INVISIBLE ISLANDS, FLYING LOVERS, and MESSIAEN's MUSIC of LOVE and DEATH: SURREALIST JUXTAPOSITIONS in the TRISTAN TRILOGY Su

INVISIBLE ISLANDS, FLYING LOVERS, AND MESSIAEN’S MUSIC OF LOVE AND

DEATH: SURREALIST JUXTAPOSITIONS IN THE TRISTAN TRILOGY

Submitted by

Jennifer Fischer

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for

Introduction to Graduate Study in Music, MUS 700

Missouri State University

December 6, 2010

Invisible Islands, Flying Lovers, and Messiaen’s Music of Love and Death: Surrealist Juxtapositions in the Tristan Trilogy

A great buzz of controversy known as “Le Cas Messiaen” flew about France in critical assessments of Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jésus (1945). Spiteful critics either saw Messiaen’s application of his unconventional musical language to religious subjects as a sacrilege, or they despised the application of religious subjects to his unique compositional technique. One critic writes of the rhythmic aspects of Vingt Regards as compared to architecture, “While this would be completely unsuitable for a church, it would work very effectively as the set for a Surrealist ballet.”1 Another critic defends Messiaen: “Everything which an Impressionist sensuality uses to express earthly delights, Olivier Messiaen devotes to the praise of the divine. …A music critic hesitates to comment on the spiritual content of the message, or on the value of a system which is very much our composer’s own.”2 These critiques, regardless of their nature, point out important characteristics that would soon be found in

Messiaen’s Harawi (1945), Turangalîla Symphonie (1948), and Cinq Rechants (1948).

These three works constitute Messiaen’s so-called “Tristan Trilogy.” Surrealist portrayal of the Tristan and Isolde legend comprises the predominant characteristic uniting the works of the trilogy. Within the trilogy, Messiaen mixes several other artistic influences spanning the range of a Renaissance painting by Hieronymus Bosch, Expressionist paintings by Marc Chagall and

Wassily Kandinsky, and Andean cultural artifacts. Messiaen’s devout Catholic faith deeply affects the trilogy despite its overtly secular nature. This influence is at great odds with the nature of the Surrealist movement and makes Messiaen’s trilogy Surrealist on two different levels. On one level, the works have Surrealist characteristics and mix artistic and poetic influences that are not opposed to the Surrealist movement. The Tristan Trilogy is Surrealist on a

1 Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone, Messiaen (New York: Yale University Press: 2005), 145. 2 Ibid., 146

second level. On this level, Messiaen juxtaposes Surrealism and the Catholic faith, two seemingly opposing forces. This second level makes Messiaen’s trilogy revolutionary.

To understand these two levels, one must understand the nature of Surrealist juxtaposition.

Surrealism is a literary and artistic movement that was most prevalent in the West between the two World Wars. It evolved from Dadaism, a nonsensical literary and artistic movement that began in France soon after World War I. Dadaists saw World War I as disgusting evidence of the invalidity of the 19th Century’s belief in progress.3 Thus, they created works that question societal norms. Their works are often intended to offend the audience and provoke questions about what art is. A famous example of visual Dada art is Marcel Duchamp’s “L.H.O.O.Q.” in which Duchamp drew a mustache on a postcard print of “Mona Lisa.”4 This mocks society’s notions of ideal artistry. Surrealism took from Dadaism its attitude of holding society responsible for aggravating, if not for creating, humankind’s unhappy condition.5

It is difficult to find a true definition of Surrealism because it sought not to be defined or understood. André Breton, the leader of the Surrealist movement, wrote two manifestoes of

Surrealism. They make it clear that Surrealism is meant to be revolutionary, but they are vague in defining what it is. Surrealism’s reluctance to define itself give it the potential to be realized by opposing what Breton has called “the constraints that weigh upon supervised thought.”6 This excerpt from Breton’s Second Manifesto of Surrealism (1930) gives a concept of Surrealism that pertains most to this study because Messiaen read this work after World War II:

