The Messe De La Pentecote of Olivier Messiaen

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The Messe de la Pentecôte of Olivier Messiaen

A document submitted to the

Division of Graduate Studies and Research of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS

in the Keyboard Studies Division of the College-Conservatory of Music

2013

Shi-Ae Park

B.M., Presbyterian College & Theological Seminary, 2001 M.M., Korea National University of Arts, 2003 A.C., Southern Methodist University, 2006

Committee Members: Roberta Gary, D.M.A. (Chair) John Deaver, D.M.A. Matthew Peattie, Ph.D.

ABSTRACT

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) composed his Messe de la Pentecôte for organ in 1950, after a decade of exploring new ideas, including complicated rhythmic manipulations, bird calls, and others, that would be central to his later style. Much has been made about

Messiaen’s remark that this piece was the result of twenty years of improvising. While there is much material in the five movements of the mass that seems to be improvisatory in nature, there is also much based on rhythmic calculations drawn from Greek meters, Hindu rhythms, and Messiaen’s own personnages rhythmiques and interversions, which are serializations of durations. This document explores the interaction of these two compositional procedures and their effect on each movement, especially in terms of form. It also considers how Messiaen uses these compositional procedures as well as organ registration to reflect and comment upon the scriptural texts included in the score.

S.D.G.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Roberta Gary, Dr. John Deaver, and Dr.

Matthew Peattie, for their constant encouragement and help. I especially thank Dr. Gary, my advisor, for her constant support and patience. Without her love and care through my DMA program, I might have not reached this step. Dr. Deaver challenged and showed me a vision as a church musician not only in his class but also with his life. Dr. Peattie has supported and advised me for my cognate study of sacred music. I am very thankful for the experience in his inspiring chant class.

I also would like to thank Ellis Anderson, my proof-reader. Without his help, this long procedure of academic writing in foreign language could have been more difficult.

I am very grateful to my parents for their prayers and supports.

This accomplishment could not have been possible without Jung Jin, my husband, and his love and help.

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………………………...i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………….………………………………………………………iv CONTENTS …………………………………………………………………………………..v INDEX OF TABLES……………. ………………………………………………………….vii

CHAPTERS Chapter 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….1 A. Brief history of the composition of the Messe de la Pentecôte B. Context of the mass within Messiaen’s organ repertoire C. Messiaen’s comment on improvisation and scholarly remarks pertaining to it

Chapter 2. The interaction of rhythmic manipulations and improvisatory material…………..3 A. Categories of rhythmic manipulations……………….……………………………..4 1. Greek meters………………………………………………………………..6 2. Hindu rhythms……………………………………………………………..13 3. Messiaen’s own rhythmic ideas …………………………………………..21

B. Categories of improvisatory material……………………………………………..28 1. Melody…………………………………………………………………….30 Plainchant Like-plainchant 2. Harmony………………………………...………………………………....35 Modal Non-modal 3. Birdsong……...………………...………………………………………….38

C. The forms derived from the interaction of these compositional elements……….41 1. Entrée 2. Offertoire 3. Consécration 4. Communion 5. Sortie

Chapter 3. An Examination of programmatic elements……………………………………...44 1. Entrée – The tongues of fire……………………………………………….45 “Tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them” (Acts of the Apostles 2:3) 2. Offertoire – Things visible and invisible…………………………………..46 “Things visible and invisible” (Nicene Creed) 3. Consécration – The gift of wisdom………………………………………..49 “The Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (The Gospel according to St. John 14:26) 4. Communion – The birds and the waters………………………………….50 “O all ye waters that be above heaven, bless ye the Lord: O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord.” (Prayer of Azariah 1:38, 58) 5. Sortie – The wind of the spirit……………………………………………..51 “A rushing mighty wind filled all the house” (Acts of the Apostles 2:2)

Chapter 4. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………..52

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………….……………………….…55

INDEX OF TABLES

Table 1: Greek meters in twenty-three feet…………………...….…….…………………….. 8 Table 2: The first movement in Greek meters ……………….….………...………..………..10 Table 3: Messiaen’s modes of limited transpositions…...………..……..………………….. 36 Table 4: Formal structure ………………………………………..…………………………. 42

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Chapter 1. Introduction

A. Brief history of the composition of the Messe de la Pentecôte

Olivier Messiaen composed his Messe de la Pentecôte for organ in 1950. There is an eleven-year gap between Messe de la Pentecôte and his previous organ composition, Les corps glorieux (Glorious bodies) in 1939. Before this hiatus, Messiaen was an active composer of organ music, having written many works including Le banquet Céleste (1928),

Diptyque (1930), Apparition de l’Église Éternelle (1932), L’Ascension (1933), La Nativité du

Seigneur (1935) and Les corps glorieux (1939). During the war and post-war decade of the

1940’s, Messiaen’s music had developed significantly. During this time, he began to incorporate some complicated aspects into his composition, including harmony and rhythm.

Most of the works of this period explore the expressive qualities of the piano, whether for solo or in ensemble, such as “Visions de l’Amen” (1943, two pianos), and “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jèsus” (1944, solo piano). Two major works are especially important from this time, the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the end of time, 1941) and the Turangalîla-

Symphonie (1948). The quartet was composed while he was in a German prison camp, and it was the first work to incorporate bird songs, which became a common feature in his music afterwards. The symphony is another beginning point for using the rhythmic aspect as a dominant element. The Messe de la Pentecôte is the first organ piece to employ these trends.

B. Context of the mass within Messiaen’s organ repertoire

The Messe de la Pentecôte was composed during 1950, and finished on 21 January

1951. The composer gave the first performance of at least two movements at La Trinité on 13

May 1951, during one of the masses for Pentecost Sunday. In the May issue of La Trinité’s parish magazine, he introduced his new pieces to the parishioners:

For midday Mass, reserved for modern music, I have composed two pieces especially: an offertoire and a sortie. The offertoire comments on the words ‘Les choses visibles et invisibles’ (‘All things visible and invisible’) which we recite each Sunday in the Creed, and which are applied perfectly to the kingdom of the Holy Spirit, an inner kingdom of invisible grace. The somber colours of the registration, the construction with ‘rhythmic characters’, the alternation of the 16-foot bassoon which growls in the extreme bass, with the piccolo and tierce making the sounds of distant bells in an extremely high register, depict the working of grace. The sortie, entitled ‘Le vent de l’Esprit’ [‘The wind of the Spirit’], uses a text from the Acts of the Apostles: ‘A powerful wind from heaven filled the entire house’ (taken from the Epistle of the day). A fortissimo, at first very violent, rises up in rapid swirls, like a chorus of larks as a symbol of joy.1

The Messe de la Pentecôte is designed to correspond with the length and liturgical functions of the low mass, and consists of five movements: Entrée, Offertoire, Consécration,

Communion and Sortie. This five-movement structure shows the influence of L’Orgue

Mystique by Charles Tournemire (1870–1939), which is a cycle for one liturgical year of 51 suites. Unlike the French Organ Mass of the 16th century, which follows the structure of the

Ordinary (Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei), each setting of L’Orgue Mystique contains five movements designed to accompany the main actions of the Mass: the entry of the priest, the offertory, the consecration, the communion, and the withdrawal.2

C. Messiaen’s comment on improvisation and scholarly remarks pertaining to it

Messiaen said that this Mass was based on twenty years of improvising at his church,

La Trinité. At the same time, it is also his first organ work to engage in the compositional procedures he was developing in the 1940s. It includes Hindu rhythms, Greek meters, and his

1 Olivier Messiaen: ‘Orgue’, La Trinité: Journal paroissial, May 1951, 3.

2 Paul Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time (Ithaca and New York: Cornell University Press, 1985), 156.

