The Quartet for the End of Time
mov.5
(For Cello and Piano)
Joey Earnest
Seminar in Music Analysis
Prof. Dutton
March 18, 2014
Midterm Project
ANALYSIS: Movement V- Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus) Bio
Olivier Messiaen was born December 10, 1908 in Avignon, France. His father was an
English literature scholar and his mother was the poet, Cecile Sauvage. Messiaen’s family moved around France several times during his childhood, and lived in Ambert for a time, and then Grenoble with his mother after the outbreak of World War I. Messiaen taught himself piano with some training from Jean de Gibon (Messiaen 2) and started to compose while living at his uncle’s residence in Grenoble at the young age of seven. Messiaen did not have the easiest childhood, two of his uncles and an aunt were killed in the conflict and his mother died when
Olivier was only 18. It is also rumored that his parents had a troublesome relationship while they were together.
Messiaen began attending a music at the Paris Conservatory in 1919, and studied with
Georges Falkenberg, César Abel Estyle, and Noel Gallon. As a young adult, Messiaen’s work received critical acclaim amongst some of the chief French musical figures of the time. As a devout Catholic, he worked as a church organist as a young adult. He would eventually look to his faith for compositional inspiration. In 1930 he married his wife, Claire Delbos, who was also a devout Catholic and Musician. He composed over twenty works before serving in World War
II and began to build a strong reputation as a brilliant composer (Hill & Simone, 2005).
Messiaen began serving with the French Army in 1939 and was captured by German forces in May of 1940. He worked on “The Quartet for the End of Time” or ‘Quatuor pour la fin du Temps’ in a German P.O.W. camp. Although his time in captivity was far from pleasant, Messiaen had the resources he needed to compose and even organize a performance of the eight
movement piece (Rischin, 2003).
After his time in captivity, Messiaen went on to write many other pieces including
“Chronochromie” (‘Time-color’) in 1959, in addition to a multitude of songs inspired by birds, including his seven book “Catalogue d'oiseaux” (‘Bird Catalogue’) he composed during the He also had several publications about theory and his own compositional methods. His most notable accomplishment the field of music theory, was his development of Modes of Limited
Transposition. Messiaen had synesthesia as well, and could clearly describe the colors that the different modes would produce in his mind’s eye.
‘The first transposition of mode 2 is defined like this, “blue-violet rocks speckled with little grey cubes, cobalt blue, deep Prussian blue, highlighted by a bit of violet purple, gold, red, ruby, and stars of mauve, black, and white. Blue violet is dominant.” The same mode in its second transposition is totally different: “gold and silver spirals against a background of brown and ruby-red vertical stripes. Gold and brown are dominant.” And here’s the third transposition: “Light green and prairie-green foliage, with specks of blue, silver, and reddish orange. Dominant is green’ (Rischin, 2003).
His synesthesia significantly impacted his compositional approach. Messiaen continued composing music until the time of his death in 1992.
“The Quartet”
In her book For the End of Time, Rebecca Rischin describes the quartet as being “based on the Apocalypse and written in apocalyptic times, music for the future, defiant of the past, music of the moment, and for eternity” (Rischin, 2003). The quartet was composed for Violin,
Cello, Clarinet, and Piano. It should be noted that Messiaen, by luck, was able to network with these musicians at the time of his captivity. When describing the music style of the piece,
Rischin claims that “Four diverse elements pervade Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time:
Catholic doctrine, rhythm, sound-color, and birdsong” (Rischin, 2003). The entire piece is comprised of eight movements: Liturgie de Cristal (The Crystal Liturgy), Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps (Vocalize, for the Angel who Announces the end of time), Abîme des Oiseaux (Abyss of Birds), Interméde (Interlude), Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (Praise to the Eternity of Jesus), Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes (Dance of Fury for the Seven Trumpets), Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps (Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time), and Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus (Praise to the Immortality of Jesus). Messiaen supposedly had been studying the book of revelation heavily during his time composing the piece. With obvious tributes to Catholic doctrine as well as mention of birds and rainbows, the titles of the movements, directly reflect Messiaen’s influences from faith, birdsong, and color. Though the titles don't necessarily reflect his interest in rhythm and meter (with the exception of the Dance of Fury movement possibly), Messiaen’s works pull heavily from Indian classical music. The quartet explores rhythmic groupings focused around prime numbers. The Quartet for the End of Time premiered January 15th, 1941.
Sound
The fifth movement of the piece contrasts the rest of the piece in timbre because it is a cello-piano duet. There is a very ethereal cello melody, with a rich warm tone, played over ostinato triads and other tertian harmonies (three note voicings) in the low-mid range of the piano. It is played slowly, so the ostinato piano part has time to decay slightly, creating a ringing bell like quality.
Harmony
Messian uses tertian harmony in the piano part. Occasionally, the melody will serve a functional role in the chord. Many of the chords Messiaen chooses actually complete the given
‘mode of limited transposition’ when played with a symmetrical but “truncated” melody line.
The chord progression of the song is as follows: E(10), Bb7(7), G(10), Bb(4), E(8); E(10) F#-(7),
F[7](10), F#ø(4), B7(8); A(12), F#-(12), D#(4), E(5), C#(4), D#(5), E(4), F#-7(4); Aº(2), A#º(2),
Bº(2), Cº(2), C#º(2), Dº(9), Ab7(5), C[b5](23{broken into groups of 17 and then an inversion in
16}); Ab-(4), F(4), B(4), D-(4), F#º(4), Bø(4), E7#11(10), F7sus(2), Eº(1*), Ab7(2), E7+(2),
Eb-(2), E-(2), Ab7(2); E7+(4), C+(12), E(29*), D(4), E(34{17x2}); Bb(4), C#[b5](4), G(4),
Bb(4); E(8),*rest(2), E(6), *rest(4), E(4).