3 J.H. Matthews, An Introduction to Surrealism (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1965) 4 See Appendix, Fig. 1. The letters L.H.O.O.Q. spoken in French sounds like “elle a chaud au cul,” which when translated means “she has a hot ass.” 5 Matthews, 43 6 Ibid., 48

Everything leads us to believe there exists a certain point in the mind in which life and death, real and imaginary, past and future, communicable and incommunicable, high and low cease to be perceived as contradictions.7

Surrealist writers and artists used two main techniques to remove thought constraints and question perceived contradictions: automatism and juxtaposition. The technique of automatism is one in which the artist or poet creates works based on thoughts from the unrestrained subconscious mind through dreams, trances, and hallucinations.8 Juxtaposition is the act of placing objects or ideas side by side, usually for a contrasting effect. Salvador Dalí’s painting and poem by the same name, “Metamorphosis of Narcissus,” is a perfect example of these two techniques.9 In ancient Greek mythology, Narcissus is a handsome hunter who falls in love with his reflection in a pond and stares at himself until he dies. A beautiful flower grows out of his body. In the background of Dalí’s painting, Narcissus stares into a pond while nudes gather in the distance. In the foreground is a decaying statue of a hand with ants crawling on it, which resembles Narcissus’ figure. It holds an egg with a flower growing out of it. Behind this is a statue of a nude; a lioness eating meat crouches in front of it. In this painting, flesh is juxtaposed with stone and life with decay; new life sprouts from decay. In the poem excerpt, one can see

Dalí’s free flowing, hallucinatory thought about the myth. At the end of the poem, he relates the flower to his wife, Gala. Messiaen’s Tristan Trilogy contains similarities with Dalí’s “Narcissus” whether Messiaen intended that or not. This will be discussed later.

It is important to note that most Surrealists opposed organized religion and especially

Christianity. They believed that the only salvation an individual could achieve was that of saving oneself. This poem by Masson illustrates the Surrealist belief that man is the center of the

7 Matthews, 48 8 Larry W. Peterson, “Messiaen and Surrealism: A Study of His Poetry,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (Garland Publishing, Inc., 1998), 217 9 See Appendix, Fig. 2

universe, and the burden of his salvation rests on his own shoulders: “At the center of the world is the man/ He is the point, the circle, and the radius/ From top to bottom its complete form/ By a very pure sword is crossing.”10 In La Révolution Surréaliste, a Surrealist review, there was published a letter to the pope, making public their vehement rejection of Christianity, of which the central belief is that salvation comes from Jesus Christ, the son of God. Victor Crastre explains, “God and society are one and the same thing.” For the Surrealist, to worship God was to worship society—society against which they rebelled.

Before discussing the Tristan Trilogy, one must look briefly at Messiaen’s personal life.

Messiaen grew up during the horrors of World War I and took comfort in learning the piano.

Throughout his childhood he developed a devout Catholic faith and was also fascinated with birdsong and color. Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1919 and won many a premier prix throughout his studies until he graduated in 1929. Two years later, he was appointed as organist at the Church of the Trinity in Paris, a post he held for the rest of his life. In 1932, he and violinist Claire Delbos were married. Their marriage and the birth of their son, Pascal, were the subjects of Messiaen’s two song cycles written between 1936-1938. Messiaen entered the military in World War II, during which he was a prisoner of war and wrote his apocalyptic

Quartet for the End of Time. After his release in 1941, he wrote a letter to Claire in which his concluding remarks illustrate his undying devotion to his wife and son: “I want so much to make both you and Pascal happy! And above all not to leave you! It’s my life to amuse Pascal and to talk endlessly to you.”11 Messiaen faced a grave dilemma when, after he gained a teaching position at the Conservatoire, Claire’s mental health began to deteriorate, possibly due to brain atrophy.12 During this time, he found himself falling in love with his young, exceptionally