2 own rhythmic manipulations, as well as bird calls and plain chant. Further, judging by the piece itself as well as the numerous sketches outlining the calculations of these rhythmic devices, it is clear that the piece is not based on twenty years of improvisation alone. Other scholars have noticed this as well: Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone write that these sketches help “to explain why Messe de la Pentecôte—which Messiaen maintained was based on twenty years of improvising—contains passages of highly calculated rhythm which seems anything but improvisatory.”3 This piece is the result of an intricate interaction of these

“passages of highly calculated rhythms” and improvisatory music. The purpose of this study is to examine and explain this interaction and show its effect on the form of each movement.

The illustrations and examples, which will be explained, are largely based on Messiaen’s own

Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie.4

Chapter 2. The Interaction of Rhythmic Manipulations and Improvisatory Material

Although Messiaen maintained that the Messe de la Pentecôte was the result of twenty years of improvisation, and while improvisatory music counts for a large portion of the material of this work, thought-out compositional planning and manipulation contributes at least an equal share. The mass includes some pitch manipulations, such as twelve-tone aggregates and several of the modes of limited transposition that are used in the second

3 Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone, Messiaen (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005), 193.

4 Olivier Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie. Vol. 4. Completed by Yvonne Loriod (Paris: Leduc, 1997).

3 movement. However, it is the rhythmic designs of this work that most clearly demonstrate

Messiaen’s careful compositional procedures. This chapter will explore the sources of rhythms used in the Mass and Messiaen’s use and manipulations of them.

A. Categories of rhythmic manipulations

Rhythm is always one of the chief concerns in Messiaen’s music. As he himself stated,

“I consider that rhythm is the primordial and perhaps essential part of music: I think it probably existed before melody and harmony, and in fact I've a secret preference for this element.”5 Already in the first treatise on his own compositional processes, written in 1944,

Technique de mon langage musical, Messiaen explained his rhythmic techniques including the use of added values, augmentation and diminution, nonretrogradable rhythms, polyrhythms , as well as his adaptation of Hindu rhythms. In his later treatise, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie (7 vols., 1949-1992), Messiaen focused to an even greater extent on rhythm, developing further those concepts already discussed as well as newer ones such as the personnages rythmiques (rhythmic characters), irrational values,

Greek meters, and durées chromatiques (chromatic durations), among others. This treatise also includes very detailed explanations of his own pieces and helps greatly in the understanding of his music.

In the Messe de la Pentecôte, where complicated planned rhythmic material interacts with improvisatory material, Messiaen relied on three basic sources for his rhythmic concerns:

Greek meters, Hindu rhythms, and his own rhythmic creation, the “durées chromatiques,” in which each successive value is one greater or lesser than the preceding value. Further, these

5 Claude Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel (Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1994), 67.

4 different rhythms are manipulated by a variety of techniques, including the use of irrational rhythms, “personnage rhythmiques”—consisting of three cells of rhythmic units in which one increases, one decreases, and one remains constant, thus producing variation but with the same outcome throughout the use of the rhythm—, and “interversions,” which are serial permutations of rhythmic values.

Messiaen’s early interest and education in Greek meters occurred during his time at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1920s. Two professors, organist Marcel Dupré (1886-1971), and musicologist and composer Maurice Emmanuel (1862–1938), were instrumental in fostering this knowledge. Dupré taught Messiaen to include Greek rhythms in his improvisations on the organ, and Emmanuel gave a year-long course on Greek meters.

Emmanuel’s extensive article on poetic meters, rhythms and music in ancient Greece, published in Lavignac’s encyclopedia, was highly influential on Messiaen’s understanding and use of Greek meters.6 It is interesting to note that while his education in these particular rhythmic sources happened early, Messiaen does not discuss Greek meters in his first treatise, nor do they factor in his pieces in a major way until the Mass.

Messiaen also encountered Hindu rhythms in Lavignac’s encyclopedia, which was first published in 1924. The information for the article on Hindu rhythms as well as the table of 120 deçî-tâlas came mostly from a thirteenth-century treatise, probably written by

Śārngadeva, known as the Sangita-ratnakara.7 The word deçî-tâla is a combination of tâla

(rhythm) and deçî (regional), which therefore means rhythms from different regions. Like the

Greek rhythms Messiaen studied, these Hindu rhythms were no longer relevant to modern

Hindu music, but for Messiaen were ancient and abstract procedures he could apply to his

6 Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time, 26.

7 Ibid., 60.

5 own music.8 As many have pointed out, it was through the study of Hindu rhythms that

Messiaen developed his ideas about additive increases in value, inexact augmentation and nonretrogradable rhythms.9 Hindu rhythms, and Messiaen’s manipulation of them, became one of the major aspects of his music beginning with pieces from 1935 such as La Nativité

(1935).

Concerning his own rhythmic constructions, such as the durées chromatiques, and manipulations like the interversions, Messiaen began experimenting with these in the pieces of the 1940s. The durées chromatiques are first noticeable in the Turangalîla-symphonie written in 1948, just two years before the mass. Interversions, personnages rythmiques and irrational values are evident in pieces such as Cantéyodjayâ (piano, 1949) and Quatre études de rythme (Four studies in rhythm, piano, 1949–50). The Messe de la Pentecôte draws from all of these different sources and procedures.

1. Greek Meters

Messiaen employs Greek meters and rhythms only in the first movement of the Mass,

“Entrée (Les langues de feu).” He uses twenty-four different Greek “feet”—saying that he borrowed “almost all the Greek feet”10—in the thirty-nine measures of the movement. The structure is not similar to how he will use Hindu rhythms in a later movement, where there is an alternation between the superimposed rhythms and the improvisatory style. Here, the

Greek meters are a constant, serving almost as a cantus firmus, throughout the piece. This

8 Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time, 60.

9 Salomé Van der Walt, “Rhythmic Techniques In a Selection of Olivier Messiaen’s Piano Works” (M.M. thesis, Pretoria University, 2007), 30.

10 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 73. 6 procedure greatly affects the form of this movement but also the programmatic or text- expression qualities as well, as will be discussed in chapter four.

Messiaen understood Greek rhythms essentially as a series or sequence of long and short syllables in combinations, which form short patterns called feet. Individual feet are then put together with others of their same pattern or different ones to form a meter. In an interview with Claude Samuel, he takes issue with what he sees as a major historical flaw in the understanding of Greek meters.

Greek meters rely on a simple and essential principle: they’re composed of shorts and longs, with the shorts all equal and one long equaling two shorts. This might sound like a self-evident truth to you, but it’s extremely important because many researchers, influenced by the customs of Western music, believed they found in ancient Greek rhythms either bars of equal time or irrational values that did not exist. In fact, they’ve destroyed certain relationships between short and long beats that resulted in odd numbers (like the number five for the paeons or the number seven for the epitrites), further resulting in unexpected combinations like the dochmiac rhythm, grouping an iamb with a Cretic, which is to say a rhythm in triple time, and a rhythm in quintuple time, which gives a total of eight short beats.11

Greek meters are for Messiaen, then, another way to get around the metric beat of Western music, focusing instead on free rhythms in which a sense of pulse is more or less lost.

In volume one of the Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, Messiaen categorized the Greek meters into twenty-three feet: [Table 1]. In a table that provides the name of each foot as well as the symbols for short and long, and their corresponding note values (quarter and half notes), he divided them based on the number of shorts they equaled.

