Olivier Messiaen

An analysis of the life of Olivier Messiaen, in particular reference to his composition, the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the end of Time), reveals that his aesthetics of music is conceptual to his unshakable devotion to the Catholic faith. Through his theologically aesthetic paradigm, the Divine is asserted as the centripetal source and purpose of his musical language. His theological paradigm is evidently wrought through his aesthetics of sound-color, resonance, rhythm, modes of limited transposition, and of his ornithology. In an effort to expound on these facets, Messiaen’s theologically aesthetic paradigm will be explored by a contextual analysis of his life, the context of the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, and the implications drawn subsequently.

This short work will look at some possibilities for using Arnold Schoenberg’s symmetrical set from his Serenade Op. 24 Mvmt. 5 as pitch material in Jazz/Fusion improvisation.

I will examine some harmonic and melodic uses of the set’s two hexachords using an accepted Jazz Chord/Scale Relationship pedagogical methodology. My approach will look at these pitch groups as unordered sets or collections only, although their use as ordered sets is of course certainly possible. As many Jazz and Fusion Improvisers are familiar with Nicholas Slonimsky’s Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns , I will reference this text in relation to the sets and subsets present in this survey for ease in cross referencing.

Die Naturerfahrung, die sich für Messiaen im Gesang der Vögel artikuliert, ermöglicht ihm nicht nur ein Abstrahieren von dem in seinen Augen fehlerbehafteten menschlichen Kunstschaffen und den Auswüchsen der modernen Zivilisation, sondern dient ihm auch als unerschöpfliche Quelle für die eigene Schaffenskraft. Angesichts dieser Tatsache erstaunt es nicht, wenn der Komponist 1958 anlässlich seines 'Catalogue d'oiseaux' von einer 'inspiration retrouvée parles chants d'oiseaux', einer 'wiedergefundenen Inspiration durch die Vogelgesänge' gesprochen und dadurch der Natur Priorität vor anderen Inspirationsquellen eingeräumt hat. Der Beitrag versucht - damit eine isolierte Facette der Musik hervorhebend - einige Aspekte dieses Zusammenhangs anhand historischer Parallelen (etwa bei Gustav Mahler und Richard Strauss) näher zu beleuchten und fragt danach, welche Motivation sich hinter Messiaens kompositorischem Umgang mit Vogelgesängen verbirgt.

L'articolo analizza il ruolo della mimesi nell'opera del compositore Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) così come discusse nel dibattito musicologico. Dopo aver collocato l'istanza mimetica nel complesso della poetica del compositore e si evidenzia la complessa rete interdisciplinare che accoglie l'imitazione del canto avicolo. Vengono affrontate le principali posizioni teoriche dagli anni Sessanta ad oggi con particolare riguardo al Double Realism proposto da Robert Fallon.

This short paper will demonstrate how derived sets created from trichordal combinations and some common transformational techniques when applied to Schoenberg's Op. 24 Movement 5 Tanzscene set creates all six all-combinatorial hexachords and two symmetrical hexachords related by the retrograde inversion function that also form the complete aggregate at interval class (ic) 6 or a tritone interval.

In this paper I will investigate the aesthetics of electronic sound synthesis, materiality and the contemporary sublime in an analysis and discussion of interrelated phenomenological, philosophical and cultural considerations through chosen sound and music examples. I argue that the aesthetic experience of sonic timbres that seem unearthly to us resembles that of a transcendental sublime in the uncanny experience of the synthesis of both known and unknown sounds. Both experimental music and " switched-on " reinterpretations are addressed through explorations of sound in time, space and technology and I discuss if we as listeners are able to differentiate materiality from its superficial cognates when challenged by sonic doppelgängers. Concepts of sonorous perception are taken into account from a phenomenological point-of-reference with the purpose of discussing a Varèsian liberation of sound synthesis, arguing the transcendence of the boundaries in the physical world being possible through the aesthetics surrounding an unfathomable technological sublime in the art and infinite sea of possibilities of synthesizing electricity.

