The Role of Landscape in Catalogue d’Oiseaux by Olivier Messiaen By: Noha Kang A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy The University of Sheffield Department of Music January 2020 ABSTRACT This thesis explores the French composer, Olivier Messiaen’s ‘Catalogue d’oiseaux’ (Catalogue of birds, 1956-1968) for the solo piano, a collection of birdsong works which is widely regarded as one of the great repertoires from the modern period. The complete work consists of thirteen pieces that progressively present a main group of birds, followed by representations of other birds. These birds were found in France, embedded in their natural habitats. The repertoire is usually selected to be performed as separate pieces or as a group, depending on the length of time available, given that the total running time of the works extends to two and half hours. In this research, there follows a close examination of landscape, which signifies natural settings, the passage of time, as well as little creatures. All of these elements are discussed, including to what extent the introduction of landscape affects both birdsong as well as my own performance. There are six substantive chapters in this study. Introduction Chapter I – Birdsong: Pieces include birdsong by Messiaen and other composers Chapter II – Landscape: Works include landscape by Messiaen and other composers Chapter III – Catalogue d’oiseaux: General information regarding Catalogue d’oiseaux Chapter IV – Analysis of Landscape in Catalogue d’oiseaux Chapter V – The Role of Landscape in Messiaen’s Birdsong Music Chapter VI – Effects of Analysis on the Performance Conclusion ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my eternal gratitude to Professor George Nicholson for his continuous guidance and support throughout the process of writing this dissertation. It was truly an honour to study from and with him. I would also like to thank my beloved husband for his consideration and support which has allowed me to progress throughout my doctoral studies. I would like to thank my family, especially my mum, dad, three sons and my little daughter for their immeasurable encouragement. Thanks also to the following: Benjamin Frith, my piano tutor for his enthusiasm and invaluable guidance in relation to my piano playing. Peter Hill for his advice on piano performance and sharing with me his plentiful sources. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 MOTIVATION 1 LITERATURE REVIEW 3 ANALYSIS 8 STRUCTURE OF STUDY 8 CHAPTER I 11 BIRDSONG IN MUSIC 12 1. REASONS WHY MESSIAEN USES BIRDSONG 13 2. EARLIER COMPOSERS’ BIRDSONG 17 3. MESSIAEN’S BIRDSONG PROCESS 18 I) EARLY WORKS WHICH INCLUDE BIRDSONG 19 II) BIRDSONG WORKS WRITTEN BETWEEN 1952-59 21 III) CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX (1956-58) 24 CHAPTER II 28 LANDSCAPE IN MUSIC 29 1. MOTIVATIONS 33 2. IMPORTANCE OF LANDSCAPE 37 3. ELEMENTS OF APPROACH TO LANDSCAPE 42 I) EXAMINATION OF NATURE 43 II) ENHANCEMENT OF BIRDSONG 44 III) PAINTING OF MUSICAL SOUNDS 45 IV) ADDING REALITY TO ART 46 CHAPTER III 51 CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 52 CHAPTER IV 64 ANALYSIS OF LANDSCAPE IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 65 1. TIME 67 I) DAY 71 II) NIGHT 73 2. LIGHT 79 3. WATER 87 I) THE WAVES OF THE SEA 98 II) THE WAVES (LES VAGUES) 99 III) THE WATER (L’EAU) 99 4. GEOMETRICAL FEATURES (MOUNTAINS, CLIFFS AND ROCKS) 100 5. OTHER NON-BIRDSONG MATERIALS 108 I) LITTLE ANIMALS 108 II) FLOWERS 109 CHAPTER V 111 THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE IN MESSIAEN’S BIRDSONG MUSIC 112 CHAPTER VI 118 EFFECTS OF ANALYSIS ON THE PERFORMANCE 119 CONCLUSION 129 APPENDIX 139 LIST OF PIANO WORKS BY MESSIAEN IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER 139 MESSIAEN’S MODES OF LIMITED TRANSPOSITION 141 MESSIAEN’S CHORDS 144 1. CHORD OF RESONANCE (CR) 144 2. CHORD OF CONTRACTED RESONANCE (CCR) 145 3. CHORD ON THE DOMINANT (CD) 146 4. CHORD ON THE DOMINANT WITH APPOGGIATURA (CDA) 148 5. CHORD OF TRANSPOSED INVERSIONS (CTI) 149 6. TURNING CHORDS (TC) 151 BIBLIOGRAPHY 153 MUSIC EXAMPLES 157 FIGURES FIGURE 1-1. ARCH-FORM OF RÉ VEIL 22 FIGURE 2-1. DATES AND PLACES OF MESSIAEN’S COLLECTION OF BIRDSONGS USED IN CATALOGUE 40 FIGURE 2-2. MAP OF MESSIAEN’S TRIP IN FRANCE BETWEEN 1955 AND 1959 42 FIGURE 2-3. THE MONTHS IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 48 FIGURE 3-1. LANDSCAPE IN CATALOGUE 56 FIGURE 3-2. EXAMPLES OF MESSIAEN’S HARMONIC PROGRESSION USED IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 60 FIGURE 3-3. THE LIST OF SETTINGS IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 62 FIGURE 3-4. MAP OF THE PLACES IN FRANCE FROM WHERE BIRDSONG IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX WAS COLLECTED 63 FIGURE 4-1 LANDSCAPE CATEGORISATION IN CATALOGUE 65 FIGURE 4-2. CATEGORISATION BY LANDSCAPE 66 FIGURE 4-3. TYPES OF TIME IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 70 FIGURE 4-4. STRUCTURE