Ch a p t e r Fo u r

Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d : f r o m Ta m b o r i n e Mo u n t a i n t o Éc l a i r s s u r l’Au-d e l à

Sy d n e y Cu r t i s a n d Ho l l i s Ta y l o r

An Australian ornithologist remembers Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen heard and notated the songs of the two of , the Albert’s and the Superb, and both appear in his final major work, Illuminations of the Beyond (Éclairs sur l’Au- delà). I will present the background to his hearing an Albert’s and demonstrate something of that species’ musical virtuosity. My colleague, Hollis Taylor, will discuss Messiaen’s transcription and treatment of its song.

Messiaen made extensive use of birdsong in his music. I had recorded song where the reverse applied: in the wild using human flute music as territorial songs. I thought that would interest Messiaen, so in November 1981 I wrote to him via his publisher, sending him a cassette of lyrebird song, including the “flute” songs, and briefly explaining their history.1

The “flute-mimicking” lyrebirds

In the 1920s, a juvenile Superb Lyrebird in captivity, unable to hear adult lyrebirds, modeled his singing on what he could hear: the practice routine of a flute student. He learnt a scale and two simple melodies, “Keel Row” and “The Mosquito Dance.” Lyrebirds are superb mimics, and so in addition to matching the melodies in pitch and tempo, he sang with the tonal quality of a flute. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 53

When released back into the wild, he would have continued his flute songs while also picking up songs and usedby the wild population. They, in turn, could not afford to let him be outstanding in competing for females and would have copied his flute songs. And note this happy coincidence: Superb Lyrebird territorial songs in many localities include sequences of repeated notes—the same note repeated many times. Our hero’s scale consisted of repeated notes, but with the added interest of rising pitch.

His flute songs were then culturally transmitted down the years, spreading through the lyrebird population and replacing the original territorial song. I drew this to the attention of the late Norman Robinson, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) lyrebird expert, who then visited the area, recorded the birds, and later gave an interview on ABC radio about them. Robinson sent me a recording of the interview, and I included this, as well as my own recording of the birds, in the cassette I prepared for Messiaen.

CD Track 01. In the original radio interview, the announcer compares the sound of an actual flute with a recording of the flute-like lyrebird vocalisations. In this track, ABC radio’s flute-lyrebird comparison is followed by my own recording of the birds.

Messiaen visits the lyrebirds

Messiaen was enthusiastic about the lyrebird recordings, writing:

In any case, what you have sent me is absolutely astounding in its novel rhythms and timbres. You have given me immense pleasure, and I thank you with all my heart (HT trans.).

En tout cas, ce que vous m’envoyez est d’une nouveauté rythmique et timbrique absolument stupefiante. Vous m’avez fait un immense plaisir et je vous en remercie de tout mon Coeur (Olivier Messiaen, letter to Sydney Curtis, November 22, 1981). 54 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

Seven years on, discussion in the news of Messiaen’s impending visit to Australia to supervise performances of his works made no mention of any proposals to let him hear our birds. I then wrote to him, pointing out that he would be here during the lyrebird season (which is winter, not spring) and offered to take him to hear them. Messiaen replied that he had been very sad to think that he would be doing an extended tour of concerts in Australia but that no birds would be singing because it was winter. I had given him hope (Olivier Messiaen, letter to Sydney Curtis, February 23, 1988).2

He gave me details of his concert tour, asked a number of questions, and stated that he would be especially interested to hear the two lyrebirds, the Golden Whistler, the Grey Shrike-thrush, and the Australian Magpie. “The most important is clearly the Superb Lyrebird,” he wrote, “and I would be very pleased if I am able to notate its songs.”

After receiving my reply, he instructed the ABC to make a minor change to his itinerary so that I could take him to hear an Albert’s Lyrebird, and he visited Tidbinbilla, near Canberra and Sherbrooke Forest in for Superb Lyrebirds.

Messiaen’s Tamborine Mountain visit

With fine on offer, a very early start was no problem for Messiaen. He had written that he was willing to leave his motel at 4:00 a.m. if necessary, in order to get to the lyrebirds by dawn. In fact, a 5:00 a.m. departure from his hotel sufficed, and with my friends Hélène and Robert Vial acting as interpreters, we arrived at Witches Falls National Park on Tamborine Mountain just before daylight, on June 13, 1988. We stepped out of our car to a blast of loud pop music from another car. Messiaen’s comments were less than polite. A walk of half a kilometre or so took us to where I knew a lyrebird roosted. To my considerable relief, he was present and sang variations of his territorial song.

If Messiaen was pleased with the lyrebird’s performance, I was positively amazed at Messiaen’s performance. Here in the subtropics, our birds are not entirely silent in winter, and a number of species joined in the dawn chorus. Messiaen wrote rapidly on Ch a p t e r Fo u r 55 manuscript paper while Madame Loriod kept him supplied with sharp pencils and recorded the sound on tape.

After about twenty minutes he was satisfied he had notated what the morning offered. He then went through his notes and sang or whistled the songs so perfectly that I had no difficulty in identifying the species for him. Birdsong generally does not conform to human scales or rhythms, and these surely were songs he had never heard before. Fantastic!

We returned to our car and drove to another more congenial national park picnic ground (Knoll) where Hélène Vial provided a picnic breakfast. While there, Madame Loriod recorded the Australian Magpie, and there was also a Pied , among others. It appears that Messiaen notated an Albert’s Lyrebird and other birds from this picnic breakfast site as well.

My research has concentrated on the Albert’s Lyrebird. The photograph in Figure 1 is of a male in full display. The is facing the camera with his inverted over his head and body.

Fig. 1–4. Male Albert’s Lyrebird in display. Photograph courtesy of Kimbal Curtis. 56 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

My colleague Hollis Taylor will discuss Messiaen’s notations and his use of the lyrebird songs he heard, but first I would like to give you some examples of Albert’s Lyrebird song with musical connotations.