The critical influence of Debussy’s music on Messiaen’s artistic development is widely acknowledged, but the more specific question as to how it helped shape Messiaen’s sound-world has not been addressed in any depth. Volume VI of Messiaen’s Traité de rythme, de couleur et d’ornithologie (2001), which compiles his analyses of Debussy’s music, is one of the best sources for such an investigation. Taking a cue from the notion of a ‘miroir fluide’, which was cited by Messiaen from Cyrano de Bergerac (1620–55) in Traité VI, this essay explores how the latter may be read metaphorically along the same line. Since Messiaen was less wary about how his discourse might affect others’ perception of him as a composer in Traité I, the latter throws as much light on Debussy’s as on his own music.

In volume III of his posthumously published Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Messiaen confessed that his turn to dodecaphony in Livre d’orgue had been a gesture of concession.  In contrast to this sophisticated organ cycle, which is manifestly experimental in style, Catalogue d’oiseaux, the next keyboard work, is supposed to be about birdsong and nature rather than reflecting the avant-garde aesthetics of the time.  That it shares with Livre d’orgue the same use of a wealth of 12-note writing thus comes as something of a surprise, and it prompts us to ask if birdsongs are used at least in part as pretexts for 12-note self-indulgence.  In Catalogue d’oiseaux block-chord series or, alternatively, note series that complete the 12-note space are fabricated with recourse to a myriad of permutations (‘interversions’ in Messiaen’s terminology) generated by one specific symmetrical permutation scheme.  They are stationed at strategic points of this gigantic birdsong cycle and Messiaen often encourages us to relate them to such divergent imagery as ragged rock formations, fog, birds in flight or flowing streams.
A block-chord series that is notable for its pursuit of 12-note completion fills ‘chaos de blocs écroulés du clapier Saint Christophe’ in Catalogue d’oiseaux I.  There are altogether 54 contiguous 12-note segments, the pitch sequences of which are strictly dictated by interversions derivable from an overriding permutation scheme.  Towards the end of Catalogue d’oiseaux XIII, which comes last in the piano cycle, a slow and extended series of block chords takes shape to depict  ‘la nuit et le brouillard se répandent peu à peu’.  As in the previous case, the block chords are tied up with Messiaen’s obsession for 12-note completion, the realization of which is left to the interversions.  Elsewhere in the piano cycle we also come across interversions that spin out lines rather than chords to go along with the imagery of birds in flight and flowing water.
The sheer extent of the 12-tone writing to which this symmetrical permutation scheme can be fitted like a glove leaves us with hardly any doubt as to its validity even though it is not documented in any existing sources.  While Messiaen takes great care to delineate the symmetrical permutation scheme of Chronochromie, he chooses to remain reticent about the scheme of Catalogue d’oiseaux and also about his use of interversions as a resource of 12-note writings in this piano cycle.  Surely his choice to disclose the symmetrical permutation of 32 chromatic durations rather than that of 12 chromatic notes reflects a careful weighing up of how the disclosed details might be received by interested parties.  A discussion of the symmetrical permutation scheme that governs the reshuffling of 12 pitch-classes in Catalogue d’oiseaux, which for many epitomizes Messiaen’s gestural escape in the heyday of serialism, would probably fail to secure the memorable impact effected by his explication of the more sophisticated reshuffling of such abstraction as time in Chronochromie.

The subject of time has been one of the primary topics in natural philosophy for more than 2,500 years, and continues to be one of the most difficult to define and comprehend. Olivier Messiaen dedicated the first chapter of Tome I of his “Traité de Rythme, de Couleur et d’Ornithologie” exclusively to a consideration of various aspects of time. This essay is an examination of what he wrote in that chapter. It considers how his philosophy of time relates to his music, and pays special attention to those comments that have an explicit reference to rhythm or to his own music. It seeks to answer some of the fundamental questions posed by the
Traité in general and this chapter in particular.

