New MusiBlog - Messiaen's Musical Language

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Posted by: brian	11/2/2006 11:04 PM
After reading Jonathan Bernard's article about Messiaen and color, I decided to reaffirm my knowledge of the musical language Messiaen employs. This entry highlights some of the more interesting points Anthony Pople makes in his article "Messiaen's Musical Language: An Introduction." Pople states that Messiaen's music does not use its language to narrate, to dramatize, nor even express, but rather to represent. In some cases this is because the subject matter is conceived as an eternal truth or as an archetypal natural scene. With regards to modality, all that is necessary for music to be modal is that it should adhere to the notes of a mode. With being so, it is not at all surprising that the most telling characteristic of both diatonic and non-diatonic modal music is a sense of improvisation - whether contemplative or frenetic - within a static atmosphere. Pople's article opened my eyes to an aspect of the MLTs that I did not consider: the relationship of the modes to each other. For example the 6 notes of mode 1 are found in 9 notes of mode 3 and the 8 notes of mode 6. It follows that the 6 notes of mode 5 are found in 8 notes of modes 4 & 6. The 8 notes of modes 2, 4 & 6 can each be found individually in the 10 notes of mode 7. Rhythmic complexity is another "hallmark" of Messiaen's music. The most fundamental feature of Messiaen's rhythms is that they are ametrical. This is not to say that there is no regular pulse. On the contrary, they are always built from multiples of a basic unit; but this basic unit is generally faster (by a factor of 2 or 3) than the succession of notes that we hear, whereas in most Western music the notes move more or less with the, or are at least clearly placed in relation to it. Anthony Pople's article provides the reader with a starting point in the understanding of Messiaen's musical language. Pople expands a little on Messiaen's ideas, but does not provide overview of Messiaen's treatise. Nor does Pople talk music about the use of color in Messiaen's music. After all, this article was only intended as an introduction. For a more details, one should consult Messiaen's treatise The Technique of My Musical Language.

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Comments (1)

Re: Messiaen's Musical Language

By brian on 11/7/2006 12:58 PM

I wanted to expand briefly on the 4th paragraph of this entry. Below is a list of the 7 MLTs listed in mod-12 integer notation; where C = 0.

1: 0 2 4 6 8 T
2: E 1 2 4 5 7 8 T
3: 0 2 3 4 6 7 8 T E
4: E 0 1 4 5 6 7 T
5: E 0 4 5 6 T
6: 0 2 4 5 6 8 T E
7: E 0 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 T

Note: These modes are listed as they appear in Pople's article. Some modes started of B-natural and some started on C-natural.

Here are how the modes relate to each other. The "parent" mode is listed first in each group.

3: 0 2 3 4 6 7 8 T E
1: 0 2 4 6 8 T

6: 0 2 4 5 6 8 T E
1: 0 2 4 6 8 T
5: E 0 4 5 6 8

4: E 0 1 4 5 6 7 T
5: E 0 4 5 6 T

7: E 0 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 T
6: 0 2 4 5 6 8 T E
4: E 0 1 4 5 6 7 T
2: E 1 2 4 5 7 8 T

This is an interesting point because it can allow for smooth "modulations" between modes. Which in effect can enhance Messiaen's color theories.