Variations on a theme

Lyrebirds do not form pair bonds. Male lyrebirds sing to attract females for mating, and the female takes responsibility for all domestic duties, building the , incubating the , and raising the chick. A male lyrebird maintains a territory of several hectares from which he excludes all other males, firstly by warning them to keep out by means of territorial songs so loud as to be audible a kilometre away, but if necessary, by physical confrontation.

During the day, lyrebirds forage on the ground for food, but they roost high in the forest canopy. At dawn when it is still too dark for safety on the ground, a male will call from his roost. This early in the morning, he rarely uses mimicry, which is aimed at attracting females; he simply delivers intermittent territorial songs to demonstrate his continued occupation.

However, on a few occasions I have recorded a male Albert’s Lyrebird that, instead of his normal territorial song, improvises delightful variations of it. This still advertises his presence, but the normal song would accomplish that more effectively and with less mental and physical effort. He appears to improvise the variations merely for his own musical satisfaction, indicating a faculty for aesthetic appreciation.

The variations I sent to Messiaen lasted more than five minutes. Here are some briefer samples.

CD Track 02. The territorial song of the Tamborine Mountain population of Albert’s Lyrebirds is very simple. In this track, an example of this normal song is followed by variations improvised by the same individual. The lyrebird spaced them out. Here, the first three variations are as recorded and the rest condensed. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 57

CD Track 03. This track offers some variations from a bird in the park where later Messiaen notated his Albert’s Lyrebird song. This male’s territory adjoined the one Messiaen visited. Albert’s Lyrebirds can live for more than thirty years, and so, although my recording was made in 1977, the bird in the background may well be the very one Messiaen heard in 1988.

Albert’s Lyrebird display song on the ground, aimed at attracting females, consists almost entirely of mimicry, and a remarkable feature of it is that all the sounds are given in fixed order to form a song 40 to 50 seconds long, which is cycled over and over without a break. All the males in any particular locality use the same stereotyped suite of mimicked sounds.

Rhythm sticks

I also included in Messiaen’s cassette an Albert’s Lyrebird “gronking song,” a mnemonic so-called because of a loud “gronk” sound, delivered singly or repeated, and often followed by a much softer rhythmic phrase with a measured beat.

The example I sent Messiaen was from Tamborine Mountain, where the rhythm phrase simply has a note repeated ten or twelve times, but in other localities I have recorded 2, 3, 4, and 6 “beats to a bar.” The example on the CD is from Lamington National Park, where all male Albert’s use 3/4 time. I recorded this in 1999, from the individual in the photo.

CD Track 04. This track is part of the gronking song including the rhythmic phrase.

Albert’s Lyrebirds mostly display on “platforms” consisting of a few thin vines or sticks lying loosely over one another on the ground, and if suitable, the male may strike one vine with another to make a tapping sound. Albert’s Lyrebirds are so shy that one rarely gets more than a brief glimpse of one. However, over a period of years in the 1990s, Glen Trelfo, naturalist at the O’Reilly’s Retreat in Lamington National Park, gradually got the individual whose gronking song you hear on the CD to accept his presence. 58 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

He was then able to build a hide and film him, and George (as he dubbed him) is the star of a remarkable DVD, Albert Lyrebird: Prince of the Rainforest (undated). In it one can see how the bird carefully positions himself, grips a vine and tests it, before launching into his gronking song and tapping with his vine in perfect time with his voice. Computer technology allows the tapping sounds to be removed from the rhythmic phrase, or the voiced sounds can be removed to leave just the vine tapping.

CD Track 05. The rhythmic phrase as recorded; then with the tapping sounds removed; then the tapping sounds with the voice removed; and, finally, a repeat of the phrase as recorded.

Note that with the tapping sounds alone, I have simply set to silence the spaces between the taps. The stress on “beat one in each bar” is the bird’s, not mine. I first recorded the voice of that individual in 1984. He was then already mature and holding a prime territory and just as shy as any other Albert’s Lyrebird. He must now be over thirty years old, a goodly age for a wild bird and a tribute to his extreme wariness to have survived so long.

Bird songs are rhythmic enough, but they are rarely “measured” in the way that Western music is measured: with a steady recurrence of rhythmic stress dividing it into regular measures or bars. Very little bird utterance conforms to that description (Thorpe and Lade 1961, 231).

Albert’s Lyrebirds are an exception. They possess this remarkable song where rhythm is the key component, and it is entirely regular and steady. And if we regard this tapping as using rhythm sticks, then Albert’s Lyrebirds are in effect accompanying their song with a musical instrument, and are possibly the only species of bird to do so in the wild.

Drama in three scenes

Birds “sing,” and so I have regarded this next performance as an operetta in three scenes, but what the bird had in mind was murder, not music. Let me explain, as I did in my 1981 letter to Messiaen. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 59

In 1968 I had just commenced tape recording lyrebirds and was ignorant of the distress that a territorial bird suffers if you record his voice and play it back at him. He assumes it is another male intruding on his territory, and he seeks to drive him out. When the lyrebird stopped singing, I replayed the tape to hear my recording. He immediately returned and sang again. Again I recorded.

A few days later I was back in the same area, and I wondered if he would again react to the recording. He did, and while racing through the forest trying to find the supposed intruder, he gave some strange calls that I had never before heard. It was difficult to record the moving bird, and I persisted with playback as I would never do now that I know its effect.

Although all Albert’s Lyrebirds (George excepted) are so shy that they never tolerate a human observer, that poor bird finally perched in full view of me and poured forth this remarkable torrent of sound, my avian operetta in three scenes: Alarm! Danger! Disaster! As recorded, the three scenes last two, one, and two minutes, respectively. Here, to save time, I present a condensed version.

Scene 1. Alarm! A voice-picture of the local scene: mimicry of a variety of local birds, and even of a small frog, and including some alarm calls, both his own and those of other species.

Scene 2. Danger! For over a minute he gives only mimicry of the whistle of a , the most fearsome avian predator of those forests. When such a hawk appears, the forest suddenly goes silent, for no potential goshawk meal would reveal its location. In this scene, note how he interposes periods of ominous silence, and how he heightens the tension by raising the pitch of the hawk calls. (Messiaen himself could hardly have done better.)