11 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 73.

[Table 1] Greek meters in twenty-three feet12

12 Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, Vol. 1.

In the first movement of the Mass, Messiaen uses all of these feet except the Pyrrhic, consisting of two shorts (SS) and the Molossus, which has three longs (LLL). Further, there are several feet in the piece not included in the table, including the antispaste (SLLS), and two feet that are combinations of two smaller ones, which Messiaen calls “composed feet”: the choriambe (LSSL) and the dochmiac (SLLSL). The choriambe is a combination of the trochee (LS) and the iambe (SL), and the dochmiac is a combination of the iambe (SL) and the cretic (LSL). Therefore, Messiaen uses twenty-four feet to make up the meters in this movement.

The [Table 2] presents the entire movement reduced to the Greek meters alone. It is from volume five of Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, where Messiaen discusses the Mass specifically. Note that sometimes the feet are used twice in a row and are marked by Messiaen with the prefix di- (two) and the original: diambe, ditrochee, and dispondee. The prefix anti- (opposite) is used as well as in the case of the antispaste. The durations of notes are only consistent with each foot and not between feet. For instance, the first time Messiaen uses the iambe, it is written in quarter and half notes, while the last time, in dotted quarter and dotted half notes. Overall the values vary from thirty-second notes to dotted half notes: [Table 2].

Messiaen’s overall treatment of the Greek feet in this movement seems to purposely lack a controlled plan. Rather it is the number of feet used and their random variedness that remains constant and that comments on the programmatic associations of the title (which will be explored in a later chapter). The pitch content, however, aids greatly in the understanding of the movement and the nature of Messiaen’s use of Greek meters. In a way, this movement must be understood in terms of statements of text in Greek poetry, and the pitch content, quite a small collection, reinforces this idea.

[Table 2] The first movement in Greek meters13

13 Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, Vol. 4, 88.

The form of the movement is ABA, and there is a constant divide between the pedal and the manual registers. In the opening A section, the pedal uses the pitches A-flat, G, E, and B-flat. It states these pitches four times, each a variation of the principal idea of descending: [Example 1].

[Example 1]

This solo pedal line alternates with pitch material in the manual register that is based on seven notes: C, F-sharp, B, A, E-flat, A-flat, and G. This material is also stated four times, but with little variation: [Example 2].

[Example 2]

The musical interest in this section is not in varied pitch content, but that in each statement of the repeated pitch content, the rhythm based on the Greek meters changes slightly. The B section is shaped similarly. Though based on a different collection of notes, simple repetition with constantly changing rhythms provides the musical material. One small pattern concerning the use of the feet is apparent within the structure of the phrases. Messiaen concludes each statement of the pitch material, including both manual and pedal, with a foot that ends with a long, providing a kind of cadence to each successive phrase. For instance, the spondee and amphimacre feet are each used three times to cadence the phrases. But apart from this cadential figure, the choice of feet seems to be in no particular order.

One further rhythmic complication in this movement is the use of irrational values in the groupings of many of the Greek feet. Messiaen noted this design in the instructions on the score: “rhythmes grecs traités en valeurs irrationnelles (Greek rhythms treated with irrational rhythms).” Paul Griffiths has noted that for Messiaen, the use of irrational rhythms was new to the Mass. He states:

Though it may appear odd that a composer in the twentieth century should have managed without this for twenty years, particularly when rhythm was one of his dearest concerns, Messiaen’s preference for integral values is understandable as an expression of his view of rhythm as number and his consequent search for irregularity more in the grouping of units than in their subdivision: hence his attachments to Greek and Hindu formulae which supply irregular formations.14

He goes on to say that Messiaen used irrational values within the Greek meters to give “the implication of speech,” rather than specific poetic meters. Whatever the reason, the first movement of the Mass is an extremely complicated set of rhythms derived from Greek meters and manipulated rhythms.

14 Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time, 158. 12

2. Hindu Rhythms

In his Mass, Messiaen employs Hindu rhythms in the second movement, “Offertoire

(Les choses visibles et invisibles),” and the third movement, “Consécration (Le don de

Sagesse).” Out of the possible 120 deçî-tâlas the composer had at his disposal from the table published in Lavignac’s Encyclopedia, Messiaen chose five. These tâlas, each with their own distinctive rhythmic character, will also be manipulated by Messiaen with further mathematical concepts such as the personnages rythmiques and interversions.

The five tâlas Messiaen uses are the tritîya (no. 3), caturthaka (no. 4), nihçankalîla

(no. 6), all which appear in the second movement of the mass: [Example 3], and the simhavikrama (no. 8): [Example 4], and miçra varna (no. 26): [Example 5], the two which are important for the third movement. The following examples show the rhythms of each, as well as their first appearance in the score.

[Example 3] tritîya, caturthaka and nihçankalîla

tritîya caturthaka nihçankalîla

[Example 4] simhavikrama

simhavikrama

[Example 5] miçra varna

miçra varna

While there does not seem to be any special significance for the choice of these specific Hindu rhythms, and Messiaen himself, who discussed his own music in great detail,

14 never gave a specific reason, his understanding of and appreciation for Hindu rhythms is important for much of his music. In fact, he states that his study of Hindu rhythms influenced much of his rhythmic ideas including his use of nonretrogradable rhythms.

I have studied at great length the 120 deçî-tâlas that were assembled in some disorder by Śārngadeva, so much so that I ended up discovering the different rhythmic rules that derive from them, as well as the religious, philosophical, and cosmic symbols they contain….I can give you the general rules engendered by the rhythms. These are the principle of the addition of a dot, the principle of the increase and decrease of one value out of two, the principle of inexact augmentation, and that of disassociation and coagulation. The primordial element is the existence of special rhythms that I’ve named ‘nonretrogradable’.15

In second chapter of his treatise, Technique de mon langage musical (1944), Messiaen first discussed the character of the Hindu rhythms and gave examples of use of them in his music. He says that the character of these rhythms produces “ametrical music,” and explains that they are formed out of smaller note values and their multiplications or accumulations rather than being organized around a central pulse or beat. He also states that this technique reminds him of Stravinsky’s music. This characteristic is central to Messiaen’s experimentation with rhythm and is noticeable in his use of Greek rhythms as well. In this treatise, he demonstrates his use of Hindu rhythms by citing an example from Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet For the End of Time, 1940–41), in which he borrowed the simhavikridita tala (no. 27) and manipulated it through added value, augmentation, diminution, and retrograde. In his later treatise, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, Messiaen deals more with the “religious, philosophical, and cosmic symbols” contained in the rhythms, yet he maintains that though this study helps him understand the tâlas, his interest lies only in the rhythms.16

15 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 76.

16 Ibid. 15

The second movement of the Mass is perhaps the most complicated of the whole work.

The form is A B A1 B1 A1 B2 A Coda, with the A sections alone being based on Hindu rhythms. The B sections are improvisatory-like, while the A1 sections use Messiaen’s own rhythmic creation, the dureés chromatique. In the A sections, the three tâlas are always used together as groups and the groups are stated three times in each A section. [Example 6] shows the opening measures again.

[Example 6]

Both the tritîya and the caturthaka are heard in the pedal at the beginning, while the nihçankalîla is played in the manual. The nihçankalîla, alone is embellished with additional tones in even rhythms. In the further statements of these rhythms and these groups, the pitch content will remain the same for each Hindu rhythm.

The groups of the three Hindu rhythms are further organized by the mathematical principle of interversions. Any series will have a set number of symmetrical permutations.