Tese de doutorado, publicada originalmente pela Educ (PUCSP), 1998 (esgotado). Leitura do conceito de diferença de Gilles Deleuze e sua pertinência à escuta musical.  O livro traz analises de obras de Messiaen, Brian Ferneyhough; uma discussão sobre a noção de objeto em Pierre Schaeffer e o necessário ultrapassamento da fenomenologia da escuta; e uma abordagem histórica contrapondo a repetição conceitual da música serial e a diferenciação material presente no minimalismo.

Bu araştırma, XIX. Yüzyıl ortalarından itibaren besteciler tarafından yeniden kullanılmaya başlanan ses dizileri “mod”ların ve oluşturdukları modal armoni dilinin, neo-modal akım içerisindeki kullanımlarının incelenmesi amacıyla yapılmıştır.
Çalışma kapsamında, yerli ve yabancı tezlerden, kitaplardan, müzikal analizlerden, makalelerden, çeşitli bestecilerin eserlerinin notalarından, müzik sözlükleri ve müzik ansiklopedilerinden yararlanılmış, kaynaklar doğrultusunda araştırmalar yapılmıştır.
Toplanan bilgilerin ışığında neo-modal akımdaki armoni anlayışında standardizasyonun varlığı araştırılmış ancak çalışmanın sonucunda neo-modal akım etkisindeki bestecilerin özgün bir armoni anlayışı içinde oldukları tespit edilmiştir.

This study aims at analyzing the usage of “modes”, which are series of sounds that regained their popularity among composers around the middle of the 19th century, and their modal harmonic language within the neo-modal movement.
The research data were gathered from several studies written in Turkish and foreign languages, and music encyclopedias, as well as from important books, articles, musical analysis, scores, and other resources related with the subject matter.
The quest for a standardization of harmonic understanding in the neo-modal movement showed that the composers of the neo-modal movement had a totally authentic harmonic understanding instead.

The “Quatuor pour la fin du Temps” [ Quartet for the end of Time] by Olivier Messiaen and “Four Quartets” by T. S. Eliot are two significant works of art that were both published in their final form during the Second World War. The authors worked without any identifiable personal knowledge of the other although it is likely that later in their lives they were familiar with each other's work. It is all the more extraordinary then that a French Catholic musician and an Anglican American/English poet would deal with some strikingly similar subject matter, especially since neither were writing typical war works. This essay sketches the composition and publication of both works and analyses certain primary themes that concern the nature of the human experience of music as a means of expression and as a means of negotiating time. After a brief introduction, I comment on three common themes: time and technique, the 'unattended moment' and the 'still point of the turning world.’

Most people do not associate sacred music with openness. Often, people think it to be something that’s heard in churches, is focused exclusively on religious subject matter, and relies heavily on traditional harmonies and musical styles. While that certainly is the case for many composers of sacred music, I argue that there is one composer whose music can be held as a model for openness within sacred music. That is the French composer Olivier Messiaen. His music is open in two ways: first, in his use of diverse musical techniques, many of which are inspired by different cultures, time periods, and styles. Moreover, as a composer of sacred music, he is uniquely open to using techniques and styles drawn from a secular, modern world. The second openness of Messiaen’s music is a more philosophical one: an openness to the transcendent, to that which is beyond our finite beings. Most can agree that music – sacred or secular – has the power to bring its listener beyond himself in a moment of sublimity. If the listener is a believer, he may describe that as an encounter with the divine, with God himself. In this paper, I argue that Messiaen’s style of colored music is particularly effective in bringing listeners to such an encounter because of its synthesis of a unique musical language within a framework of faith. Messiaen’s music is different from that of his contemporaries in its refusal to mourn, rather, it dazzles the listener with flashes of brilliance.