Scene 3. Disaster! He returns to the alarm situation before launching into sounds of extreme avian distress.

CD Track 06. The “avian operetta in three scenes.”

That surely was the ultimate in lyrebird threats—quite amazing, and indication of intelligence far beyond that normally 60 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d attributed to birds. I like to think that many years later I somewhat atoned for causing that bird such distress. As part of my work in National Parks administration, I was redrafting the National Park Regulations for . I wrote one regulation that makes it illegal to use playback to an extent that causes “unreasonable disturbance” to native wildlife.

Messiaen remembers Tamborine Mountain

In his Traité de Rythme, de Couleur, et d’Ornithologie, Messiaen writes of our excursion to Tamborine Mountain:

Tamborine Mountain, the 13th of June 1988. It was necessary to depart the hotel at 3 a.m. for the one-hour drive in order to install ourselves in the forest at dead of night so as to not disturb the birds. This is a tropical forest. This spot was particularly rich in songs: it is here that I heard, in addition to the Superb Lyrebird, the Albert’s Lyrebird. It is less brilliant than the Superb, a little slower, but the song is very beautiful and the timbre remarkable.

In three hours, I also had in addition to these two birds: the Australian Magpie, the , the , the Black Butcherbird, the Golden Whistler, the Little Shrike-Thrush, the Grey Shrike Thrush, several Whipbirds, the Lewin’s Honeyeater, the Rainbow Lorikeet, and the irresistible laugh of the Kookaburra.

I saw “Curtis Falls”: the waterfall named after the grandfather of my ornithologist. A stream of clear green water flows down the tropical landscape among giant ferns, eucalypts, and a giant fig tree with a trunk measuring ten metres in diameter at the base... branches, enormous roots, it’s marvelous!!! (HT trans.).

Tamborine Mountain, le 13 juin 1988. Il a fallu partir de l’hotel à 3 h du matin, pour aller, à une heure de voiture, s’installer dans la forêt en pleine nuit pour ne pas effrayer les oiseaux et y attendre leur réveil. C’est une forêt tropicale. Cet endroit était particulierement riche en chants: c’est là, qu’en dehors des Oiseaux-lyres superbes, j’ai entendu l’Oiseua-lyre du Prince Albert. Il est moins brillant que l’Oiseaux-lyre superbe, un peu plus Ch a p t e r Fo u r 61

lent, mais son chant est très beau, et de sonorité majeur.

En trois heures, j’eus en plus de ces deux oiseaux: l’Australian Magpie, le Pied Butcherbird, le Grey Butcherbird, le Black Butcherbird, le Golden Whistler, le Little Shrike-Thrush, le Grey Shrike Thrush, le Pied , plusieurs Whipbird, le Lewin Honeyeater, le Rainbow Lorikeet, et le rire irrésistible du Kookaburra.

J’ai vu la “Curtis Fall”: (chute d’eau nommée Curtis, du nom du grand père de mon ornithologue). Rivière d’eau claire et verte qui coule au bas du paysage tropical, au milieu des fougères géantes, des eucalyptus, d’un figuier géant dont le bas du tronc a 10 mètres de diamètre… Branches, racines énormes, c’est merveilleux !!! (Messiaen 1949-1992, 612).

A few problems. In the first paragraph, when Messiaen writes of our departing his hotel at 3 a.m., his memory was at fault; as I mentioned earlier, we departed at approximately 5 a.m. It was a one-hour car trip, and the Albert’s reliably start calling at close to 6:15 a.m. in June. I surmise that exact time was a minor consideration for him—in contrast to his precision in notating bird sounds. Also, Tamborine Mountain would have offered Messiaen only the Albert’s Lyrebird, and not the Superb Lyrebird as well.

From copies of Messiaen’s Australian birdsong notations that we have examined,3 we note that he heard and notated Lewin’s Honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird, Kookaburra, Grey Butcherbird, Rainbow Lorikeet, Pied Currawong, Australian Magpie, Pied Butcherbird, and White-throated Treecreeper, as well as the Albert’s Lyrebird.4 This concurs with my memory. However, the Traité also itemises the hearing of the Black Butcherbird, the Golden Whistler, the Little Shrike-thrush, and the Grey Shrike-thrush. He could not have heard a Black Butcherbird. The range of the Black Butcherbird is from Rockhampton north to the top of Cape York Peninsula, and also across the top of the Northern Territory, well outside where Messiaen’s travels took him, which puts the other three species in doubt.

The last paragraph is also amiss. Eucalypts are more characteristic of Sherbrooke Forest where Messiaen saw Superb Lyrebirds than of the mainly rainforest habitat of the Albert’s on 62 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

Tamborine Mountain. And although the several species of strangling fig attain large size, they fall far short of ten metres in diameter. In addition, Messiaen indulges in a bit of poetic license when he writes of Curtis Falls. Messiaen’s “river” is merely a creek and was seen only from the car.

After he returned home, I sent Messiaen a cassette of various Queensland birds, including some of those he had mentioned he was particularly keen to hear, and another recording of an Albert’s Lyrebird. In thanking me he wrote:

Finally, I have met again the magnificent Albert’s Lyrebird that I notated in your company on Tamborine Mountain, and whose stanzas remain a strength, a joy, and an unequalled solemnity (HT trans.).

Enfin, j’ai retrouvé avec joie, le magnifique Albert Lyrebird, qui j’avais notí en votre compagnie, à Tamborine Mountain, et dont les strophes restent d’une puissance, d’une joie et d’une solennité incomparables (Olivier Messiaen, letter to Sydney Curtis, June 21, 1989).