For instance, the series 1, 2, 3 can be permutated into six different orders (3 factorial =

1x2x3): [Figure 1].

[Figure 1]

1 2 3 1 3 2 2 1 3 2 3 1 3 2 1 3 1 2

This represents a logical order, in which the smallest ordinal is used until it cannot be, and is then replaced by the next smallest, etc. So the numbers on the left are 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, and 3. This set of interversions is exactly what Messiaen uses in the six statements of his three Hindu rhythms. In the following graph, [Figure 2], tritîya is A, caturthaka is B, and the nihçankalîla is C.

[Figure 2]

Interversion I A B C Section A Interversion II A C B Interversion III B C A + extra B Interversion IV B A C Section A1 Interversion V C B A Interversion VI C A B

The interversion of the initial A section in rhythmic values is described in the [Figure 3].

[Figure 3]

The one exception to the normal permutations of the interversions is that after interversion 3, which concludes the first A section, Messiaen includes an extra statement of caturthaka:

[Example 7].

[Example 7] Interversion III B C A + extra B

caturtha nihçankalîla tritîya caturthaka

In the A1 section, due to the nature of interversions, the caturthaka will again have seemingly greater importance as it serves as bookends, heard first and last in the section.

One further manipulation of the Hindu rhythms in the second movement is the use of personnages rythmiques, a common technique in Messiaen’s music. This technique deals with a group, often of three distinct ideas or rhythms, as is the case here. The simple explanation is that in one cell, the rhythm will be increased by one extra note value

(composer’s choice), in another cell, the rhythm will be decreased by the same value, and in the third cell, the value will remain constant. This technique results in the outcome of the durations being the same, but with the internal process being different: [Figure 4]. 18

[Figure 4] personnages rythmiques (rhythmic characters)

During the conversation with Samuel, Messiaen explains this procedure in the following way:

Let’s imagine a scene in a play in which we place three characters: the first one acts, behaving in a brutal manner by striking the second; the second character is acted upon, his actions dominated by those of first; finally, the third character is simply present at the conflict and remains inactive. If we transport this parable into the field of rhythm, we obtain three rhythmic groups: the first, whose note-values are ever increasing, is the character who attacks; the second, whose note-values decrease, is the character who is attacked; and the third, whose note-values never change, is the character who doesn’t move.17

Messiaen also explains that this procedure was influenced by Beethoven’s treatment of thematic development and Stravinsky’s manipulation of rhythm cells, especially in the

“Sacrificial Dance” from The Rite of Spring.18

In the second movement, the value of each note of the caturthaka pattern is increased by a thirty-second note with each successive appearance in the piece: [Figure 5]. Similarly, the value of each note of the nihçankalîla pattern is decreased by a thirty-second note with each successive appearance in the piece: [Figure 6]. The pattern actually begins in

17 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 71.

18 Ibid., 73.

19 augmentation because of the addition of rests between notes of the pattern. The pattern of tritîya does not change in value at all.

[Figure 5] caturthaka ( )

[Figure 6] nihçankalîla ( )

The extra caturthaka is the only one that repeats; it is the same as the beginning of the A section.

Messiaen’s treatment of the two tâlas used in the third movement is considerably less complicated than that of the second movement. Here, the simhavikrama (no. 8) and miçra varna (no. 26) are stated separately and not combined like the Hindu rhythms of the second movement: [Example 8] and [Example 9]. Further, they are not manipulated in any way and are simply stated in their original forms; each appears three times in this movement.

[Example 8] simhavikrama (no. 8)

[Example 9] miçra varna (no. 26)

3. Messiaen’s own rhythmic ideas

The use of Greek and Hindu rhythms in the music of Messiaen is an example of his overall interest in experimentation with and general concern about rhythm. Both are ways of applying ancient rhythms to modern music and have the effect of blurring traditional metric music. They are often subject to mathematical manipulations in his music, such as the personnages rythmiques, as we have seen in the case of the Hindu rhythms used in the second movement. Messiaen also came up with his own rhythmic designs in addition to the Greek

21 meters and Hindu tâlas. In his Mass, he employs one of these, the “durées chromatiques,” with which he had been experimenting for several years. As Robert Johnson writes:

As early as 1944, during the course of his discussion of Berg’s Lyric Suite in his composition classes, Messiaen spoke out against the tendency of the second Viennese school to experiment exclusively with pitch structures while adhering to traditional conceptions of rhythm and form. At the same time he cited the possibility of using a series of timbres, a series of intensities, and especially a series of durations. The beginnings of his use of series of durations has already been noted in Turangalîla and a move in the direction of a mode of durations and intensities occurs in Cantéyodjayâ. The first piece to make exclusive use of this principle, however, was the second “Étude de rhythme,” Mode de valeurs et d’intensitiés.19

The name of the process that appears in Turangalîla (1946–48), Cantéyodjayâ (1949), and especially in the “Mode de valeurs et d’intensitiés from the Etudes de rhythme”(1949–50), became known as durées chromatiques, and is one of his ideas that had a tremendous influence on the total-serialist composers, many of whom were his students.

Essentially, durées chromatiques is a serial approach to rhythm in which with each additional note there is either an increase or decrease of a specific value, to a predetermined limit. The composer chooses what that value will be, whether an eighth note, sixteenth note, thirty-second note, etc., and that value governs the series. Normally, that value remains a constant. For example, in his Etude, “Mode de valeurs et d’intensitiés,” Messiaen uses three different rows throughout the piece, each based on a different duration: thirty-second note, sixteenth note, and lastly, the eighth note. In the Messe de la Pentecôte, Messiaen utilizes three different rows, one for the second movement “Offertoire (Les choses visibles et invisibles),” and two for the fifth movement, “Sortie (Le vent de l’Esprit),” but each is based on increasing or decreasing values of the sixteenth note.

In the second movement, the row is based on five durées chromatiques: [Figure 7].

19 Robert Sherlaw Johnson, Messiaen (University of California Press, 1989), 105. 22

[Figure 7]

As we have seen, the form of this movement is A B A1 B1 A1 B2 A Coda, and the passages based on the durées chromatiques serve as the A1 sections which are interpolated between the improvisatory-like material of the B sections. The principle of interversions, which is important for the treatment of the Hindu rhythms in this movement, is equally noticeable here.

The five-note row is stated at the beginning of A1 simultaneously in the left hand, right hand and pedal, all three playing a different order, or interversions of the basic series. In the first

A1, each voice has ten interversions. After the first four, there is a brief interruption of two notes which represents a monster (barking of a monster). The following examples illustrate the interversions of the first A1 section: [Figure 8], and provide a musical example: [Example

10].

In the second A1section, these ten interversions sets of the left hand and pedal are used again, but this time the soprano voice has improvisatory material rather than the durées chromatiques: [Example 11]. Six new interversions are included after these ten, still inhabiting only the lower voices. At the end of this section, Messiaen uses the “barking of a monster” sound again, and puts two short chords of “caverneux (cave)” as a kind of cadential passage leading into the next improvisatory section: [Example 12].

[Figure 8]

RH 12345 12354 12453 12435 LH 54123 54132 54213 54231 Barking PED 35124 35142 35214 35241

RH 13245 13254 13425 13452 13542 13524 LH 53412 53421 53124 53142 53241 53214 Barking PED 34512 34521 34125 34152 34251 34215

[Example 10]

[Example 11]

[Example 12]

Although we have focused on the rhythmic material in the sections of the Mass that are based on intricate compositional planning, it is important to note that in these sections, while Messiaen employs the durées chromatiques, he is also using the “modes of limited transposition.” Each part derives its pitch material from a different mode: the soprano is based on the third mode, the middle voice on the fourth, and the pedal, the second. More details about modes will be given later.