OF PITCHES AND DYNAMICS IN LA CHOUETTE HULOTTE 75 FIGURE 4-5. STRUCTURE OF LA ROUSSEROLLE EFFARVATTE 84 FIGURE 4-6. SUNRISE AND SUNSET IN LA ROUSSEROLLE EFFARVATTE 86 FIGURE 4-7. RHYTHMIC CANON BY VALUES IN LA BOUSCARLE 93 FIGURE 4-8. CONSTRUCTION OF THE RHYTHMIC COMPONENT OF THE ISORHYTHM IN LA ROUSSEROLLE EFFARVATTE 95 FIGURE 4-9. SHARNGADEVA AND MESSIAEN’S RHYTHMS IN LE MERLE BLEU 104 FIGURE 4-10. THE PERMUTATION OF THE STONE MUSIC IN LE MERLE DE ROCHE 106 FIGURE 6-1. DYNAMICS DUE TO WAVE TYPE 123 FIGURE 6-2. TEMPI TAKEN IN THE OPENING BARS OF L’ALOUETTE CALANDRELLE FROM THE RECORDINGS 125 FIGURE 6-3. TEMPI TAKEN AT THE BEGINNING OF L’ALOUETTE LULU FROM RECORDINGS 126 MUSIC EXAMPLES CHAPTER I BIRDSONG IN MUSIC 158 CHAPTER II LANDSCAPE IN MUSIC 172 CHAPTER III CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 176 CHPATER IV NALYSIS OF LANDSCAPE IN CATALOGUE D’OISEAUX 177 CHAPTER V THE ROLE OF LANDSCAPE IN MESSIAEN’S BIRDSONG MUSIC 237 CHAPTER VI EFFECTS OF ANALYSIS ON THE PERFORMANCE 244 INTRODUCTION Introduction 1. Motivation Over ten years ago as part of my MMus piano recital, I performed one movement from Catalogue d’oiseaux by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. This was the first time I had performed his music. My piano teacher had originally asked me to read it and, while listening to it, I was shocked. Up to that point, I had only ever played one piece by Alberto Ginastera which could possibly have been categorised as contemporary music. Even for someone like me, who considered both Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel to be modernists, it was hard to understand and interpret many aspects of the music, especially the complicated rhythms and harmonies. In fact, those aspects represent the most difficult features of his music and, because of these, Messiaen is regarded as one of the most influential composers and teachers in twentieth-century music. The reasons behind why Messiaen is regarded as such an important composer of the music of the twentieth century has been a favourite and much-studied subject for scholars. Many have researched Messiaen’s compositional techniques1 such as his use of Greek and Hindu rhythms, modes of limited transposition, chords, Catholic symbolism, colour association and so forth. Birdsong music, including Catalogue d’oiseaux, has also been discussed as a main topic by many researchers. The performance was enough to stimulate my curiosity surrounding Messiaen's piano pieces in particular when considering first Catalogue d’oiseaux2 (hereafter referred to as Catalogue). Although this first experience was brief, it did serve to arouse and prepare me for the demands involved in studying the piece deeply and to render all movements of Catalogue. It made me wonder how Messiaen transcribe real birdsong into music and how these two real birdsong and Messiaen’s birdsong are similar. I was, however, more captivated to questions what landscape was used for the music, how it was presented in piano writing, how it was described in music, how landscape which does not have its own sound was reproduced as music in Catalogue. In theory it should be much easier to transcribe birdsong into music as it possesses actual sound, in comparison to landscape features such as rocks, mountains, night, and so on which do not inherently produce any sounds of their own. Messiaen, therefore, needed to create a musical device or develop his own musical language to represent the ‘sound’ of landscape to put into his birdsong work. 1 This term has the same meaning as ‘musical language’ which Messiaen used in his treatise Technique de mon langage musical (The technique of my musical language) and is used alternately. 2 Olivier Messiaen, Catalogue d’oiseaux, (Leduc, Paris, 1958) 1 This study began with the question of how to perform Catalogue precisely as the composer, Messiaen intended. It was one of the first, if not the first, pieces that was focused on birdsong- how to play birdsong accurately, beautifully and realistically. It was not long before there was an acknowledgment that the non-birdsong parts were just as important as birdsong. It was a natural progression where I then decided to concentrate more on landscape than birdsong for this research. The process by which the musical device or language used for landscape is defined should assist in understanding more completely how to interpret Catalogue for successful performance. For the modern performers, listening to recordings seems to be essential to comprehend the works, although that does not detract from the need to analysis music before playing. This is especially true with Catalogue in which the space considered as landscape is expressed in a variety of forms of resonance, birdsong and non-birdsong. The purpose of this study is that, as a pianist, I am going to explore Catalogue given its great popularity and that it is such an attractive piece among the twentieth-century solo piano works.