10 This is my translation of the poem excerpt found in Matthews, 169. 11 Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone, Messiaen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005), 108 12 Hill and Simeone, 394

talented student, Yvonne Loriod. What was Messiaen to do with his deep loyalty to Claire, his growing affections for Loriod, and his Catholic faith that would not allow him to desire another woman? He incorporated his turmoil into his trilogy based on one of the most famous love triangles in Western history: the medieval Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde.13

This is a short summary of the version of the legend that interested Messiaen: King Mark of

Cornwall wants to marry the Irish princess, Isolde, so he sends his nephew, Tristan, to Ireland to retrieve the princess. Tristan slays a dragon that threatens Ireland and retrieves Isolde. On their journey to Cornwall, Isolde’s confidante Brangain mistakenly serves them a love potion, and

Tristan and Isolde fall passionately in love with one another. Nevertheless, Isolde marries King

Mark, but Tristan and Isolde sneak off to live in the woods for three years. King Mark discovers them and forgives Isolde while Tristan runs away to live in Brittany. He marries a British princess named Isolde Whitehands, but never consummates the marriage because of his potion- induced loyalty to the Irish Isolde. Tristan is injured in a battle. The Irish Isolde comes to

Brittany to heal him, but Isolde Whitehands is jealous and tells Tristan a lie that the ship she sees on the horizon has a black flag and does not carry his beloved. Tristan dies upon hearing this and when the Irish Isolde finds his body, she dies too. King Mark hears of the love potion incident and comes to Brittany to forgive Tristan and Isolde, but he is too late. He instead buries them together, uniting them in death.14

It is this connection between love and death that Messiaen explores in his Tristan trilogy.

Messiaen’s thoughts about love and death are tied to a Bible verse that reads, “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death.”15 Messiaen believed

13 It is important to know that Messiaen remained faithful to Claire. After Claire’s death in 1959, Messiaen and Loriod waited two years to be married. 14 Summarized from Siglind Bruhn, Messiaen’s Explorations of Love and Death, (Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2008), 261-262. 15 Song of Songs 8:6, NIV

that in the limited time human beings have on earth, two people cannot gain a complete understanding of one another. But in the voyage through death to paradisal eternity, love can be made perfect. To Messiaen, this purified love is a reflection of divine love. Messiaen finds this purified love in Tristan and Isolde’s union in death. Through his use of the legend in his trilogy,

Messiaen conveys a love that through death “transcends the body, transcends even the limitations of the mind, and grows to a cosmic scale.”16

Harawi: Song of Love and Death is a cycle of twelve songs for soprano and piano. Messiaen derived the title from a type of indigenous Peruvian music, the harawi, which is a love song with a lamenting tone. Messiaen wrote his own poetry for Harawi, as well as for Cinq Rechants. The lovers are placed in the world of the Incas as their story is woven into the tapestry of Andean symbolism and other artistic influences. Messiaen gives Isolde a Peruvian name, Piroucha, and links her to the symbol of the green dove, or colombe verte. The green dove in Andean folklore deserts its mate and in Harawi symbolizes the unattainable beloved. This symbol is set to music derived from the Peruvian song “Delirio.” This melody is an important cyclical theme that appears in songs II, VII, and XII. Messiaen’s melody is similar in contour to “Delirio.”

“Delirio,” mm. 1-4

17 Harawi, songs II, VII, and XII, mm. 1-6

16 Claude Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color, Trans. by E. Thomas Glasow (Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1994), 30 17 Bruhn, 157

In each appearance of this theme, one can see the development of the characters’ love from an earthly level to a celestial one. In song II, the imagery of a green dove returned from heaven and a clear pearl taken from the water suggest earthly surroundings. In song VII, the line “Farewell to you, my earthly heaven,” foreshadows the death of the beloved. In song XII, the lines “In the dark, green dove…In the dark, my fruit of heaven, of day…The figure five is yours” give a truly

Surrealist juxtaposition of darkness, heaven, and daytime.18 This imparts that the lovers are now united in death—death which conjures in many minds both dark and heavenly imagery. The number five is a symbol that juxtaposes Hindu and Catholic theology and symbolism. For now, it is sufficient to know that the number five represents cosmic events. This symbol is explored further in Turangalîla.