This cassette, which I entitled Pour Messiaen,5 included the Black Butcherbird, the Golden Whistler, the Little Shrike-thrush, and the Grey Shrike-thrush, those species mistakenly listed as heard live with me.6

Thus, you have today heard something of what Messiaen himself heard, both in the recordings I sent him and the birds I took him to hear. Messiaen honoured the Albert’s Lyrebird with a place in movement eight, “The Stars and the Glory” (“Les étoiles et la Gloire”) of his Illuminations of the Beyond (Éclairs sur l’Au-delà), along with a number of other Australian birds. The Superb Lyrebird impressed him even more, for he devotes the entire third movement, “The Lyrebird and the Bridal City” (“L’Oiseau-Lyre et la Ville-Fiancée”), solely to it. Hollis Taylor will now tell you about his transcription and treatment of the Albert’s Lyrebird. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 63

A musicologist unpacks the 1988 Messiaen-Curtis fieldtrip and its outcomes

How did the Messiaen-Curtis 1988 fieldtrip and correspondence before and after it manifest musically? Specifically, apropos the Albert’s Lyrebird in Éclairs sur l’Au-delà, did Messiaen work from transcriptions he made at his desk from recordings or from those he made in the field or from both? Furthermore, how does the Albert’s Lyrebird representation in Éclairs conform to the models Curtis has set forward?

Ten pages of Messiaen’s Australian birdsong notation are particularly cogent to us, as they arise directly from his correspondence and eventual ornithological fieldtrip with Curtis. As mentioned above, five pages (25-29, from notebook #23159) appear with the name “Sydney Curtis” in the upper right-hand corner; I am able to confirm them as transcriptions from the Curtis cassette Pour Messiaen. The existence of the original recording provides a window onto Messiaen’s transcription method and brings up issues of accuracy and authenticity as well. We know from Messiaen’s monograph, The Technique of My Musical Language (1944, Chapter 9), that his process was one of “transcription, transformation, and interpretation” of birdsong, as one would expect of a composer. The opportunity to see the transcription prior to the transformation is an intriguing one.

Space does not permit, nor is it the purpose here, to enter into the fray of whether Messiaen was slavishly meticulous in his birdsong notations. Music notation is by its nature both subjective and reductive. “The only really true notations are the sound-tracks on the record itself,” Bartók suggested (Bartók and Lord 1951, 3), but even a recording is not a tangible fact, nor is a sonogram. Messiaen grasped the subjectivity of the microphone as well as the variability of birdsong within members of the same species. As he explained to Claude Samuel:

To know the song of the meadowlark, one has to have heard thousands of meadowlarks for hours, days, months, and years; so, you see, a phonograph record is an incomplete tool inasmuch as it only gives us a portion of a song, just as a photograph conveys the snapshot of a single individual. … Only a composer could manage 64 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

to understand it and capture it on paper; in fact, most ornithologists refrain from describing it and merely say, “Extraordinary song, impossible to describe” (Samuel 1994, 89).

He went on to explain to Samuel how he dealt with birdsong, “either by trying to outline the most exact musical portrait possible, or by treating the bird song as malleable material” (ibid., 94). And later, he added, “Personally, I’m very proud of the exactitude of my work” (ibid.). At every point that Messiaen attempted to clarify his authenticity, he seemed to dig a deeper hole for himself, such as in this 1962 pre-concert lecture: “My permutations of durations are rigorous, my birdsongs are entirely free. Rigour is implacable, but so too is freedom” (Hill and Simeone 2005, 244). Elsewhere, he described his method thusly:

I make one notation on the spot with all the variations, and my wife makes a tape recording which is less varied than mine, but which captures everything exactly. Then I make a second notation from the tape recorder which is more exact but less artistic. … So I always have my two notations, one exact and one more artistic, and I mix the two (Hill and Simeone 2005, 208).

Ping-ponging from words like “outline” to “exact” and back to “portrait,” from “rigour” to “freedom,” might appear contradictory to some. To this musicologist/composer also involved in birdsong transcription, the concept of a composite bird is methodologically sound, illogical as it might initially seem.

When I first came up against this apparent roadblock, that of making “scientific” measurements on the one hand and capturing the essence of the music on the other, I wrote a somewhat forlorn letter to the composer François-Bernard Mâche. A former Messiaen student and himself an avid transcriber of birdsong, Mâche responded:

You have reason to first trust your ear, then measurements. For complex sounds, like most of those of birds, our ear generally defines a subjective pitch that sonograms do not reveal, particularly when there are portamentos. The exact transcription is unusable for a musician, and the subjective transcription is unusable for a biologist. This Ch a p t e r Fo u r 65

is one of the ambiguities of our work. I believe that it is best to first define the goal of the analysis, which will then determine the type and degree of simplification of the acoustic terrain. What is pertinent for the musician will not always be so for the acoustician, and what the ear picks up on is not always present in a sonogram. I used to make my transcriptions too precise, rendering them nearly illegible to others. These days, I simplify (HT trans.).

Vous avez raison de vous fier d’abord à l’oreille, puis aux mesures. Pour les sons complexes comme la plupart de ceux des oiseaux, notre oreille définit en général une hauteur subjective, que les sonogrammes ne font pas apparaître, et en particulier lorsqu’il s’agit de sons glissés. La transcription exacte est inutilisable pour un musicien, et la transcription subjective est inutilisable pour le biologiste. C’est là une des ambiguités de notre travail. Je crois qu’il faut bien définir d’abord le but de l’analyse, en fonction duquel cette analyse choisira le type et le degré de simplification des réalités acoustiques. Ce qui est pertinent pour le musicien ne le sera pas toujours pour l’acousticien, et ce qui est pertinent pour l’oreille n’apparaît pas toujours dans l’imagerie. Autrefois je faisais des transcriptions trop précises, peu lisibles par les interprètes. Aujourd’hui je simplifie (François- Bernard Mâche, e-mail message to Hollis Taylor, August 10, 2006).

