already a marked predilection for the rhythms of prime numbers.”[xvii] It is also important to notice that precise rhythmic rules are required for ‘ametrical’ music. “Going further, we shall replace the notions of ‘measure’ and ‘beat’ by the feeling of a short value and its free multiplications, which will lead us toward a music more or less ‘ametrical,’ necessitating precise rhythmic rules.”[xviii]
Rhythmic Notations
.....the use of the bar-line was for performers’ convenience at the beginning of the development of notation. “Near the end of the sixteenth century, when publishers were beginning to print compositions in score form, barlines were used as a matter of convenience in coordinating the various parts.”[xix] After centuries, “what begins by being a support ends as a straitjacket”[xx] presented a precise expression of what composers felt about the tyranny of the barline[xxi], because of the regularities and the excessive standardization rhythm pattern was hostile to ametrical music.
Messiaen recognized the ideal fashion of notating music as that which “consists of writing the exact values, without measure or beat, while saving the use of the bar-line only to indicate periods and to make an end to the effect of accidentals (sharps, Flats, etc.).”[xxii]. It was the most preferred because of its honorable reflection of the composers’ thought. “This notation is evidently the best for the composer, since it is the exact expression of his musical conception.”[xxiii] Nonetheless, it was recommended for solo piece or small chamber group, because “in the orchestra, things are complicated”, without a regular pattern, it would be difficult to organize such a large number of performers.
[1] There were three chapters were about melody.
[2] This concept would be explained in the later context.
[3] This notion of beat is rather similar to Chinese’s notion of sound, as the word sound ‘聲’ contains two parts, and using the word, has to clarify whether it is heard ‘有聲’ or not ‘無聲’, which is the silence. Moreover, similar notion and explanation could be found in John Cage’s philosophy. “Cage also overturned the traditional distinction between sound and silence. He pointed out that in a normal environment there was no such thing as total silence. What we thought of as silence was really a medley of ransom sounds floating all around us. Hence the distinction between sound and silence was relative rather than absolute: music consisted of sounds that were intended, whereas silence consisted of sound that were unintended.”
Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: W. W. Norton., 1979), p. 501.
[4] In Messiaen’ phrase was “These modes realized in the vertical direction (transposition) what nonretrogradable rhythms realize in the horizontal direction (retrogradation).
[5] As it said in the translator’s note: “The phrase ‘ametrical music’ is here used to mean a music with free, but precise, rhythmic patterns…”
[i] André Boucourechliev, “Messiaen, Olivier” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), XII, p. 205.
[ii] William E. Tomson, “Sound, Musical,” The New Encyclopædia Britannica, 15th ed. Warren E. Preece (London: Encyclopædia Britannica, 1978), XVII, pp. 34-39.
[iii] Olivier Messiaen, “Lecture given at the ‘Conférence de Bruxelles’,” 1958, Quoted in Robert S. Johnson, Messiaen, (London: J. M. Dent, 1989), p. 32.
[iv] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Alphones Leduc et Cie, 1944), p. 13.
[v] Olivier Messiaen, “Lecture given at the ‘Conférence de Bruxelles’,” 1958, Quoted in Robert S. Johnson, Messiaen, (London: J. M. Dent, 1989), p. 32.
[vi] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 21.
[vii] Robert S. Johnson, Messiaen, (London: J. M. Dent, 1989), p. 19.
[viii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 13.
[ix] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 21.
[x] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 21.
[xi] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 21.
[xii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 14.
[xiii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 14.
[xiv] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 34.
[xv] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 34.
[xvi] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 13.
[xvii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 14.
[xviii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 14.
[xix] K. Marie Stolba, The Development of Western Music: A History, 2nd ed. (Iowa: WCB. Brown, 1994), p. 244.
[xx] Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 1979), p. 31.
[xxi] Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 1979), p. 31.
[xxii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 28.
[xxiii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 28.
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