Interlacing material from previously unknown Russian archives, original recordings, photographs, and essays, Gregory Haimovsky: A Pianist's Odyssey to Freedom is the story of an extraordinary Russian concert pianist who, fighting the cultural prohibitions of the USSR, eventually succeeded in performing and recording major works by the prominent French composer Olivier Messiaen. At the lowest point of his life, expelled from Moscow and exiled to a small provincial city, Haimovsky discovered Messiaen's oeuvre uncatalogued and hidden in the library of the Union of Soviet Composers. Haimovsky's intense studies and Soviet premieres of these banned compositions healed and liberated his mind, spirit, and artistic imagination. Messiaen's music also deepened and fueled Haimovsky's fierce personal and musical opposition to Soviet political and cultural doctrines. Told partly in Haimovsky's own words and supplemented by interviews with several performers who worked with him between 1960 and 1972 as well as stories from his correspondence with major Russian artists, writers, and musicians of the time, this narrative sheds new light on relationships between twentieth-century Russian music, Soviet politics, and the culture wars that raged during and after Stalin's barbaric rule.

Conlon Nancarrow’s music has been the subject of analysis by some of the most astute composers and academics in modern music. His music and its accompanying scholarly literature are a potentially rich source of material for improvisation. As Nancarrow was influenced by expert jazz improvisers with virtuoso technique such as Art Tatum when constructing this music, this is a logical outcome.

Nancarrow’s work had made a substantial impact on the output of electric guitar virtuosos such as Frank Zappa and Shawn Lane, as the sheer speed of the linear material along with the dense polyrhythmic fabric present in the music had pushed these influential players to increase their technical capabilities of the instrument to a new much higher level. This in turn has had substantial impact on current electric guitar practice.

The video performance of an electric guitar piece based on Nancarrow’s Third Study for Player Piano (Boogie Woogie Suite) is performed on electric guitar improvisation based on melodic, intervallic, and rhythmic material within the piece against two tracks of pre-recorded electric guitars also performed by me following the harmonic structure of the piece and utilizing the polyrhythmic devices contained within the original music. The performance is roughly the same length as the original piece (3’ 22”), and demonstrates Nancarrow’s rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic concepts (including what he himself called “licks”) within an improvisational format.

Perpetuum Mobile

This piece was written using a nine-tone (Nonatonic) scale  (C#, D#, E#, G, A#, C, D, E, F#) constructed by 20th Century Jazz Theorist and Pedagogue Dennis Sandole (teacher of John Coltrane, James Moody, Jim Hall, Pat Martino amongst many others). My use of pitch material of a jazz origin such as Sandole’s was purposeful in order to conceptually align this work with Nancarrow’s clear jazz influences in his “Boogie Woogie Suite”.  This particular scale allows for liberal use of a trichord that includes a minor third and major third which features prominently in Nancarrow’s “Suite”.

I constructed this piece using octave (registral) displacement techniques combined with a rhythmic texture of sixteenth note rhythms similar to the constant “left hand” ostinato motion of Nancarrow’s Study#3. The octave displacement of lines creates a two part texture of predominately staccato attacks and the use of changing time signatures and registers in a variety of rhythmic note groupings was meant to give the illusion of two separate rhythmically independent parts unified by one basic scalar tonality. The few cascading arpeggio sections that feature liberal use of sustain pedal were inspired by Nancarrow studies 5, 27, 37, and 45c.

The general absence of harmonic writing places the emphasis on the rhythmic and contrapuntal elements of the music and the faux “player piano” sound is an obvious nod to Nancarrow and seems to work with this essentially staccato and rhythmic nature of the piece.

I wrote this composition not to imitate Nancarrow’s work directly, but to allow his overall musical approach to influence my own musical language.

Apresentamos uma análise musical de Choros n. 7 (1924) de Heitor Villa-Lobos, que busca compreender aspectos de sua linguagem composicional através do levantamento bibliográfico sobre a produção musical do compositor e o material empregado na música do século XX. Ressaltamos que os elementos estruturantes apresentados, somados a aspectos relacionados a orquestração, timbre, rítmica, dinâmica, articulação, através da interação e da recorrência, proporcionaram uma unidade à obra, mesmo criando diferentes texturas e ambientes sonoros.