In the middle section of the fifth movement, Messiaen again uses the durées chromatiques. Here he presents two rows, both of twenty-three durations. The first one appears in the left hand and decreases from a value of twenty-three sixteenth notes to a single sixteenth note: [Figure 10].

[Figure 10]

In the pedal, the other row increases by a sixteenth note for twenty-three durations: [Figure

11].

[Figure 11]

While on the one hand, we can see this as a single row and its retrograde, they do start with different values. In this movement, the two rows occur simultaneously which Messiaen explains in the following way:

Therefore, a progressive acceleration and a progressive deceleration proceed together. These two circumstances are well known in cinema, and are designated by the words: movement uniformly and progressively accelerated or retarded. These are, moreover, two kinds of time: the one elapsing more and more rapidly, the other elapsing more and more slowly; both of them move away the one from the other.20

As this quote makes clear, time and space are always important aspects of his music and his use of durées chromatiques and manipulations thereof, as well as those of

20 Jon Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2009), 159.

Greek and Hindu meters, are complicated formal designs that play with these conceptions.

B. Categories of improvisatory material

Improvisation has been one of the central elements in Messiaen’s musical life, influencing his approach to composition.21 It is closely related to his career as an organist, and, indeed, many of his organ works began as extemporizations. As Messiaen admitted that he simply attended Mass as a parishioner for years, what led him to become an organist was not his Catholic faith, but his harmony professor, Jean Gallon, recognizing his talent for improvisation and introducing him to Marcel Dupré (1886-1971) to study organ.22 Since he became an organist at La Trinité (Paris) at the age of twenty-two in 1930, organ had been an important part of his musical career, and, of course, as one of his duties for the services on

Sunday, Messiaen was required to improvise:23

My services were rather sensibly divided up, on account of the different priests in charge. For High Mass on Sundays, I played only plainchant; for the eleven o’clock mass on Sundays, classical and romantic music; for the noon mass, still on Sunday, I was permitted to play my own works; finally, for the five o’clock vespers, I was obliged to improvise because the verses were too short to allow for the playing of pieces between the Psalms and during the Magnificat.

Dupré and Charles Tournemire (1870–1939) were the significant influences on

Messiaen for his organ study, especially in improvisation. Messiaen learned improvisation systematically from Dupré. First, the preparatory exercises devoted to the harmonization of scales degrees and melodies were done, then the improvisation of eight-measure phrases

21 Vicent Perez Benitez, “Messiaen as Improviser” Dutch Journal of Music Theory, 13/2 (May, 2008), 129.

22 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 22.

23 Ibid., 25.

28 followed so that consequent phrase members are extemporized from given antecedents.

Thereafter the study of commentaries, parenthetical sections, binary form, bridges, and developments were given.24 Dupré taught him not only the scalar, rhythmic, and harmonic aspects of themes, but also encouraged him to explore unconventional modalities and Greek meters in the process.25 Secondly, Messiaen’s admiration of Tournemire influenced his approach to improvisation. Even before he began his duties at La Trinité, Messiaen had heard

Tournemire’s improvisation at Sainte-Clotilde on several different occasions. Also, he played at Sainte-Clotilde for Tournemire as a deputy, and even pulled stops for him in a few recitals.26 Contrary to the rigorous didacticism of Dupré, Tournemire laid more emphasis on the spiritual aspects of improvisation in his organ method than on the technique itself.27

Concerned essentially with beauty, emotion, poetry, and richness of imagination, Tournemire linked the art of improvisation to illumination that brightened the soul of an artist. According to his belief, the improviser is driven by a mysterious force that allows him to find beauty beyond the mechanical formulas.28

Based on these studies, the various and flexible styles of Messiaen’s improvisation in services could be imagined from this conversation between Claude Samuel and the organist himself:

When circumstances constrained me, it was sometimes very classical. For instance, I came up with pastiche voluntaries – faux Bach, faux Mozart, faux Schumann, and faux Debussy – in order to continue in the same key and in the same style as the piece just sung. Even so, I improvised in my own style, living off my old harmonic

24 Benitez, “Messiaen as Improviser”, 131.

25 Ibid.

26 Ibid.

27 Charles Tournemire, Précis d’exécution de registration et d’improvisation à l’orgue, (Paris: Éditions Max Eschig, 1936), 102.

28 Benitez, “Messiaen as Improviser”, 130.

and rhythmic “fat”.29

Also the Messe de la Pentecôte is placed at the concluding stage of his long years of improvisation.

These improvisations went on for a rather long time, until the day I realized they were tiring me out, that I was emptying all my substance into them. So I wrote my Messe de la Pentecôte, which is the summation of all my previous improvisations. Messe de la Pentecôte was followed by Livre d’orgue, which is a more thought-out work. After that, as it were, I ceased to improvise.30

Our discussion of Messiaen’s improvisatory materials in the Messe de la Pentecôte will be concerned particularly with three specific categories: melody, harmony, and birdcall.

1. Melody

Melody as employed by Messiaen is fundamentally based on plainchant. It can be categorized into three types. First is melody transcribed from real plainchant; second, melody modeled from various shapes of neumes, and third, Messiaen’s own characterized melody.

“There is probably only one truly religious music because it’s detached from all external effect, and that’s plainchant, also called Gregorian chant.”31

Both as an improviser and as a composer, Messiaen was deeply influenced by plainchant. As the “only true sacred music” to him, plainchant was a favorite source for his music. The inspiration from plainchant is molded into his melodic shapes and the form of his music. In his later music, the rhythms or ‘neumes’ of plainchant were used as a foundation to

29 Samuel, Olivier Messiaen: Music and Color: Conversations with Claude Samuel, 25.

30 Ibid.

31 Ibid., 29.

30 non-chant-like melodies, and direct, as well as altered, quotations of plainchant were employed.32

In the Messe de la Pentecôte, Messiaen uses the shape of neumes in his music rather than quoting the exact pitch relationships of plainchant. Messiaen himself indicated in Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, that in movement 3, the plainchant of the second

Alleluia for Pentecost Sunday is transformed in this style.

[Example 13] is the original chant of the Alleluia. [Figure 12] shows the name of neumes.

[Example 13]

[Figure 12] neumes

Podatus

Clivis

Climacus

Pes subbipunctus

Distropha

Torculus

32 Benitez, “Messiaen as Improviser”, 136. 31

[Example 14] is the original chant of the Alleluia and [Example 15] shows the melody of the Alleluia as transformed by Messiaen.

[Example 14]

[Example 15]

The podatus on “Al” in [Example 14] is transformed into the first two notes ‘A and F’ in [Example 15]. Instead of using the second podatus on “le”, he wrote three free chromatic return figures of ‘F-F#-E’. Then he transformed two consecutive sets of clivis into ‘Bb-F#-F’; the long accented F# is understood as two F#s, which belong in both sets of clivis. Then the podatus on ‘lu’ is transformed into ‘A and F natural’.

[Example 16] is the original chant of the Alleluia and [Example 17] shows the transformation melody of the Alleluia.

[Example 16]

[Example 17]

The distropha in [Example 16] is transformed into one long note “Eb” in [Example

17]. The podatus and climacus are transformed into “E natural-Bb-Eb-Bb-E natural”. Then the podatus is transformed into ‘A and F natural’.

[Example 18] is the original chant of the Alleluia and [Example 19] shows the transformation melody of the Alleluia.