Certainly, I was sympathetic to the problems encountered in birdsong notation when I came to these ten pages of Messiaen’s. Since I have absolute pitch as did Messiaen and my own work involves extensive transcription of the song of the Pied Butcherbird, the specific challenges of squeezing birdsong into notation are familiar ones to me (in particular, how to notate, if at all, avian timbres, portamentos, microtones, and rhythms). These days, sonograms provide another method of analysis. While they are useful tools, they do not replace a trained ear; I imagine that Messiaen would have eschewed sonograms. In the Western music tradition, unlike the majority of music practices throughout history, there is an assumption that the score can attain a degree of perfection not possible in the resulting sonic experience stemming from it. Messiaen did not worship the score, whether prescriptive or descriptive. He realised that the musical experience was not wholly notatable. This is not to imply that he haphazardly 66 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d produced a mere shorthand aide-memoire for compositional material. His perseverance and dedication are well documented. Hill describes the motivation for Messiaen’s care as the result of “not science but love” (1994, 9). How did Messiaen navigate the opposition between rigour and freedom, between exactitude and portraiture?

Briefly, the recording Pour Messiaen (sent to him by Curtis in 1989) and the transcriptions from these five pages (25-29/#23159) pair up easily; of those birdsongs that he notated, most are worked straight through. As heard by this listener and as viewed in various sonograms, Messiaen was not infallible. Allowing for a difference in cassette speed, one understands that pitches could be different, but in more than a few cases intervals did not match my ear or sonogram measurements, nor were the beginning and ending pitches of the numerous portamentos notated with accuracy (some were not indicated at all). Rhythms were not particularly wrought over (he relies on sixteenth and thirty-second notes to tell most of the story)—he got the essence and moved on. Nevertheless, his sense of the gesture is particularly apparent. (I can well imagine that the birds in his field notations were easily identifiable as he whistled them back to Curtis.) In a conundrum that surely musicians and artists understand, although Messiaen did not always “get it right,” somehow he always “got it.” My analysis corroborates Fallon’s conclusion that “his music conforms to his models about two-thirds of the time” (2007, 116).

There are 19 species of Australian birds on Pour Messiaen; where does the lyrebird figure in? While Track 1 (on the CD, which is equivalent to Side A of the cassette) of Pour Messiaen contains no lyrebirds, Track 2 (the cassette’s Side B) contains various examples of Albert’s Lyrebird song and mimicry as well as other species of birds. Nothing on Track 2 closely matches any of Messiaen’s transcriptions of Albert’s Lyrebird song, nor is there any indication that he transcribed any of this in the pages from his birdsong notebooks that I have examined. Thus, he transcribed 11 birds from this cassette, but probably not the lyrebird.

In addition to the cassette Pour Messiaen, he held the Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen recording that Curtis sent him in 1981. As Curtis has demonstrated, this included examples of the rather simple Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song. These Messiaen notated Ch a p t e r Fo u r 67 on page 12 of notebook #23160, which also contains a transcription from this recording of a Dorrigo “Flute-Playing” Superb Lyrebird (Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen, Track 2; pages 12-13/#23160), an example of which can be heard on Track 01 of the accompanying CD. Again, the “Flute-Playing” Superb Lyrebird notation approximates what is an extremely complicated—no, impossible—song to notate; played back at half speed, this listener hears details differently, but the essence jumps off the page—he got it. Neither the gronking song (CD Tracks 04-05) nor the “Avian Operetta in Three Scenes” (CD Track 06) appears to have been notated, judging by the pages I have examined.

In his musical analysis of lyrebird song, Halafoff suggests three categories: tonality items, percussion items (without a definite pitch), and indefinite sounds that do not fit either category (1959: 169). We find in Messiaen’s transcription of Albert’s Lyrebird song only the first, tonality items. These tonal events are accompanied by dynamic markings, which are liberally indicated, while timbre and other descriptive words are limited to modéré, étouffé, and gliss. No microtones are itemised.

Curtis writes of Albert’s Lyrebirds territorial songs in general:

The song, mostly 5-10sec long, usually consisted of two parts separated by a short pause: one or several very short introductory notes and then a series of mostly longer notes. If another male’s song was heard during the pause, the bird often waited until the other had finished, then either repeated the introductory notes and gave the full song, or continued with sequential song (Robinson and Curtis 1996, 265).

Biologists employ the term “song” where musicologists would call upon the term “phrase”; they are often used interchangeably. Since much of the following is based on what ornithologists commonly identify as the territorial “song” of the Albert’s Lyrebird, I shall divert the standard musicological usage of one word: that is, song will refer not to a sustained singing performance, but to what one would normally label a phrase. Thus, a “song” is a recognizable and orderly group of notes separated by a pause, which is generally of the order of several seconds. Phrase will be avoided altogether, while motif will describe a coherent subsection of a song.

The Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song sourced from Messiaen’s notebooks, page 12/#23160, is reproduced in Figure 2–4. Here, very high introductory notes (under the 8va sign) precede portamentos that are indicated by Messiaen as pairs of ascending or descending slurred notes. Since it appears on the same page as the Dorrigo birds, one would expect this Albert’s Lyrebird to derive from the same recording (Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen), and it is there that we searched for an example to match the notation below. (Track 7 also contains Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song, but those examples resemble Messiaen’s notation even less.) On Track 1, seven examples of Albert’s Lyrebird territorial songs from three locations span approximately one minute. The two closest matching songs, from 1:38—1:54, are successive both in the notebook and on the recording; the first is from Mt. Mistake and the second from Springbrook.

CD Track 07. Albert’s Lyrebird territorial songs from Mt. Mistake and Springbrook, Queensland, as recorded by Curtis and launched in a sonogram in Figure 2–4.

No attempt has been made by me to notate these songs due to the preponderance of extreme portamentos. One can visually pick out the high introductory notes of each song in both Messiaen’s notation and the sonogram, and while some pitches correspond in the introductory notes and the final note of the first song (the G natural marked ff), the rest do not. I will not force the comparison. If this is the section of song Messiaen was working from, clearly not all motifs were realised. If he had other recordings of Albert’s Lyrebird song at hand, we are not aware of them; they would have been rare. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 69

Fig. 2–4, Top: Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song, staves 1–2, from Messiaen’s birdsong notebook #23160, page 12. Very high introductory notes (under the 8ve sign) precede portmentos indicated by Messiaen as pairs of ascending or descending slurred notes. Bottom: a sonogram of two successive songs from Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen, the possible source of the notation. The match, while not perfect, is the closest one found.

