This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Olivier Messiaen and the culture of modernity Sholl, Robert The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 Olivier Messiaen and the Culture of Modernity Robert Peter Sholl Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of King's College, University of London, for the degree of PhD. 2003 BL UNW. Robert Sholl Précis Olivier Messiaen and the Culture of Modernity This study interprets the French composer Olivier Messiaen as a religious modernist with a view to revealing a new critical perspective on the origin, style and poetics of his music and its importance in the twentieth century. Chapter 1 reveals how certain socio-political ideals and symbolist notions of catharsis and redemption (in the writings of Joséphin Péladan and Joris-Karl Huysmans) are refracted through Charles Tournemire's music and aesthetics, and incorporated by Messiaen into his earliest compositions to support his self-proclaimed role of the 'liberator' of humanity in his Technique de mon langage musical (TMLM). Plainchant and the 'acciaccatura principle' are shown in Chapter 2 to be at the basis of Messiaen's modes of limited transposition and his harmonic thinking. Mode is used as an umbrella term relating pitch, rhythm and colour to unveil interpretative possibilities not envisaged in TMLM. Time and eternity (in the writings of St Thomas Aquinas and Henri Bergson), and the Catholic ideals of predestination and fihiation (in the thought of Dom Columba Marmion), are investigated in Chapter 3 in relation to two major works of the 1930s. Chapter 4 elucidates Messiaen's subsumption of surrealist ideals of art and love in his music and aesthetics. In doing so the religious-modernist poetics in his songs of the 1930s and the complex music of the 1940s is explored. Messiaen's synthesis of colour and improvisation in his treatment of birdsong, one of the most strikingly original, religious and modern aspects of his music, is examined in Chapter 5. The final chapter exposes the ways in which Messiaen's music attempts to transfigure the negative aesthetics of modernity through a discussion of the concept of the 'Abyss', and his autobiographical opera St Fran çois d'Assise (1975-83). Robert Sholl 3 Contents Title 1 Précis 2 Table of Contents 3 Acknowledgements 4 Opening quotes 5 Introduction 6 Chapter 1 Catholicism and Catharsis 15 Chapter 2 Rites of Passage: Modes, Rhythms and 'The Charm 76 of Possibilities' Chapter 3 Of Time, Eternity and Love 153 Chapter 4 Love, Mad Love and the 'Point Sublime' 210 Chapter 5 Of Colour, Improvisation and Birdsong 260 Chapter 6 Olivier Messiaen and the Culture of Modernity 320 Bibliography 367 Robert Sholl Acknowledgements Many people have helped me in this study. First of all I would like to thank my three supervisors; Christopher Wintle who oversaw the first part of this project, John Deathridge who has lent a critical eye and ear throughout, and Daniel Chua whose wise counsel has benefited my work immeasurably. I would also like to thank Irene Auerbach, who has patiently and generously given her time to proof-read this work, and my examiners, Nigel Simeone and Arnold Whittall, for their invaluable advice and suggestions. Furthermore, I acknowledge with gratitude the support of the British Academy and the University of London Central Research Fund. There are many others who have aided me in this endeavour. When I was still at school I arrived home one day to find an envelope that had been sent from England marked 'Fragile: Do not bend'. Knowing that I was interested in Messiaen, Dennis Hunt had sent me a copy of Messiaen's Apparition de l'Eglise éternelle that had come via several other hands from Messiaen himself. This set me on a road of inquiry. Thanks also go to Jane O'Brien who first inspired me to enjoy and value musical research. In addition, many avid musical conversations with Felix Aprahamian and David Trendell have been an invaluable source of motivation throughout. Anna McCready has read various drafts of this study which has profited both from her critical wisdom and support. I would like to thank my parents, Peter and Ann, and my two sisters, Edwina and Diana, for their continual love and support. Finally, the year 2002 has seen the death of my oldest and dearest friend, Lindsay O'Neill, without whom nothing would have been begun. This work is dedicated to his memory. Robert S/wi! 5 'There are people in the world who can easily bear the wailing of factory sirens, the blaring of car horns, the stupid barking of dogs, but who are unable to hear birdsong without disquiet. Birds sing for themselves alone. But it happens that, in order to sing the loudest, certain birds search out the brotherhood of mankind.' (Pierre Reverdy) 'Where is the sculptor who could retrieve with the point of his chisel the naiveté of past centuries?' (Viollet-le-Duc) Robert Sholl Introduction 6 Introduction In a programme note for a concert given on 10 May 1943, Olivier Messiaen summed up his life thus far: Son of the poetess Cécile Sauvage (who wrote for his birth L 'âme en bourgeon) Olivier Messiaen was born on 10 December 1908 at Avignon (Vaucluse). He began to compose following his own instinct, from the age of seven. Then he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he obtained the first prizes for piano accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, history of music, organ and improvisation, and finally the first prize for composition. For 10 years he taught at the Ecole Normale de Musique, and at the Schola [Cantorum]. In October 1931, he was appointed organist of La Trinité; he founded, in 1936 - with André Jolivet, [Jean Yves] Daniel-Lesur and Yves Baudrier - the group 'Jeune France'. Since April 1941, he has been professor of harmony at the Paris Conservatoire. Beyond his traditional studies, Olivier Messiaen has worked on plainchant and Hindu rhythms; he is passionate about quarter tones and birdsong. Above all, since he began composing, he has utilised a particular language without any attachment to a school. He has sought to determine [fixer] these principal traits in his recent work: Technique de mon langage musical (currently in press). The procedures of this language - melodic procedures (binary and ternary phrases, upbeats [anacrouses] and terminations [désinances]), harmonic procedures (modes of limited transposition), rhythmic procedures (added values, augmented rhythms and non-retrogradable rhythms) Robert Sholl Introduction - and the bizarre terminology used to describe them, have often been criticised - perhaps wrongly! Because the author did not know the workings of this language until recently, he exploited them unwittingly [sans le faire exprès] throughout these years. Olivier Messiaen is above all a Catholic musician. Religious or not, his works carry the mark of the Christian faith, and implicitly sing of the mystery of Christ. Nearly all are published [chez Durand, Leduc, and Lemoine (crossed out)]. They already form quite a large catalogue. We cite: Preludes for piano (1929) - les Offrandes oubliées for orchestra (1930) - Hymne au Saint Sacrement for orchestra (1932) - la Nativité du Seigneur for organ (1935) - Poèmes pour Mi for voice and piano (1936) - Fête des belles eaux for six Ondes Martenot (written for the Water and Light Festival at the 1937 Exposition) - Chants de Terre et de Ciel for voice and piano (1938) - Les corps glorieux for organ (1939) - Quatuor pour lefin du Temps for violin, clarinet, violincello and piano (written in captivity in 1940-4 1) and, finally, Visions de l'Amen for two pianos (written in 1943 especially for the Concerts de Ia Pléiade)) As a summary of Messiaen's belief in his own achievements - his pedagogical history, his affiliations, aspirations, technical armoury and his selected list of works - this manifesto is impressive for a 35-year-old composer. Yet this epistle highlights the Messiaen, Olivier, Undated ms. draft for the programme book for the premiere of Visions de I'Amen at the Concert de (a Pléiade on 10 May 1943, in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BN Res. Vm. dos. 70(11), 5-6. Capitalisation in the titles of works is as in Messiaen's letter. All translations are my own unless otherwise stated. Robert Sholl Introduction vast lacunae in our knowledge of his early life that is only now beginning to be filled.2 We are left wondering about Messiaen's intellectual and artistic development from childhood, his early conservatoire years, and his teaching at the Schola Cantorum.