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.

4. Harmonisation of a melody from Apparition du Christ glorieux, 1st movement of Eclairs sur l’au-delà...

After analysing Messiaen’s harmony and voice leading in the two chorales of La Transfiguration, I tried to harmonise a melody by Messiaen in the style of the chorales in La Transfiguration. I choose the start of the first movement of Éclairs sur l'au-delà..., Apparition du Christ glorieux because the character of this melody is similar to the melodies of the chorales in La Transfiguration. While making this harmonisation, I avoided the influence of Messiaen’s own harmonisation: I did not look at the original score but I tried to use the same elements as Messiaen did in the chorales in La Transfiguration, which are as follows:

to harmonise the melody in an entirely homorhythmic way
to use the following intervals between bass and soprano: the majority m7, m3/m10, M3/M10 and m6
to use modes 2 and 3 in all transpositions possible
to use accords spéciaux, especially accords tournants
to finish the majority of the cadences on the same major triad, which is also the tonic of the chorale
to use ‘resonant chords’ to complete a mode or to create a complete 11 or 12-tone set
to use common tones between chords or to employ the absence of a common tone in order to create contrast between chords
to harmonise or vary a repeated melody in either the same or a different way.
to use a chord with a high cardinality number as the penultimate chord of the cadence
to create the climax by using chords with the highest cardinality within a phrase
to create chords out of different layers connected to the keyboard
to ensure that the individual layers are all playable at the keyboard

By using these elements as guidelines, I did not aim to create a Messiaen chorale, but instead a harmonisation of a melody in the style of Messiaen. From a pedagogical perspective, the undertaking of this type of exercise could also be useful for students because it could improve the understanding of Messiaen’s harmonic language and way of composing in the context of the chorale.

Next to this text, an annotated score of my harmonisation is shown. In the recording that I made, my wife Suzanne Taylor played the 'third hand' in bars 14-16.

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4. Harmonisation of a melody from Apparition du Christ glorieux, 1st movement of Eclairs sur l’au-delà...