There are at least two different European artistic influences found in Harawi: Surrealism and

Expressionism, but predominantly Surrealism. Expressionism is an avant-garde art movement that began before World War I. Its purpose was to portray emotions while not necessarily depicting real-life scenes. Wassily Kandinsky was an Expressionist artist who depicted emotions mostly through color and geometrical shapes. Messiaen loved the interaction between red and green in Kandinsky’s works as in “Solid Green.”19 Green and reddish colors in the text of

Harawi represent the beloved and death respectively. The colors in the poetry likely relate to chords in their musical setting, as Messiaen had a condition called synaesthesia. This condition caused him to see colors when he heard certain sonorities. This influence can be seen in a

Surrealist light, as this deeply personal hallucinatory effect in Messiaen’s mind’s eye affects the poetry and music of Harawi.

A more explicit Surrealist influence appears in the tenth song, “Amour oiseau d’étoile,” or

“Love Bird of Star.” The imagery of Messiaen’s poetry comes from a Surrealist painting by

18 Ibid., 159 19 Peterson, 224

Roland Penrose, “Seeing is Believing,” also known as “The Invisible Isle.”20 In this painting, a woman’s head descends upside-down from the night sky as her hair cascades down to a city on a tiny island. One opaque and one translucent hand, which seem to come from outside the painting, reach for her hair. The poetry for this song (as well as the other eleven songs) is Surrealist in style as it is free form and dreamlike. It demonstrates automatism:

Bird of star, Your eye that sings, Toward the stars, Your head upside-down under the sky. Your eye of star, Chains falling, Toward the stars, Shortest way of the shadow to the sky. All the birds of star, Far from the scene, my hands sing, Star, silence augmented of the sky, My hands, your eye, your neck, the sky.21

Here, Messiaen makes irrational juxtapositions such as eyes and hands with singing, and the act of falling directed towards the stars. The eye is a common subject of this work as well as many other Surrealist works, such as Magritte’s “False Mirror,” which depicts the sky as an iris.22 In this song, one can sense Messiaen’s use of surrealist techniques to depict the earthly love’s growth to cosmic proportions, which evolves throughout song XI and results in the lovers’ apotheosis after death.

Many of the ideas from Harawi are explored further in Turangalîla Symphonie. This massive symphony is ten movements long. The scoring for the winds and brass is immense and calls for a gigantic string section for balance. The percussion writing calls for the gamut of the battery to create a gamelan effect. Solos are written for piano and ondes martenot, an electronic keyboard instrument that uses radio waves to produce a flute-like sound. Turangalîla is a compound word

20 See Appendix, Fig. 4 21 Peterson, 220 22 See Appendix, Fig. 4

from Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language). Turanga, as Messiaen describes, is “time which runs like a galloping horse, time which slips like sand through the hourglass. Turanga is movement and rhythm.”23 Lîla is cosmic divine play and is related to the Hindu god Shiva who personifies five actions: creation, destruction, preservation, death and rebirth.24 Messiaen equates lîla with love. Turangalîla is then, all at once “a love song, a hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death.”25

Three important cyclical themes in this work are the statue theme, the flower theme, and the theme of love. The first two themes appear in the first movement.

Mvt. 1, “Introduction,” mm. 18-19 (statue theme), and mm. 54-55 (flower theme)

The statue theme depicts a statue of Venus from the French novella Vénus d’Ille by Prosper

Mérimée, in which a man mistakenly marries the statue, which has a mysterious tendency to fall on people and kill them. The flower theme “is in two voices, like two eyes…The most appropriate image here is that of some flower.”27 Paul Griffiths describes these themes as portraying masculine and feminine characters.28 Siglind Bruhn argues that these themes are meant to portray two contrasting female characters: one who is a femme fatale, contrasted with