The remaining Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song on Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen is from Tamborine Mountain. It is worthy of our attention since this is where Messiaen would notate in the field in 1988. Although this track of the recording does not compare as closely to the field notation above as the other two, it does correspond to a Messaien score. “Les étoiles et la Gloire,” movement VIII of Éclairs sur l’Au-delà, is noteworthy for being the longest of the eleven movements, and although we are eight movements in, this marks the first entrance of the entire orchestra (and of the double basses). The first avian theme evokes anAlbert’s Lyrebird vocalisation. Figure 3–4 depicts the fourth iteration of the theme based on Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song, followed by my own notation from Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen, Track 1, from 2:15—2:21. On the accompanying CD, we hear the bird first, then Messiaen:

CD Track 08. Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song from Tamborine Mountain, as recorded by Curtis and notated/ 70 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

launched in a sonogram in Figure 3–4.

CD Track 09. The track begins with page 13 from Messiaen’s “Les étoiles et la Gloire,” the first entrance of the Albert’s Lyrebird thematic material and continues with page 14 (at :06 sec.), page 15 (at :18 sec.), page 16 (at :23 sec.), and page 17 (at :28 sec.), the page which is featured in Figure 3–4 below.

While this material has made its way onto the score, none of Messiaen’s transcriptions that we have examined contain this material; one can only speculate that it was in his head from field recordings, or that he did transcribe it but not on any of the pages we have inspected to date. Messiaen did not include the bird’s introductory notes in his score, so these are omitted from the above transcription and sonogram. We see several commonalities between his score and the sonogram as notated by me:

• Both unfold in compound meters: 3+3+3, 2+2, and 3+3 for page 17 from Messiaen, similar to but not precisely the rhythm employed by the lyrebird in this sonogram (3+3+2, 2+2, and 2+2).

• The last three motifs begin on the same pitch for both Messiaen and lyrebird, and the final motifs by both are exact matches.

• Portamentos ranging from a perfect fourth to an octave or more are found in each lyrebird motif. While portamento is technically beyond many woodwind and brass instruments, which is what this section is scored for, a large interval leap can create a similar effect. However, Messiaen embraces both narrow and wide intervals in this score, suggesting that “portamento by implication” was not a central concern.

• The lyrebird trills for the first two beats of his song; Messiaen reproduces this in the cymbals with constant trills during all lyrebird thematic material. Since it is marked pianissimo, it remains uncertain whether Messiaen is referring to the lyrebird material or is simply making an orchestration decision based on other musical considerations. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 71

Fig. 3–4, A comparison of Albert’s Lyrebird thematic material from Messiaen’s “Les étoiles et la Gloire,” followed by musical notation (by HT) and its related sonogram of Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song.

While the above seven pages are all transcriptions of recordings, three later pages (64-66/#23159) are the product of the Curtis 1988 fieldtrip with the Messaiens to Tamborine Mountain and clearly marked as such in location and date. They begin at 6:10 a.m. and finish at 9:00 a.m., as indicated on the pages. Page 66 includes text detailing the landscape written in Messiaen’s hand. Although similar to the entry in his Traité, certain differences emerge. Some merely move the listing into complete sentences, while other differences suggest the work of an editor rather than Messiaen himself.

1. On page 66, Messiaen indicates a 6:10 a.m. starting time for birdsong notation and a 10:00 a.m. return to Brisbane, and that the park is one hour by car from Brisbane—all correct. Interestingly, no departure time from the hotel is indicated on this page, while the Traité lists it incorrectly as 3:00 a.m. instead of 5:00 a.m. A subsequent letter from Messiaen again sets the record straight. The letter reads in part:

I will always remember this marvelous trip, from 5:00–10:00 a.m., made in the forest with 72 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

you, my wife, and your two friends (Mr. and Mrs. Vial), to Tamborine Mountain, and the magnificent sunrise with the triumphant and solemn song of the Albert’s Lyrebird. It left an indelible impression, and I will never forget your kindness on my behalf (HT trans.).

Je me souviens toujours de ce merveilleux voyage, de 5h à 10h du matin, fait dans la forêt avec vous, ma femme, et vos deux amis (Monsieur et Madame Vial), à Tambourine [sic] Mountain, et du magnifique lever de soleil avec le chant triumphant et solennel de l’Albert’s Lyrebird. C’est un souvenir ineffaçable, et je n’oublierai jamais toute votre gentillesse à mon égard (Olivier Messiaen, letter to Sydney Curtis, October 15, 1988).

2. Although the Traité indicates that he also heard the Superb Lyrebird here, this is a surprising error one would not expect of Messiaen, and there is no Superb Lyrebird notation on these Tamborine Mountain pages. The Traité also indicates that he heard the Black Butcherbird, the Golden Whistler, the Little Shrike-thrush, and the Grey Shrike-thrush—birds that Curtis felt had not been heard that day at Tamborine Mountain—and true enough, they are not to be found on these three pages of notation. Although notated, the White-throated Treecreeper is omitted in the Traité listing. We hesitate to attribute these errata to Messiaen and again suspect editorial error.

3. Messiaen includes the name of his interpreters, Mr. and Mrs. Vial, on page 66, but they are left out of the Traité.

4. On the other hand, the listing of eucalypts and giant ferns (more characteristic of Sherbrooke Forest than Tamborine Mountain) is in Messiaen’s own hand, as is the fig tree with a base “ten metres in diameter”.

5. He does, however, partially acquit himself of the charge of poetic license when he writes of Curtis Falls: Messiaen’s “rivière” in the Traité appears as the more accurate “petite rivière” in his own hand. Ch a p t e r Fo u r 73

Thus, the only errata certain to be Messiaen’s and not an editor’s are quite minor ones concerning the presence or size of ferns, eucalypts, and a fig tree—surely forgivable.