Although the movement is in the key of E major, and begins and ends on E major, the constant modulation to foreign keys makes any functional analysis futile. It is best to understand that the origin of the chords Messiaen incorporates, is the ‘mode of limited transposition’ that he is highlighting in a given timespan. For example in the opening of the piece, he is pulling chords from the second transposition of mode 2. The notes from the chords E, Bb, and G major are all a part of this mode. It should also be noted that according to the aforementioned text the second transposition of the second mode are “gold and silver spirals against a background of brown and ruby-red vertical stripes. Gold and brown are dominant.”
These colors happen to carry symbolic meaning in
Catholic church: Gold: Divine, Holy, God, Crown;
Silver: Holy spirit, grace; Brown: Wood (Jesus was a
carpenter), earth, mortality, Crown of Thorns; Ruby Red: Martyrdom, Blood of Christ
(especially striking is the fact that Messiaen views the red like vertical stripes, also the specific mention of ruby holds a royal undertone). Because Messiaen was so vocal and specific about the different synesthetic colors these modes produced in his mind, and because the subject of the piece is Jesus Christ, one could speculate as to his intentions. The combination of triads plus the truncated and symmetrical melody lines forming complete ‘modes of limited transposition’, happens again later in m.13 where Messiaen begins to incorporate material from the first transposition of Mode 7.
Messiaen had an obsession with prime numbers. One can see very clearly that there are many instances of the harmonic progression outlining these numbers. Messiaen would use rhythmic augmentation and diminution (the lengthening and shortening) of rhythmic patterns.
Melody
The piece opens with solo cello for 19 counts and introduces the main thematic material.
The main theme is 28 counts long and can be broken into 3 parts: (a) m.1, (b)m.2, (c) m.3. The
‘A’ section rocks back and forth between B and G# then drops to G, to E, and up to F. The ‘C’ section of the main theme is an E dropping a minor third to C#. The ‘C’ section of the main theme is a G#, G, and F descending stepwise. Variations on material from the a theme can be seen repeated in measures 13-16 in a new mode. And again at m.27 in the original key and mode.
Material from the ‘B’ section can be seen at measures 4, 8, 10, and 20. Instances of ‘C’ section variations can be seen in m.5-6, 9, 11-12, 17-18,. The melody line floats gently above the ostinato chords in the cello part. A truncated but symmetrical version of the second transposition
of the second mode is played over the first 13 bars. The mode is completed with the introduction of the A#(Bb) Major in the left hand. This also happens again at m.14 with the introduction of an
F# chord under a truncated version of the first transposition of mode 7. Theme ‘C’ material can be seen moving in the opposite direction at measure 17.
Rhythm
As mentioned earlier, Messiaen was fascinated with Indian as well as Greek meters. His exploration with rhythm eventually led to him incorporating prime numbers and odd meter in most of his compositions. The fifth movement of the Quartet for the End of Time is no exception. Messiaen does not bother writing in meter changes because the meter changes every bar. The tempo is very slow (1/16=44). The piano part is only comprised of 16th notes, however, the prime numbers are outlined by changes in the chords. The numbers highlighted by the harmonic progression are as follows:
19,10,7,10,4,8,14,10,7,10,4,8,12,12,4,5,4,5,4,4,2,2,2,4,2,5,4,5,7,16,4,4,4,4,4,4,10,2,1,2,2,
2,1,2,4,12,[10,3,4,4,4,8,4,8,{4,3,4,3,12,}]4,4,4,4,[8,2,6,4,4]
The rhythm of the melody is broken down mostly into 16th and 8th notes with occasional exceptions. The figure below demonstrates the concept of augmentation (diminution would be the reverse) of the rhythms in Messiaen’s melodies. A = 5/16 B= ⅝ C= 5/4
Growth
The fifth movement can be broken into three large sections. The introduction of thematic material from m.1-13 in the second transposition of the second mode makes up the ‘A’ section.
M.13-26 make up the ‘B’ section and pulls from pitch content from another mode (#7). M.27 -35 make up the final section. Although the final section is in the original mode, and shares much of the same melodic and harmonic content of the first section, it is ambiguous as to whether this should be labeled section ‘C’ or ‘A prime’. In a way, the piece captures the essence of a traditional ABA song form.
The music starts piano but is played very expressively. There is a gradual crescendo at m.12 and a decrescendo at m.15, the piece builds again from 17 to 19 where it stays forte and drops to piano after 4 bars. From M.23-26 there is a large crescendo to the climax of the piece and the music is fortissimo. It the next measure (the start of the third section), the volume drops to pianississimo and stays soft with a few subtle swells until the end of the piece.
Concluding Thought:
Messiaen’s music filled with symbolic meaning and also carries a lot depth. The fifth movement of the piece is beautiful, and it is surely amazing that anyone would create such a masterpiece in such dire conditions.
Bibliography
Cook, N. (1994). A Guide to Musical Analysis. Oxford,: Oxford University Press.
"Composers and Their Music: Olivier Messiaen." MusicTeachers.co.uk Online Journal - Features - Messiaen. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.
Olivier Messiaen : Oiseaux exotiques / Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone. - Version details. (n.d.).
Retrieved from https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/34686387
Lester, J. (1989) Analytic Approaches to Twentieth-century Music. New York: W.W. Norton. Print.
Olivier Messiaen Mode Colour Visualization. Retrieved from
http://www.musicandpractice.org/volume-2/visualizing-visions-the-significance-of-messi
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Rischin, R. (2003) For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP. Print.
Wilson, J. "A Brief Survey of Olivier Messiaen's Harmonic Practise." Web. 18 Mar. 2014.