Listening to Messiaen’s colourful hands

Arjen Berends

Name: Arjen Berends Main subject: Master Theory of Music Supervisor: Dr. Bert Mooiman Title of Research: Listening to Messiaen's colourful hands Subtitle: Analysing harmony and voice leading in the two homorhythmic chorales from Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ. Research question: How to analyse harmony and voice leading in the two homorhythmic chorales from Messiaen’s La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ? Abstract Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), one of the most famous French composers of the 20th century, was also known to be a great organist and improviser, as organist of Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris for over 60 years. His huge oratorio La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ, composed 1965-1969, includes two entirely homorhythmic movements entitled ‘Choral’. As a listener, I am fascinated by Messiaen's extraordinary approach to harmony. The aim of this research is, therefore, to attempt to understand how best to analyse Messiaen's unique harmonic language. Many approaches to analysing Messiaen’s music are vertically orientated, including his own way of describing his use of harmony. He himself never discussed the horizontal aspects of his music. Because of his coloured hearing synaesthesia (son-couleur), Messiaen's analyses are particularly special in their manner of addressing the colours of certain chords. A colour analysis by Messiaen therefore may give the listener some insight in the way Messiaen might have perceived his music. This research includes videos with the music and paintings of the colour analyses by Messiaen and two other musicians with synaesthesia of one of the chorales, specially made for this research. Considering Messiaen’s own lack of emphasis on horizontal aspects of his music, is it possible to understand Messiaen’s music from a horizontal perspective as well? Since the two chorales are homophonic and homorhythmic, the bass and soprano are the most important voices. These parts can be perceived clearly, but the attention of the listener is also caught by other aspects such as the complexity of the chords. It is difficult to determine the precise voice leading of the inner parts because it is ‘blurred’ by the varied orchestration, but by way of harmonic reductions of the chorales, Messiaen’s horizontal compositional techniques can be clarified. This research includes a harmonisation of a melody by Messiaen in the style of the chorales in La Transfiguration. Biography Arjen Berends teaches music theory and arranging at the conservatories of The Hague and Utrecht. He graduated in music education at the Utrecht Conservatory, where he also studied classical piano with Henk Ekkel and Martyn van den Hoek. At the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague he completed his studies in music theory with Paul Scheepers, Arie Boers, Diderik Wagenaar, and Ineke Kien. He is répétiteur of Toonkunstkoor Amsterdam conducted by Boudewijn Jansen; he has previously worked with choral conductors such as Louis Buskens, Iassen Raykov and Béni Csillag.

Prelude: Messiaen on La Transfiguration

La Transfiguration is Messiaen’s single oratorio. In Musique et couleur, Messiaen mentions the passions and cantatas by Bach, and considers his own setting of La Transfiguration to be an oratorio as well as being his most ‘coloured’ works:³

“Moi aussi, j’ai utilisé des récits évangeliques, mais ils sont très différents de ceux de Bach, ils sont psalmodies et vocalisés. Enfin, chaque septénaire se conclut sur un choral, avec des accords massifs qui sont avant tout des couleurs. Je pense, d’ailleurs, que La Transfiguration est une de mes oeuvres les plus colorées”.⁴

In relation to colours, Messiaen often speaks about l’éblouissement – in several writings translated as ‘bedazzlement’; in Conference de Kyoto, he refers to five specific passages in La Transfiguration:^⁵

"Plusieurs passages de la Transfiguration sont en rapport direct avec ce que j’appelle l’éblouissement, c’est-à-dire une sensation colorée intérieure analogue à celle que produisent sur les yeux les rosaces, les verrières, les vitraux des grandes cathédrales gothiques, quelque chose de terrible et de sacré, dont on ne comprend pas le détail, qui nous transporte dans un monde de lumière trop fort pour notre raison."^⁶

"Enfin, la sensation d’éblouissement se retrouve dans les deux chorals qui terminent chaque septénaire. Le premier choral est pianissimo, le deuxième choral est fortissimo, mais l’un et l’autre ne peuvent s’analyser que par des couleurs. Ce sont des couleurs à la fois suaves et terrifiantes, que rejoignent cette interprétation des Psaumes s’adressant à Dieu par laquelle j’ai terminé ma Conférence de Notre-Dame: « Dans Ta Musique, nous verrons la Musique – Dans Ta lumière, nous entendrons la Lumière »."^⁷

It is clear that La Transfiguration is important to Messiaen in terms of colour and ‘bedazzlement’, especially the two chorales: these could be only analysed in terms of their colours, according to Messiaen.

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