[Example 18]

[Example 19]

The distropha in [Example 18] is transformed into one note “Bb” in [Example 19].

The Pes subbipunctus with Climacus is transformed into “Eb-C natural- Bb-Ab-Eb-Bb-E natural”.

Second, the plainsong-like melody is not based on the pre-existent plainchant, but its melodic idea is from the neumes of plainchant. In the Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Messiaen explained how he created plainsong-like melody. In the scale which he chose, in this case a scale of Arab music, the movements of the notes occur according to the shapes of neumes.

Based on the scale of Arab music in [Example 20], the climacus is transformed into

“G-E-C” in [Example 21]. The clivis is transformed into “G-E”. Then two clivis with tie are transformed into ‘E and C’. 33

[Example 20] Scale of Arab music

[Example 21]

Third, Messiaen’s own characterized melody has a different basis than the others.

Messiaen explains that the first melody in movement 2 is not based on any chant melody or neume-shape, but organized with a certain interval or pitch relationship: [Example 22].

[Example 22]

Messiaen gives a specific description of this passage, which consists of a chromatic return with a change of degree (octave) and the descending line of an augmented 4th.33

At last, there are passages without any specific comment by the composer, but these passages, as shown twice in movement 5, definitely present Messiaen’s improvisatory elements: [Example 23] and [Example 24].

33 Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie. Vol. 4. 92. 34

[Example 23]

[Example 24]

2. Harmony

As a harmonic procedure, Messiaen used two kinds of chordal passages for a certain character; one is based on his mode of limited transposition, and the other is a particular combination of harmony.

First, the modes of limited transposition are the scales that Messiaen invented and introduced in his "The Technique of my Musical Language”. Messiaen explained: 34

Based on our present chromatic system, a tempered system of 12 sounds, these modes are formed of several symmetrical groups, the last note of each group always being common with the first of the following group. At the end of a certain number of chromatic transpositions which varies with each mode, they are no longer transposable, giving exactly the same notes as the first.

[Table C] shows his modes.

34 Olivier Messiaen, The technique of my musical language (Alphonse Leduc, Paris, 1944), 58. 35

[Table 3] Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition35

Messiaen said, about one of the sections of the second movement, all the harmonies are written in the system of the 3rd “mode of limited transposition.36 As seen in [Example 25], every note in this section is from the third mode in [Table 3]; for example, the highest notes in the chord (Eb-D-C-D-C …) are all from the scale of this third mode.

35 Benitez, “Messiaen as Improviser”, 133.

36 Olivier Messiaen, Messe de la Pentecôte, Article in the Booklet of the Recording. 36

[Example 25]

Messiaen also uses the modes transposed into another key. For example, the harmonic source of movement 4 is based on Messiaen’s 2nd mode transposed to E-major:

[Example 26] and [Example 27].

[Example 26]

[Example 27]

Second, as a non-modal harmonic vocabulary, one example among his usages of a particular combination of harmony in the first movement is presented in [Example 28].

[Example 28]

[Example 29] Golaud dans, from Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy

In [Example 28], he used a combination of a 4th in the left hand and black key descending harmony in the right hand. Messiaen indicated that he parodied a choral passage,

Golaud dans, from Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy:37 [Example 29].

3. Birdsong

Birdsong, like plain chant, is also one of the important influences on Messiaen’s melodic language. Indeed, with over 200 of Messiaen’s avian cahiers at the Bibliothèque

Nationale in Paris (National Library of France), birdsong is clearly an essential part of his

37 Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d'ornithologie, Vol. 4, 85. 38 compositional practice.38 He began notating birdsong around 1923, although he admitted that his early efforts were not good.39 Stylized birdsong is seen in his music of the 1930s and 40s, and from the 1950s onwards, it gracefully settled in his work with authentic and more sophisticated form.40 For example, the first appearance of a style oiseau in Messiaen’s music can be found in La Nativité du Seigneur (1935), then it became more specific by naming the blackbird in ‘Liturgie de cristal,” the first movement of Quatuor pour la fin du temps

(1941).41 Also the following work, the fifth of the Visions de l’Amen (1943, for two piano) has an indication of a nightingale singing.42 Messiaen used the bird-call in a specific way, and this can be categorized in two ways. First, he used transcriptions of birdsong which includes each bird name. Second, he used stylized birdsong which is not based on a real bird, but Messiaen’s own composed bird-call-like melody (oiseau ideal).

There are four indications in the score; oiseau (bird), rossignol (nightingale), chant de merle (chant of blackbird) and chœur de aloutettes (chorus of larks). Although Messiaen does not indicate specific names of birds, oiseau (bird) includes four species of bird: Blackbird,

Garden warbler, Robin, and stylized-bird (oiseau ideal). Cuckoo appears several times without any indication. Robin and Garden Warbler are found in movement 2. Nightingale and Cuckoo are used in movement 4, and the Lark in movement 5. The bird-call of the Black

Bird appears in two styles; one is a short interruption and the other is a long solo song. A short interruption of Black Bird is found in the second movement, and a long solo section in movement 4. [Example 30] shows the transcription of birds which appeared on the score.

38 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 137.

39 Ibid.

40 Ibid.

41 Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time, 166.

42 Ibid.

[Example 30]

Blackbird

Garden Warbler

Robin

Cuckoo

Rossignol (nightingale)

chant de merle (chant of blackbird)

chœur de aloutettes (chorus of larks)

The rest of the bird-calls are stylized birdsong (oiseau ideal), which are not based on a real bird, but Messiaen’s own composed bird-call-like melody. These stylized birdsongs are used in the fourth movement: [Example 31] and [Example 32].

[Example 31]

[Example 32]

C. The forms derived from the interaction of these compositional elements

Each movement contains the interaction of two concepts of rhythmic material and improvisatory elements, and their impact produces the form in each movement: [Table 4].

[Table 4]

A: rhythmic calculations B: improvisatory material C: Combination of AB

Mvt. Form

1 A/C Pedal: Only Greek meter

(A: Pedal, C: Manual) Manual: Greek meter and chordal passage

2 A-B-A1-B1- A1-B2-A-Coda A: Hindu Rhythms with personnages rythmiques

B: plainchant-like melody

A1: interversions of five chromatic durations

3 A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B- A: Hindu rhythms Coda B: Plainchant

4 B-B1-B-BB1-B1-Coda B: bird-calls

B1: harmonic theme based on the 2nd mode of limited transposition

5 B-C-B B: toccata style (rhapsodic passage and chordal passage)

C: birdsong (Lark) with chromatic durations

Movement 1 has complex Greek meter present throughout in the pedal with other

Greek meters and improvisatory materials in the higher voices. This procedure gives the effect of a cantus firmus in the pedal, as the texture is essentially separate in the pedal and not intertwined with manual: [Example 2].

In movement 2, Hindu rhythms and Messiaen’s own rhythmic plans alternate in the complex form of A-B-A1-B1- A1-B2-A-Coda. In the A section, three Hindu rhythms are used 42 with personnages rythmiques and interversions: [Example 3]. The B section has plainchant- like melody: [Example 22]. In the A1 section, interversions of five chromatic durations are used: [Example 10].

Movement 3 has a much simpler formal structure, an alternation of Hindu rhythms and plainchant improvisatory material. Hindu rhythm is presented in [Example 4] and the plainchant improvisatory material in [Example 5].

Movement 4 has no rhythmic device and consists of two alternated sections of bird- calls and a harmonic theme. The B section of bird-call is combined with the particular description “drops of water”, which is a staccato-like articulation used by Messiaen:

[Example 33]. The section of harmonic theme is based on the 2nd mode of limited transposition.

