Chapter 1: Introduction
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La Marque du maître: Messiaen’s Influence on Québécois Composers Serge Garant, Clermont Pépin and André Prévost Heather White Luckow Schulich School of Music McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada June 2010 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of PhD in Music Theory Heather White Luckow 2010 All rights reserved i To David and my parents ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have heartfelt thanks for a large number of people from whom I have drawn support and encouragement each and every day of my studies. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Christoph Neidhöfer, whose guidance in every area of my scholarly development has been exemplary: he was certainly the best mentor I could have ever hoped to have. Sincere thanks are also extended to William E. Lake at Bowling Green State University who oversaw my earliest research and attentively edited my earliest writings on André Prévost. It was Kjellrun Hestekin, my undergraduate horn and theory professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, who first inspired me to study music theory and has remained a mentoring figure in my academic development from day one. Thank you for your belief in me. Two institutions, in particular, offered invaluable financial support for my dissertation research: the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ); and the Société Québécoise de Recherche en Musique. The continued enthusiasm that these two Québécois bodies have shown in my work is especially appreciated. The staff of the BAnQ, Library and Archives Canada, the Service de la gestion de documents et des archives de l’Université de Montréal and the Centre de musique canadienne (CMC) have all been exemplary in their assistance in obtaining scores, recordings and press clippings. Thanks, as well, are extended to copyright holders of the score excerpts examined in this dissertation: Alphonse Leduc et Cie, Paris, France; Les Éditions Doberman-Yppan, Saint-Romuald, QC; the Service de la gestion de documents et des archives de l’Université de Montréal, QC; Keith Waters; and the widows of Clermont Pépin and André Prévost, Mildred Goodman and Lise Vézina-Prévost, respectively. iii Special thanks are extended to Yvon Couture of the CMC for discussing his composition lessons with André Prévost and for providing me with a copy of his own analysis of Quatre préludes pour deux pianos. In addition to outstanding support from Jean Lesage and Eleanor Stubley in their roles of second reader and Graduate Director, respectively, I wish to thank those scholars who have been particularly supportive of my dissertation research and academic development, including Jean Boivin, Carmen Sabourin, Lloyd Whitesell; as well as those who have been kind enough to correspond with me, in some instances even sending copies of their own most recent research: Rosemary A. Bailey, Jonathan W. Bernard, Stephen Broad, Siglind Bruhn, Wai ling Cheong, Pascal Decroupet, Robert Fallon, John Schuster-Craig and Keith Waters. Proofreading thanks are extended to Donna George and my father, Noel White. My closest friends and family have been sources of strength, and perhaps even more importantly, fonts of infectious laughter: friends Linda, Jon-Tomas, Colette, Jaymin, Bridgett and JoJo; sisters Gillian, Shawna, and Diana; and in-laws James and Anne Luckow. I thank my parents, Noel and Marilyn, for their unwavering conviction in all of my dreams and my goals. Most of all, I thank my husband, David, our son, Rowan, and cat, Boots, for being the most joyous rays of sunshine in my life. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION.............................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .........................................................................................................................................iii TABLE OF CONTENTS.............................................................................................................................................. v LIST OF EXAMPLES ................................................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................................... x ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................... .......................................... xi ABRÉGÉ..................................................................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Messiaen and Influence...................................................................................................................................... 6 Messiaen as Pedagogue ....................................................................................................................................... 8 Messiaen as Analyst .......................................................................................................................................... 11 Messiaen as Composer ...................................................................................................................................... 14 The Classroom as a Sphere of Influence............................................................................................................ 16 1.2 Style versus Technique: The External Esthesics and Poietics of Jean-Jacques Nattiez ................................... 19 1.3 From Humble Beginnings: Echoes of pre-1960’s Québec in the Music of Garant, Pépin and Prévost .......... 24 Garant the Rebel ................................................................................................................................................ 26 Pépin the Romantic............................................................................................................................................ 30 Prévost the Believer........................................................................................................................................... 34 1.4 The Allure of France ........................................................................................................................................ 39 Chapter 2: The Compositional Techniques of Olivier Messiaen................................................................................. 42 2.1 Les Rythmes non-rétrogradables / Non-Retrogradable Rhythms..................................................................... 43 2.2 Les Pédales rythmiques et les canons rythmiques / Rhythmic Pedals and Rhythmic Canons ......................... 48 2.3 Numerical Mysticism, Patterns and Palindromes............................................................................................. 49 2.4 Les permutations symétriques / Symmetrical Permutations............................................................................. 56 2.5 Les Modes à transpositions limitées / Modes of Limited Transposition .......................................................... 64 Chapter 3: Serge Garant.............................................................................................................................................. 71 3.1 Before Paris: Un grand sommeil noir (1949) and Fantaisie pour clarinette et piano (1950) .......................... 71 Un grand sommeil noir (1949) .......................................................................................................................... 71 Fantaisie pour clarinette et piano (1950).......................................................................................................... 75 3.2 In Paris: Concerts sur terre (1951), Et je prierai ta grâce (1952) and Variations pour deux pianos (1952)... 80 Concerts sur terre (1951) .................................................................................................................................. 80 Et je prierai ta grâce (1952).............................................................................................................................. 85 Variations pour deux pianos (1952) .................................................................................................................. 92 3.3 After Paris: Caprices (1954), Concerts sur terre, mvt V (1956) and Asymétries no 2 (1959)........................ 109 Caprices (1954) ............................................................................................................................................... 109 Concerts sur terre, mvt V (1956) ..................................................................................................................... 115 Asymétries no 2 (1959) .................................................................................................................................... 117 Chapter 4: Clermont Pépin........................................................................................................................................ 130 4.1 In Paris: Suite pour piano (1951, rev. 1955), Guernica (1952) and Le Rite du soleil noir (1955)................. 130 Suite pour piano (1951, rev. 1955).................................................................................................................