Unpublished assignment of Messiaen studies.
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pp. 16-19
.....“Let use always work melodically; rhythm remains pliant and gives precedence to melodic development, the harmony chosen being the ‘true,’ that is to say, wanted by the melody and the outcome of it.”[i]
..... for one, who has an ear as acute Messiaen did, a sound itself contains more than just one single pitch.[1] It was a ‘chord of nature’[ii], because a sound would be produced by vibrations.
The pitch of a tone – by which we mean its location in the musical scale in relation to high or low – is determined by the rate of vibration. … What we hear as the single tone is really the combination of the fundamental tone and its overtones, … Although we may not be conscious of the partials, they play a decisive part in our listening…[iii]
Therefore, it is doubtful and arguable whether monophonic or single-voice melody had no harmonic background. A melody, actually contains three elements, which are the rhythm consisting of the duration, the single line voice, and the harmonic background suggested by the overtones of the foundational note.
Messiaen himself viewed the element single line voice, ‘melody’ in two different dimensions, which were the ‘intervals’, and the ‘melodic contours’. .....
Intervals
There were a few intervals Messiaen was especially interested in, the augmented fourth, and added sixth, and the chromatic formulas[iv].
What Messiaen declaimed in his Technique de mon Langage Musical about the augmented fourth was “In the resonance of a low C, a very fine ear perceives an F-sharp. Therefore, we are authorised to treat this F-sharp as an added note in the perfect chord, already provided with an added sixth.”[v] For a foundational note such as a low C, the F-sharp, which was the eleventh partial, and the A was actually the thirteenth. It was clear that Messiaen’s melodically language is based on the twelve notes chromatic system. As it was claimed on charter XVI in his Technique de mon Langage Musical: “Based on our present chromatic system, a tempered system of twelve sounds, these modes are formed of several symmetrical groups…”[vi], rather than the third tone, or quarter tone systems. Even though, he also claimed that the microtone system was for ‘the musicians of the future’.
In the tempered system in quarter-tones, extolled by Haba and Wischnegradsky, there exists a corresponding series (unfortunately, I cannot busy myself here with it, no more than with the other particularities of quarter-tone music, no more than with the relations between tempered and untempered music, all questions which will impassion the musicians of the future, but passing the boundaries of this work).[vii]
It indicated and reckoned that there would be a new horizontal of the future composers with their musical language.
The great interests Messiaen had with the augmented fourth was refreshing and fascinating. It is uncertain whether Messiaen himself was aware that the augmented fourth also had the charm of impossibilities, nonetheless, the augmented fourth is an interval which can not be inverted. Also, the was impossibility would be realised in ‘the vertical direction’[2], and the charm of impossibilities, would attract listener’s attention at the outset as Messiaen suffused in the first Chapter in his Technique de mon Langage Musical[viii]. Furthermore, the ambiguity, the strange charm of impossibility would “lead him progressively to that sort of theological rainbow”[ix], which was the musical language Messiaen was seeking.
Melodic Contours
“Keeping our choice of intervals thoroughly in mind, let us look now at some of Messiaen’s beloved melodic contours and endeavour to draw the essence of them.”[x] .....
The vocalised feature is not surprising, since he drew his melodic language mostly from plainchant, folk songs[xi] (French and Russian), and bird song[xii]. As for the repeating notes, they were inspired by the Hindu Ragas. As Messiaen declared, “[Hindu music] abounds in curious, exquisite, unexpected melodic contours which the native improvisers repeat and vary following the rules of the raga.”[xiii]. This characteristic, especially, was refreshing to western music, just as Messiaen said, it was ‘curious’, ‘exquisite’, and ‘unexpected’.
[1] A student at a musical aural class might have this experience: when the teacher played a chord (especially, place them in distance) which consists of three notes, who heard more than five. For instance, if the teacher played a C major chord, who might heard a chord consists of C, E, G, B, and D. It is because that the one’s ears heard also the second overtones of the fundamental pitch.
[2] Depends on the notion mentioned previously: Messiaen’s intangible musical world was actually built up vertically with sound and horizontally with time.
[i] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 31.
[ii] Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 1979), p. 620.
[iii] Joseph Machlis, Introduction to Contemporary Music, 2nd ed. (New York: Norton, 1979), p. 621.
[iv] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 31.
[v] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 47.
[vi] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 58.
[vii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), pp. 58-59.
[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. 31.
[xi] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), pp. 32-33.
[xii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 34.
[xiii] Olivier Messiaen, Technique de mon Langage Musical, trans. John Stterfield (Paris: Leduc, 1944), p. 33.
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