[Example 33]

Movement 5 is a simple BCB form in toccata style with improvisatory material in the

B sections. The C section has a unique combination; in the top voice, the improvisational bird song is supported by the lower two parts, consisting of chromatic duration (durées chromatiques): [Example 34].

[Example 34]

Thus, movement 1 is essentially through-composed, and the form of movements 2, 3,

4 and 5 is determined by the alternation of these two central ideas.

Chapter 3. An Examination of Programmatic elements

In the previous chapters, I examined Messiaen’s two main compositional methods in the Messe de la Pentecôte, rhythmic manipulations and improvisatory style, and demonstrated their interaction. In this chapter, the focus will be on Messiaen’s approach to the programmatic qualities of this piece. Intended for the Day of Pentecost, the music in this organ mass depicts the narrative of Pentecost described in the book of Acts. There is variance, however, in the degree to which the music coincides with the text. The outer movements, one and five contain highly descriptive music—what amounts to word painting— and illustrate the scene mentioned by the text, whereas movements two, three, and four reaffirm their respective texts with music that is more symbolic in nature. Messiaen captures the mystical notion of the Spirit through his musical writing.

1. Entrée – The tongues of fire “Tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them” (Acts of the Apostles 2:3)

The first movement, Entrée, whose function it is to accompany the entrance of the priests, is entitled “the Tongues of fire,” derived from the third verse of Acts chapter two:

“Tongues like as of fire sat upon each of them.” To represent this idea, Messiaen composes a recitative-like melody to represent an apostle who speaks in other tongues. This recitative, which is heard in the pedal, is accompanied with short chordal passages in the upper registers, which connect the music to the idea of the darting and flashing motion of fire. The other tongues (languages) that are mentioned in this biblical passage are represented in the music through the use of different Greek meters that utilize the basic melodies. As in the manner of ostinato, the given melodic patterns are repeated each in a different Greek meter. For this expression there are two main melodic motives used: “Ab-G-E-G-Bb” and “F#-Db-F#-Db-C-

G-Ab-Db”. The first melodic motive is heard four times, followed by the two statements of the second motive and three more of the first, each in a different Greek meter. As Jon Gillock has said, “The transformations of these notes are as if the same thought is being said again in a ‘different language (tongue)’ or with different emphasis.”43 Messiaen’s use of various tone colors also supports this programmatic reading, and for this expression, the composer chose some unusual sounds. The recitative is a solo with Clairon 4′, a French chorus Trumpet at a pitch of one octave above unison pitch. For the darting and flashing motives, Messiaen used

3 three different colors: Bourdon 16′ and Cymbale on the Récit, Quintaton 16′ and Tierce 1 /5′

2 in the Positif and Montre 8′ and Quinte 2 /3′ in the Grand-Orgue. The Bourdon 16′ sounds one octave below unison, and the Cymbale is a high pitched mixture. When these two stops are combined, we hear an unfamiliar and mysterious sound. The Quintaton 16′ is one octave

43 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 145.

3 below unison, and the Tierce 1 /5′ is two-octaves and a third above unison, another combination of low and high pitches, but perhaps less unfamiliar than the first. The Montre 8′

2 is a unison register and the Quinte 2 /3′ is one octave and a fifth above. This combination makes a normal and stable sound in a comfortable register and helps to express the idea of the

Holy Spirit descending from on high to the world.

2. Offertoire – Things visible and invisible “Things visible and invisible” (Nicene Creed)

The second movement of the Mass is Offertoire, and its liturgical function is to accompany the offering of the bread and wine, which are symbolic of the body and blood of

Christ. This movement is subtitled, “Things visible and invisible,” a phrase derived from the

Nicene Creed. Messiaen expressed thoughts about this phrase of the Creed:

The visible and invisible! Everything is contained in those words! The known and unknown dimensions: from the possible diameter of the universe to that of the proton- the known and unknown durations: from the age of the spiritual world and the material world, grace and sin, angels and mankind- the power of light and the powers of darkness- the vibrations of the atmosphere, liturgical chant, birdsong, the melody of drops of water, and the wicked growls of the monstrous beast of Revelation- finally, all that which is clear and tangible, and all which is obscure, mysterious, supernatural, all that which exceeds science and reasoning, all that which we are not able to discover, all that which we will never comprehend…”44

To represent this dichotomy of the visible and invisible, Messiaen composed sections of contrasting musical compositional techniques. As mentioned in earlier chapters, this piece is divided into seven sections and a coda: A-B-A1-B1-A1-B2-A-Coda. The A and A1 sections contain music of complex rhythmic design. The A sections utilize three Hindu rhythms along with Messiaen’s own personnage rhythmiques and interversions. These three manipulated

44 Messiaen, Messe de la Pentecôte, Article in the Booklet of the Recording.

Hindu rhythms are displayed among two contrasting ideas. The first idea, “A theme” is played as a main melody (mf) like a solo cello45 in the pedal, accompanied softly by the manual (p). The second idea is played in the manual alone with an even softer dynamic (pp) as a “distant, chimelike” sound.46 The A1 sections include interversions of five chromatic durations. Over the simple repetitions of the pattern found in the pedal, the hands are moving constantly in ascending and descending motions. Also, in these sections, there are four interruptions by the pedal heard with the Bassoon 16′, which seem to allude to “underground barking of the monster from Revelation. The wicked growls of the monstrous beast of

Revelation”47: [Example 35]. Gillock interprets this passage as a “glimpse of vision that partially appears from out the depths and then sinks back again.”48

[Example 35]

The B sections, however, have very simple structures with no rhythmic complexity, but with each further appearance (i.e., B1 and B2), there are added musical materials and increasing textures. The first B has one melodic line (a characterized melody), B1 consists of the melody from B in the right hand accompanied with another lower melody (plainsong-like

45 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 149.

46 Ibid.

47 Ibid., 147.

48 Ibid., 150.

47 melody) in the left hand, and B2 has harmonic material (long note chords) in the left hand and the two same melodic lines heard together, one in the right hand and the other in the pedal, each with a different articulation; the upper one is staccato, and the lower one is legato. The upper staccato is Messiaen’s favorite technique actually called “drops of water”. Then, bird- calls of the Black Bird, Robin and Garden Warbler interrupt several times. With this depiction, Messiaen tries to show “the visible” nature of flowing water and birds. In this structure, the [A]s seem to reflect the invisible, and the B sections, with their much greater simplicity, are connected to the visible. This importance placed on contrast is also noticeable in Messiaen’s choices of registrations. In the A sections, a mysterious mood is produced for

“the invisible.” While the unusual choice of 4′ Flûte and Prestant is utilized for the pedal as a solo “cello-like” theme, the even lower sound of Bourdon 16′ and 8′ is given to the hands for their soft accompaniment.

For the “chimelike” section, Messiaen uses Bourdon 16′ and Octavin 2′ at the same time. This selection is also unusual because there is no standard 8′ or 4′ in the middle. The audible interval gap between one octave below the middle C and two octaves higher lends celestial imagery to the mysterious mood. In section A1, dark sounds dominate as a result of using the Bourdon 16′ and Hautbois in one hand, and the Montre 16′, Bourdon 16′ and 8′,

Flûte 8′ and 4′ in the other. With the second appearance of the A1 section, Trompette 8′,

Clairon 4′, and Octavin 2′ add reinforcement to this sound. Therefore, as the composer himself mentioned, the group of [A] sections, which stands for “the invisible”, depicts “the powers of light and the powers of darkness”;49 the light is shown in A, and the dark is in A1.