Resumo: Neste artigo, são comentadas as reconcepções das teorias do tempo realizadas por Messiaen e contextualizadas no amplo repertório de teorias criadas no século XX. Na argumentação, são enfatizados processos utilizados frequentemente pelo compositor como o empréstimo e a desleitura de materiais composicionais constantes em uma miríade de repertórios ocidentais e orientais, de diferentes períodos históricos. Também são apresentados excertos de suas composições, acompanhados de suas considerações e as de outros estudiosos de sua obra, para relacionar sua produção teórica à sua composição musical. São apontadas ferramentas que o compositor utilizou para transformar material que colheu e emprestou de outras obras. Resulta deste estudo um panorama dos processos desenvolvidos por Messiaen, cujo destaque é a utilização da rítmica aditiva em detrimento da divisível. As fontes sonoras que geram sua música amétrica são: descrição da história energética de eventos naturais; cantos de pássaros; cores rítmicas concebidas a partir de narrativas bíblicas; ritmos das novas linguagens (atonalismo, serialismo). Como aprofundamento são englobadas três fontes geralmente tratadas como elementos separados: ritmos de prosódias literomusicais antigas (pés, neumas, dêçi-tâlas).

Abstract: In this paper, we comment the reconceptions of Messiaen's theories of time and contextualize them in the broad repertoire of theories created in the twentieth-century. In the argumentation, emphasis is placed on processes often used by the composer, such as borrowing and misreading compositional materials in a myriad of Western and Eastern repertoires from different historical periods. Also included are extracts from his compositions, accompanied by his considerations and those of other scholars of his work, to relate his theoretical production to his musical composition. Are mentioned tools that the composer used to transform material that he collected and borrowed from other works. This study shows an overview of the processes developed by Messiaen, whose emphasis is the use of the additive rhythm to the detriment of the divisible. The sound sources that generate his ametric music are: description of the energetic history of natural events; bird songs; rhythmic colors conceived from biblical narratives; rhythms of the new languages (atonalism, serialism). In order to deepen our studies, we included three sources generally treated as separate elements: rhythms of ancient literary-musical prosodies (feet, neumas, dêçi-tâlas).

Keywords: Olivier Messiaen. Rhythm's Theories in Twentieth-century. Ametric Music. Creative processes.

This is a supplement video to my latest paper "Schoenberg Meets Slonimsky: The Symmetrical Twelve-Tone Set from Arnold Schoenberg’s Serenade Op. 24 Mvmt. 5 ‘Tanzscene’ and Some Considerations for Jazz/Fusion Improvisation". I demonstrate my ideas on the Guitar.

This practical video paper deals with the practical, technical, and theoretical aspects of rotation and transposition to generate and apply improvisational patterns and phrases derived from Schoenberg's set and Nicolas Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns.

In this session I cover the first hexachord in Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone set from his Op. 24 Serenade Mvmt. 5 which is Slonimsky's Pattern No. 6 and play through/demonstrate many Altered Dominant 7th and Diminished Patterns that can be generated from this hexachord as mentioned in my paper.

Those who follow the work of Jazz and Fusion Guitarists such as Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Pat Martino, and are interested in the work of John Coltrane, Michael Brecker, Yusef Lateef,  and others in Modern Jazz might find this practical video paper of interest.

A phenomenological method of comics analysis can be useful when we need to uncover the structural features of the comics experience itself. One fruitful application would be in the study of irregular intra-panel rhythms, where the temporalized divisions are not visibly indicated but rather are only experienced. By means of Gilles Deleuze's notion of rhythmic repetition and his elaboration of it through Olivier Messiaen's theory of 'kinetic' rhythm, we will formulate a conception of visual rhythm as being based on metrical irregularity. We further explicate this concept of irregular rhythm by drawing upon the notion of 'ragged time' in the early jazz musical form, ragtime. We finally test its usefulness by examining how the 'jazzy' rhythms of Cubist-styled panels by Art Spiegelman and Mary Fleener generate an experience of ragged time.