Albert’s Lyrebird Tamborine Mountain territorial song is notated on both pages 64 and 65 (notebook #23159), and we believe these to be a major inspiration for the Albert’s Lyrebird material in “Les étoiles et la Gloire.” Messiaen facilitates the identification and analysis of birdsong motifs both by prefacing this score with the familiar “literary paraphernalia” (Hold 1971, 113): a listing by movement of each bird in French, Latin, and English, as well as indicating the bird’s country of origin. Birdsong figures in seven of the eleven movements, with Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Papua New Guinea, India, and Africa listed as source countries. He also designates the entrance of each bird in the score.

The first avian entrance in “Les étoiles et la Gloire” (on page 13, rehearsal letter “5”) is labelled“Oiseau Lyre d’Albert— Australie.” Here, Messiaen’s lyrebird theme spans two measures and consists of a two-note motif submitted to a gradual crescendo in its five presentations. The intervallic permutations in the theme’s first entrance from three oboes cycle through a diminished fourth, perfect fourth, diminished fifth, and major third (all ascending) and conclude with a descending major second. These see a number of other permutations in later iterations and in other voices.

Page 64 (notebook #23159) bears similarity to the Albert’s Lyrebird material in “Les étoiles et la Gloire,” as does page 65 but to a lesser degree. Curtis surmises that page 65 was a different bird, notated later at the picnic breakfast site.7 For ease of visual comparison, Figure 4–4 below pairs page 13 of the score (the first lyrebird entrance) and page 17 of the score (the fourth lyrebird entrance) with Messiaen’s field notations from pages 64 and 65. Again, only the second part of the territorial song appears; the very high, short introductory notes we saw in Figure 2 (page 12/#23160) are neither notated in the fieldwork pages 64-65 nor included in the score.

The architecture of the second part of Albert’s Lyrebird territorial song generally consists (for the bird) of five to seven motifs 74 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

(with seven the most common) spaced evenly and fairly close together, ascending or descending, submitted to a gradual crescendo. Messiaen cycles through five, five, five, seven, five, and six motifs (pages 13, 15, 16, 17, 20, and 20-21 respectively). Like the bird, each is delivered with a gradual crescendo.

Fig. 4–4, A comparison of Albert’s Lyrebird thematic material from Messiaen’s “Les étoiles et la Gloire” with Messiaen’s field notations. From the top: page 13 of the score (the first lyrebird entrance) and page 17 of the score (the third lyrebird entrance), Ch a p t e r Fo u r 75 followed by notations from pages 64 and 65/ notebook #23159.

Considering the amount of mimicry present in lyrebird song, one could imagine coming across a Satin or Crimson Rosella song mistakenly assumed by Messiaen to be the lyrebird’s own. After all, he was not an expert on Australian birds. However, nowhere in his notations or score does he confuse lyrebird mimicry of another bird with the lyrebird’s own song.

Procedures common in birdsong in general and Albert’s Lyrebird song in particular (such as rhythmic momentum but nevertheless ambiguity in rhythm and pulse, formulaic short units reiterated and revised, segmentation) comfortably fit Messiaen’s aesthetic. I shall leave it to Messiaen scholars to further disentangle his procedures here and reëntangle them in the broader setting of his work in general. Nevertheless, one cannot ignore the recurrent ascending (and occasionally descending) perfect fourths, G#-C#, found in these field notations and the score, nor their transformation to the diminished fifth. This interval recalls the tritones of the opening theme, B-F-E-Bb, first introduced by the double basses and bass clarinet. On page 16 of the score, the third iteration of the lyrebird theme finds four of the five motifs outlining a tritone (Fig. 5–4). The harmonies are ambiguous and subservient to the rhythmic momentum, and since harmony falls outside birdsong’s arena, no attention is devoted to that parameter in this brief analysis.

Fig. 5–4, Page 16 from Messiaen’s “Les étoiles et la Gloire” finds four of the five Albert’s Lyrebird motifs outlining a tritone, marked ^.

The Albert’s Lyrebird is not the only avian presence in “Les étoiles et la Gloire.” This movement counts thirteen other birds: the Mallee Ringneck, Eastern Whipbird, Pied Butcherbird, Grey Butcherbird, Lewin’s Honeyeater, and from 76 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d

Australia; the Blackcap from Europe; the Hooded Butcherbird, New Guinea Friarbird, Brown Shrike Thrush, Brown Oriole, and Noisy Pitta from Papua New Guinea; and the Shama from India. Schultz writes of “Messiaen’s self-admitted tendency to unintentionally insert his own compositional voice and artistic sensibilities into his birdsong transcriptions” (2008, 89); likewise, a second “Messiaenisation” occurs when the material moves from transcription to composition. With the lyrebird, as with the others in “Les étoiles et la Gloire,” no programmatic attempt is made to duplicate the bird’s song with exactitude or to evoke the entire soundscape of the bird’s environment. Instead, he revels in the freedom and inspiration provided by these natural models, creating an amalgamated Albert’s Lyrebird and placing it in his context of choice.

Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen wrote to Curtis in June 1992; the letter reads in part:

I would like to tell you that he worked for four years on a commission from the New York Philharmonic, which will debut in November 1992, and one of the eleven movements (for full orchestra) is dedicated entirely to the lyrebird! The orchestration is magnificent… Perhaps some day there will be a recording of this work, and you could recognise your dear friend, the Superb lyrebird, who illuminates the whole score, and this thanks to you. The work is entitled “Éclairs sur l’Au-delà”… Also singing in this score: the Pied Butcherbird, the Albert’s Lyrebird, the Mallee Ringneck, the Eastern Whipbird, the Grey Butcherbird, the Lewin’s Honeyeater, the Laughing Kookaburra, the White-winged Wren, etc. (I hope I did not make a mistake with the Latin names.)

We owe you a huge thank you for facilitating our hearing of these marvelous birds. This will stay a very touching memory (HT trans.).