23 Olivier Messiaen, Notes to Turangalîla Symphony, tr. Louis Biancolli, LP RCA LSC-7051 24 Bruhn, 197 25 Messiaen, Notes 26 Paul Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 131 27 Messiaen, Notes 28 Griffiths, 130

one who is warmhearted and gracious. What matters most is the juxtaposition of gentle love found in earthly life, and a powerful love that is stronger than death.29

The “theme of love” appears in the sixth movement, “Garden of Love’s Sleep,” which is certainly related to the dream world. It is in F# major, which is for Messiaen the key of love.30

Messiaen considered this the most important theme:31

Mvt. 6, mm. 1-16

The sixth movement is divided into five sections. There are many other appearances of the number five throughout the symphony. The number of movements in the symphony, ten, is a multiple of five. The key of love, F# major, defines the five even-numbered movements. The forms of five movements, I and VI-IX, are based on the number five in some way.33 As mentioned earlier, the number five is related to the five cosmic actions Shiva embodies. It also relates to Jesus Christ. The fifth piece in Messiaen’s Vingt Regards describes the dual God-man nature of Jesus. In medieval Catholic iconography, the number five often refers to the five wounds of Christ.34 It is through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection that humans can be redeemed by divine love. Through the pervasive presence of the number five in this symphony,

29 Bruhn, 202-208 30 Ibid., 231 31 Messiaen, Notes 32 Griffiths, 134 33 Bruhn, 231 34 Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, Olivier Messiaen and the Tristan Myth (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2001), 44

Messiaen juxtaposes theology and symbolism from two different religions in order to describe the perfection of human love through death and eternity.

The number five appears again in the title of the capstone of the trilogy, Cinq Rechants, or

Five Refrains. This five-movement work is scored for twelve mixed voices: three sopranos, three contraltos, three tenors, and three basses. In this work, Messiaen juxtaposes artifacts from various cultures, crossing time and continents. The Tristan myth in this work is conveyed through poetry of a detached nature, which speaks of elements from Greek, Indian, Peruvian,

Celtic, French and Dutch culture. The characters of the Celtic myth are mentioned in the text, but their story is not told plainly. The music contains Greek rhythms, which Messiaen studied extensively at the Conservatoire. Such rhythm is found in the beginning of the first rechant:

Rechant I, mm. 3-4

1 2 3

Greek rhythms are divided by ratios. In this example, bracket 1 is dactyl rhythm with 1:1 ratio.

Bracket 2 is trochee rhythm with 2:1 ratio. Bracket 3 is spondee rhythm with 1:1 ratio. The text in this example, “The lovers fly,” relates to an Expressionist painting, “Over the Town,” by

Belarusian French artist Marc Chagall, whom Messiaen greatly admired.36

Regarding the poetry, the non-French words Messiaen uses are combinations of syllables that do not have meaning (except for the Sanskrit word, lîla). The syllables are derived from Quechua

(an indigenous Andean language) and Sanskrit, two ancient languages from opposite sides of the

35 Olivier Messiaen, Cinq Rechants (Paris: Editions Salabert, 1949), 1, I/mm. 3-4 36 See Appendix, Fig. 7

world. Messiaen chose syllables from these languages for their articulation and musical value to create chant-like music. Compare, for example, the sounds of “kapritama ssarimâ” and “oumi annôla.” Their sounds affect the music significantly.

The French text is a great example of automatic writing and adds to the mystery of the meaning of this work. Take for example the first segment of the second rechant:

My first time earth earth the fan unfolded My latest time earth earth the fan closed Luminous my laughter of shadow my young star on the streams. Ah Flute solo, rock the four lizards as you depart.37

The lizards, as well as two other symbols found in this work, come from a Dutch Renaissance triptych painting by Hieronymus Bosch called “The Garden of Earthly Delights.” Surrealists highly regarded Bosch’s imaginative painting style. The lizards are found in the left panel of the triptych where Adam and Eve have freedom in the Garden of Eden. Two other symbols found in this work are a crystal bubble and an octopus with golden tentacles, found in Rechant I and V respectively. These symbols are also found in the triptych.38 They are in the middle panel of the triptych in which human beings are held captive by earthly pleasures. The juxtaposition of freedom and captivity, or open and closed (like the fans mentioned earlier), is significant in

Rechants. Also important is the mixing of artifacts from different cultures and time periods to emphasize the universal nature of love. Universality was important to the Surrealists as they opposed nationalism—to them, a dividing societal construct.