O panorama da teoria do ritmo no século XX, registrado por Justin London, é utilizado nesta comunicação como um meio de compreender a destacada posição de Olivier Messiaen neste campo do conhecimento. Este estudo justifica-se por conectar seus conceitos aos de outros teóricos, ampliando o entendimento de seus processos criativos. Conclui-se que, apesar da originalidade de sua linguagem musical, seu pensamento sempre esteve firmemente ancorado na tradição e nos conhecimentos adquiridos no Conservatório de Paris.
The panorama of the theory of rhythm in the Twentieth Century, registered by Justin London, is used in this paper as a means of understanding the prominent position of Olivier Messiaen in this field of knowledge. This study is justified by connecting his concepts to those of other theorists, expanding the understanding of his creative processes. We conclude that, despite the originality of his musical language, his way of thinking has always been firmly rooted in the tradition and knowledge acquired at the Paris Conservatoire.

O “Coral da Montanha Sagrada” é o sétimo movimento da Transfiguração de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, de Olivier Messiaen. A partir da análise dessa peça, o presente artigo aborda a utilização do som-cor como uma ferramenta composicional que relaciona a cor de um complexo sonoro à sua densidade e luminosidade. Além disso, demonstrar-se-á uma segunda ferramenta composicional utilizada que é o acréscimo gradativo de acordes diversos através do
prolongamento e/ou substituição dos complexos sonoros da primeira frase musical nas demais frases do coral.

André Jolivet (1905-1974) has been often described as a 'humanist musician'. What did his humanism consist of and which were its relationships with the historical and social background and with the intellectual and artistic milieu? How did it influence his activity and his musical language? Moreover, was it an isolated phenomenon or a part of a broader movement in thought?
Starting from these questions, this book (the first on Jolivet in Italian) focuses both on the composer and on the contemporary French expressions of humanism, in music and in different cultural fields. Based on a wide number of sources – including the documents and the manuscripts kept in the family archives and in Parisian libraries – and on the analysis of some significant compositions, this book shows that humanism was a deep inner need that directed all of Jolivet's way of composing and his teaching (he was also the founder of a “Centre Français d’Humanisme Musical”). At the same time, musical humanism emerges from this study as a widespread orientation with specific features, shared by most French composers at that time.
* * *
André Jolivet (1905-1974), compositore tra i più significativi del Novecento francese, è stato spesso definito un ‘musicista umanista’. In che cosa consisteva il suo umanesimo, che connessioni aveva con la situazione sociale e storica e con gli ambienti intellettuali e artistici, in che modo ne influenzò l’attività e il linguaggio? Inoltre, si trattava di un fenomeno isolato o era parte di un più ampio movimento di pensiero? A partire da questi interrogativi, il volume intende offrire un contributo originale su Jolivet, il primo in lingua italiana, basandosi su un gran numero di fonti, tra cui i documenti conservati nell’archivio familiare e nelle biblioteche parigine. L’indagine sulla figura e sull’opera di Jolivet, sostanziata dall’esame di alcune partiture di particolare interesse, si coniuga quindi con quella generale sulle manifestazioni umaniste espresse nei diversi ambiti culturali. Il sentire umanista si rivela, in definitiva, un’esigenza interiore che guida l’intero percorso creativo di Jolivet e la sua attività didattica, concretizzatasi, quest’ultima, nell’istituzione di un Centre Français d’Humanisme Musical. Allo stesso tempo, l’umanesimo musicale emerge da questo studio come un orientamento diffuso, con caratteristiche definite, condiviso da larga parte dei compositori francesi.