Je voudrais vous dire que depuis 4 ans, il a travaillé à une commande de le Philharmonie de New-York, qui sera crée en novembre 1992, et dont l’une des 11 pièces (pour grand orchestre) est consacrée entièrement a L’oiseau- Lyre! L’orchestration est magnifique … Peut-être un jour y aura t-il un disque de cette oeuvre, et vous pourrez y reconnaître votre cher ami Superb Lyrebird, qui illumine Ch a p t e r Fo u r 77

toute la partition, et ceci grâce a vous. L’oeuvre s’intitule: “Éclairs sur l’Au-delà”… Chantent aussi dans cette partition: nigrogularis—Menura Alberti— Platycercus zonarius—Psophodes olivaceus—Cracticus torquatus—Meliphaga lewinii—Dacelo novaeguinea— Malurus leucopterus—etc. (J’espère ne pas me tromper dans les noms latins.)

C’est donc un immense remerciement que nous vous devons, d’avoir pu nous faire entendu ces oiseaux marveilleux. Cela restera un souvenir très émouvant (Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, letter to Sydney Curtis, June 7, 1992).

Madame Loriod-Messiaen was correct about the eventual recording of “Éclairs sur l’Au-delà.” But did Messiaen capture the Albert’s Lyrebird quintessence, or did it slip through his fingers? To paraphrase Hold (1971, 114), is this Olivier Messiaen’s Albert’s Lyrebird or Sydney Curtis’? The resultant composite bird, although influenced and transformed by Messiaen’s own imagination and aesthetic preferences, remains vivid and faithful enough to nature that Curtis, an ornithologist rather than a Messiaen scholar, has no difficulty in deciphering theAlbert’s Lyrebird entrance in a recording of “Les étoiles et la Gloire”—suggesting the answer: “This is both men’s bird.”

Notes

1. Lyrebirds for Olivier Messiaen is my working title of the cassette; Messiaen’s copy may be labeled differently. [SC] 2. The letter reads, in part: “Your letter has given me immense pleasure. I remember very well the magnificent recording of lyrebird song that you sent me in 1981, and I was most unhappy to think that I would have a long concert tour of my orchestral works in Australia and yet not be able to hear any Australian birdsong because it will be winter. You have restored my hope” (HT trans.). “Votre letter m’a fait un immense plaisir. Je me souvien très bien du magnifique enregistrement du chant de l’Oiseau Lyre que vous m’aviez envoyé en 1981, et j’étais très malhereux de penser que j’allais faire une longue tornée de concerts de mes oeuvres d’orchestre en Australie, et que je ne pourrais entendre aucun chant d’oiseaux australiens pendant cette tournée, parce que nous serons en hiver. Vous me redonnez espoir.” 3. Peter Hill kindly directed us to Messiaen’s birdsong notebooks, which are 78 Ol i v i e r Me s s i a e n a n d t h e Al b e r t ’s Ly r e b i r d deposited at the Fonds Messiaen in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 4. Entries from Messiaen’s birdsong notebooks for Tamborine Mountain comprise three pages. We have numbered the staves on each page as a broad indication of how much he notated of each species. In order, they are: Notebook 23159, page 64: Stave Species notated 01 Albert’s Lyrebird (commences at 6h10) 02 Lewin’s Honeyeater, Albert’s Lyrebird 03/04 Albert’s Lyrebird 05 Lewin’s Honeyeater, Albert’s Lyrebird 06 Eastern Whipbird, Albert’s Lyrebird 07 Laughing Kookaburra, Eastern Whipbird, Albert’s Lyrebird 08 Brown Pigeon*, Albert’s Lyrebird 09/10 Albert’s Lyrebird 11 Brown Pigeon*, Albert’s Lyrebird 12 Grey Butcherbird * now called “Brown Cuckoo-dove”

Notebook 23159, page 65: Stave Species notated 01 Lewin’s Honeyeater (commences at 7h10) 02 Albert’s Lyrebird 03 Rainbow Lorikeet 04/05 Pied Currawong 06/07 Laughing Kookaburra 08 Australian Magpie 09 Pied Currawong, Australian Magpie 10-12 Pied Butcherbird

Notebook 23159, page 66: Stave Species notated 01 Whipbird, Pied Currawong (commences at 7h30) 02 Lewin’s Honeyeater, Eastern Whipbird 03 Australian Magpie 04 White-throated Treecreeper, Eastern Whipbird 05 Australian Magpie (8h20) 06-09 Australian Magpie 10 Eastern Whipbird (finishes at 9h) 5. Pour Messiaen is my working title of the cassette; Messiaen’s copy may be labeled differently. [SC] 6. Pages 25-29 of notebook 23159, marked “Australie (Sydney Curtis),” feature notations that Messiaen made from the cassette Pour Messiaen that I sent him. He has notated (in order): Australian Magpie, Pied Butcherbird, Grey Butcherbird, Black Butcherbird, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Ch a p t e r Fo u r 79

Grey Whistler, Little Shrike-thrush, Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied Currawong, and Eastern Whipbird. The cassette had (in order): Brown Quail, Australian Magpie, Pied and Grey , Pardalote, Black Butcherbird, Olive Whistler, Golden Whistler, Rufous Whistler, Grey Whistler, Yellow Oriole, Shrike-thrush (?Little), Grey Shrike-thrush, Pied , Albert’s Lyrebird, Lewin’s Honeyeater, White-throated Treecreeper, Noisy Pitta, and Eastern Whipbird. I can imagine that the quail, pardalote, and oriole were not of interest, and the Olive Whistler no doubt was omitted because of my advice that it was Peter Ogilvie’s recording and copyright, not mine. [SC] 7. An Albert’s Lyrebird will sing from the tree for up to half an hour, and then he goes to the ground. At our first location on Tamborine Mountain, we were above the scarp, opposite the lyrebird so that his treetop position was not much above us if at all. When he went to the ground, there would have been no point in remaining as far as hearing the lyrebird was concerned, and I had hoped to let Messiaen hear another lyrebird at Knoll National Park. My estimate is that at about 6:45 a.m. we went back to the car and drove to the Knoll for breakfast, which fits his 7:10- 9:00 notations for pages 65 and 66. [SC]