For the registration of the B sections, high and celestial sounds are achieved with flute and

3 2 mutation stops such as Tierce 1 /5′, Quinte 2 /3′ and Piccolo 1′.

49 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 147. 48

3. Consécration – The gift of wisdom “The Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” (The Gospel according to St. John 14:26)

The third movement, Consécration, coincides with the mystical moment of the mass, when the priest raises the cup for sanctification.50 The structure of this movement is A-B-A-

B-A-B-A-B-A-B-Coda, The [A]s are built out of two Hindu rhythms, the simhavikrama and the micra varna, which are heard alternately, and the [B]s are written in the style of

Plainchant. This call-and-answer structure between the [A]s and [B]s represents the liturgical action between the organ and the cantor (or choir) and is in the French tradition, known as alternatim51. It is reminiscent of the Hymnes of Titelouze and Grigny and the Organ Masses of Grigny and Couperin.52 Gillock finds another meaning in this antiphonal style, that it reflects “a way of teaching and learning,”53 which is well-matched with the biblical scripture for this movement: “The Spirit shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.” Thus, the A sections of Hindu rhythms represents the Spirit’s saying

(teaching), and the B sections the response of the listeners.

The registrations in the A sections are varied with many different colors. The hands play three different dynamics of p, mf, and pp on three different manuals. The pedal, which carries the cantus-firmus-like main melody is always piu f with Clairon 4′, which is the same as in the pedal of movement 1. The sound from the hands thus functions as a background or coloring to the main melody of the pedal. Messiaen remarked that, “all these harmonies and

50 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 152.

51 Ibid.

52 Ibid.

53 Ibid.

49 timbres transform each sound of the pedal, engendering a ‘melody of resonance’ and a

‘melody of timbres.’”54: [Example 36].

[Example 36]

In the B sections, musical material in the style of plainchant is played with a registration of Clarinette, Nazard and Quintaton 16′. The two colors presented in the A and B sections are simply alternated through the music without further registration change.

4. Communion – The birds and the waters “O all ye waters that be above heaven, bless ye the Lord: O all ye fowls of the air, bless ye the Lord.” (Prayer of Azariah 1:38, 58)

The Communion accompanies the action of the Eucharist when the bread and wine are received by believers. For this moment, Messiaen uses two images from God’s creation– birdsong and gently flowing water.55 As seen in [Table 4], the formal structure of this movement is B-B1-B-BB1-B1-Coda. Numerous birdsongs are used in the B sections, and the sound of flowing water appears in the B1 sections. Treated differently than the “drops of water” with its staccato articulation heard in the previous movement, the “flowing water” is depicted here with a chord based on Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition. Also, each

54 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 153.

55 Ibid., 155.

50 water section (B1) includes a short appearance of a cuckoo sound which functions as a bridge to the next section of birdsong. In the BB1 section, birdsongs are played by the right hand and the “drop of water” is played by the left hand in counterpoint.56 While in the first B section stylized birdsong appears, in the second B section, Messiaen employs an actual song of the nightingale. In the BB1 section, both stylized birdsong and actual blackbird song are used.

For each of the birdsongs both stylized and actual, various registrations are employed and these are differentiated from the registrations used in the “flowing water” and “drop of water” sections. The first stylized birdsong is played by the Hautbois. The Nightingale is

3 played by Flûte 4′, Piccolo 1′, and Tierce 1 /5′; the Tierce sounds the third interval above the two octaves (17th). In the BB1 section, the stylized birdsong is played by Flute 8′ and

Bourdon 8′, and the Blackbird (merle) is played with Flûte 4′. The “drop of water” is played on Bourdon 16′ and Octavin 2′, and for the “flowing water,” Messiaen used the Gambe and

Voix celeste, of which the latter adds a trembling sound.

5. Sortie – The wind of the spirit “A rushing mighty wind filled all the house” (Acts of the Apostles 2:2)

The fifth movement, Sortie, whose function it is to accompany the departure of the priest, is entitled “the wind of the spirit,” derived from the second verse of Acts chapter two:

“A rushing mighty wind filled all the house.” Like the first movement the music seems simply to describe the biblical script. To represent the idea of the rushing wind, Messiaen composes a brilliant toccata in ABA form. The A section has rhapsody-like rapid sixteenth- notes passages to depict the powerful wind of the spirit: [Example 37].

56 Gillock, Performing Messiaen's Organ Music: 66 Masterclasses, 157. 51

[Example 37]

In the middle section, the energetic chorus of the Lark appears over a rising chord:

[Example 38].

[Example 38]

For this movement, Messiaen uses the full sound of the organ, once again following in the tradition of French organ music.

Chapter 4. Conclusion

Messiaen said that this Mass was based on twenty years of improvising at his church.

However, there are many passages which exhibit complex compositional processes, techniques, or textures, and are obviously not merely the result of improvising, and do not give an improvisational feel. Ironically, in these complex sections Messiaen’s improvisational

52 practice can be traced through this work. During his years as organist, Messiaen developed numerous improvisational skills and constructed a specific format for them to be used as a source for improvisational materials in his organ works. As Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone have indicated, Messiaen kept notes of “old” sketches for organ pieces and improvisations, and eventually these memos were used as ingredients in the Messe de la Pentecôte and the

Livre d’orgue.57 Therefore Messiaen could have had a map in his mind based on these sketches, which might serve as a guide to all those complex rhythmic strategies. To help understand this structural principle, I classified the Mass into rhythmic materials and other musical elements. So those complex choices and reinterpretations are made from specific kinds of musical sources; the Hindu and Greek rhythms belong to highly calculated rhythmic materials, and birdsong and plainchant to other musical elements. Messiaen could then choose an ingredient from each source and make some suitable variation in his compositional process. It would not be impossible to make an improvisation, if he had this sort of map constructed during his 20 years of career as an improviser.

Further, Messiaen gave each movement a title which serves as a programmatic description. As observed in the chapters above, each movement utilizes a fairly simple formal structure in its reflection of these titles. In the first movement, “the tongues of fire,” a few notes are chosen and repeated continuously as one thought, and the various Greek meters are applied to these notes to reflect different languages (tongues). For the second movement, the distinction of “the visible and the invisible” is made plain through alternations of plainchant- like melodies that symbolize the visible and sections of complex Hindu rhythms and his own rhythmic manipulations that represent the invisible. In the third movement, the biblical script from St. John, “the gift of wisdom,” focuses on revelation and reminiscence. To depict this

57 Hill and Simeone, Messiaen, 193.

53 meaning, Messiaen composes two different sections. For the section of teaching, the composer employed Hindu rhythms (complex compositional style), and for that of learning, plainchant (improvisational style). That these two sections alternate like a call and response only further reinforces the imagery of teaching and learning. The fourth movement is about

God’s Creation, and “the birds and the springs” are chosen to represent Creation. Also simply, as in the other movements, these two ideas, the water, reflected through a harmonic theme, and the birds by birdcalls, alternate. The last movement is a toccata of fast running notes that expresses “the wind of the spirit,” Upon all of these “simple” structures, Messiaen applied various and unique registrations, achieving a maximized effect.

Through an examination of the Messe de la Pentecôte, valuable insights can be gained into how Messiaen the improviser makes plans for his improvisation and realizes them, and how Messiaen the organist understands and handles his instrument. This mass serves as a summation of his career as organist and as a composer who embraced unique musical languages and various compositional techniques.

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