La diversité de la nature et des réalisations humaines est devenue une valeur incontestable des sciences naturelles, humaines et sociales. La diversité de la planète fascine. Elle nous invite aussi à repenser une éthique de la diversité, suite à l’accroissement des menaces sur la biodiversité, à l’uniformisation de la production des biens culturels et à l’hostilité à l’égard de celui qui est perçu comme «différent» de la part d’un «nous» majoritaire qui se considère comme homogène.
Cette éthique de la diversité ne vise pas à «préserver» la diversité, mais à la construire, la produire, la réinventer de manière permanente et créative. Ainsi, la diversité n’est pas comprise comme la différence par rapport à un élément commun. Elle relève de la multiplicité et de la variété naturelle ou humaine, dans laquelle nous vivons en rapport avec tous et avec tout. En somme, il s’agit de la responsabilité qui nous incombe de nous désidentifier, de nous différencier, de nous diversifier nous-mêmes, tout en prenant conscience, au sein de ce processus, de notre relation indissoluble avec tous les autres êtres naturels et humains.
Cet ouvrage international réunit des auteurs issus de diverses disciplines, comme la philosophie, la musicologie, la psychologie,
les sciences politiques, le droit, la biologie, la physique, la chimie et les nanosciences. Nourri des idées d’Apel, de Bourdieu, de Cassirer, de Darwin, de Deleuze, de Dworkin, de Foucault, de Freud, d’A. von Humboldt, de W. von Humboldt, d’Habermas, de Herder, d’Husserl, de Jonas, de Kandinsky, de Kant, de Levinas, de Lévi-Strauss, de Luhmann, de Marcuse, de Messiaen, de Musil, de Rawls et de Tönnies, cet ouvrage développe une éthique de la diversité dans le champ socio-politique, dans celui des sciences et des arts (et plus précisément dans les domaines des langues, de la littérature, de la musique, de la philosophie et du langage scientifique) et dans celui de la nature.

Resumo: A peça La Fauvette des Jardins (1972) faz parte de uma busca formal do compositor francês Olivier Messiaen na obtenção de uma estrutura orgânica, um organismo vivo capaz de seguir o desenrolar das horas do dia e da noite. Para tanto, Messiaen utiliza Temas simbólicos que tornam sensíveis sonoramente ações ou elementos abstratos da Natureza e Temas imitativos de cantos de pássaros. Agenciados em justaposição, tais Temas ambientam as partes do dia, caracterizando-as. Na análise da peça, percebeu-se também a utilização de técnicas composicionais tais como os complexos sonoros, os modos de transposições limitadas, a métrica irregular e os personagens rítmicos.

Resumo: Neste texto comparamos sonogramas dos cantos do Bruant jaune que finalizam as Meditações II, V, VIII, e IX da obra Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité de Olivier Messiaen, com o objetivo de localizar elementos não explicitados pela grafia tradicional. Para tanto, utilizamos: o Acousmographe, a partitura e as gravações realizadas por Daniel Schlee ao órgão Cavaillé-Coll da Église de la Sainte Trinité (Paris) e por Jennifer Bate aos Grandes Orgues da Cathédrale Saint Pierre (Beauvais). Partimos da análise do compositor disponibilizada na partitura, complementando-a, principalmente, com informações registradas no Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie e na entrevista concedida a Claude Samuel. Foram encontradas diferenças de cor e brilho dos registros dos órgãos, do acionamento das teclas e da acústica de salas, entre outros. Esta pesquisa contribui para a compreensão do potencial de variação tímbrica existente entre diferentes órgãos e para o pensamento composicional por sonoridades.
Palavras-chave: Olivier Messiaen. Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité. Sonologia. Análise comparativa. Acousmographe.
Title: Timbre Variation in Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité by Olivier Messiaen
Abstract: In this paper we compare sonograms of the song of the yellowhammer [a small bird native to Europe and Asia] that conclude Meditations II, V, VII, and IX of the work Meditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité [Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity] by Olivier Messiaen with the purpose of locating elements not explained by traditional notation. To this end we use: the Acousmographe, the score and recordings by Daniel Schlee at the Cavaillé-Coll organ of Église de la Sainte Trinité (Paris) and by Jennifer Bate at the Grandes Orgues of the Cathédrale Saint Pierre (Beauvais). We begin with the composer’s analysis included as part of the score, complementing it, mainly, with information reported in the Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie and an interview with Claude Samuel. Differences were found in the color and brightness of the organ stops, key actions and room acoustics, et al. This research contributes to understanding the potential for timbral variation between different organs and thoughts on sonority composition.
Keywords: Olivier Messiaen. Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité. Sonology. Comparative Analysis. Acousmographe.