This is a brief glance at Messiaen’s Tristan trilogy and its historical context, but these examples are sufficient to show the two levels of Surrealism at work in Harawi, Turangalîla, and

Cinq Rechants. On one level is the use of Surrealist techniques like automatism and juxtaposition to tell the story of Tristan and Isolde, and for Messiaen to work out his inner turmoil about Claire

37 Davidson, 119 38 See Appendix, Fig. 6

and Yvonne. This is much like Dalí’s Surrealist portrayal of the Narcissus myth and its connection to Gala. On a second level is the existence of religious themes, particularly Catholic themes, alongside techniques from an artistic movement that despised religion. Messiaen explains the second level of juxtapositions: “Contradiction is what gives birth to great love…but the essential idea is not the contradiction, but the great love and ensuing death. Therein is an initiation, through death and separation from the world, into a greater and purer love.”39 No composer before Messiaen had attempted to write Surrealist music. Not only did Messiaen write

Surrealist music and poetry in his Tristan Trilogy, but he also encoded his Catholic faith within it. This is a revolutionary juxtaposition of two exceptionally different cultural forces, but

Messiaen humbly states that what is most important is love.

39 Samuel, 31

Appendix

Fig. 1: Duchamp, “L.H.O.O.Q.” Fig. 2: Dalí, “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”

Excerpt from “Metamorphosis of Narcissus”

Narcissus, in his immobility, absorbed by his reflection with the digestive slowness of carnivorous plants, becomes invisible.

There remains of him only Fig. 3: Kandinsky, “Solid Green” the hallucinatingly white oval of his head, his head again more tender, his head, chrysalis of hidden biological designs, his head held up by the tips of the water's fingers, at the tips of the fingers of the insensate hand, of the terrible hand, of the excrement-eating hand, of the mortal hand of his own reflection. When that head slits when that head splits when that head bursts, it will be the flower, the new Narcissus, Gala - my narcissus. Fig. 4 Magritte, “False Mirror”

Fig. 4: Magritte, “False Mirror” Fig. 5: Penrose, “Seeing is Believing,” or “The Invisible Isle”

Fig. 6: details from Bosch “The Garden of Earthly Delights”

Fig. 7: Chagall, “Over the Town.”

Appendix Credits

Fig. 1: Duchamp, Marcel. L.H.O.O.Q., readymade, 1919 (Private collection, Paris) http://www.marcelduchamp.net

Fig. 2: Dalí, Salvador. Metamorphosis of Narcissus, oil on canvas, 1937 (Tate Modern, London) http://www.kyushu-ns.ac.jp

Poem Excerpt: Dalí, Salvador. “Metamorphosis of Narcissus.” Collection Tate. https://www.tateetc.com/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=-1&workid=2987&searchid=false &roomid=false&tabview=text&texttype=8 (accessed 10/8/2010)

Fig. 3: Kandinsky, Wassily. Solid Green, oil on panel, 1925 (location unknown) http://creativityinhealthcare.com

Fig. 4: Magritte, Rene. False Mirror, oil on canvas, 1928 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York) http://academics.adelphi.edu

Fig. 5: Penrose, Roland. Seeing is Believing, oil on canvas, 1937 (Galerie Beaux-Arts, Paris) http://www.christies.com

Fig. 6: Bosch, Hieronymus. The Garden of Earthly Delights, oil on wood triptych, c. 1480-1505 (Museo del Prado, Madrid) http://en.wikipedia.org

Fig. 7: Chagall, Marc. Over the Town, oil on canvas, 1914-1918 (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow) http://www.oceansbridge.com

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