© 2012

Timothy B Cochran

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MESSIAEN’S DEBUSSY: MODES OF INTERPRETATION IN TOME VI OF TRAITÉ

DE RYTHME, DE COULEUR, ET D’ORNITHOLOGIE

by

TIMOTHY BENJAMIN COCHRAN

A Dissertation submitted to the

Graduate School-New Brunswick

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

Graduate Program in Musicology

written under the direction of

Nancy Yunhwa Rao

and approved by

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

New Brunswick, New Jersey

May, 2012
 UMI Number: 3541066

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 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Messiaen’s Debussy: Modes of Interpretation in Tome VI of Traité de rythme, de

couleur, et d’ornithologie

By TIMOTHY B COCHRAN

Dissertation Director:
NANCY RAO

Messiaen devoted Tome VI of his posthumous Traité de rythme, de couleur, et

d’ornithologie to analyses of Claude Debussy’s music. Though Debussy’s influence has

long been a cliché of Messiaen’s biography, the significance of Tome VI lies not in its

ability to elucidate the mechanisms of influence, but rather in the way it discloses

interpretive lenses that Messiaen employed to engage with his predecessor’s work.

Based on the assumption that analysis is a fundamentally hermeneutic activity, I

examine the tools that Messiaen uses to conceptualize Debussy’s music, and I

demonstrate how these modes of interpretation are often bound up with broader

conceptions of musical structure and meaning essential to Messiaen’s own music. The

dissertation addresses three types of interpretation found in Tome VI: technical

approaches to musical structure, extramusical approaches to water imagery, and the

frequent interpolation of poetic quotations within analysis. First, I explore how

Messiaen’s personal theories of compositional technique shape his interpretation of

altered dominant harmonies, rhythmic variation, and “the rhythm of dynamics” in Tome

VI. Next, I examine Messiaen’s references to water imagery in Debussy’s music, noting

ii
a combination of a priori, programmatic, topical, and metaphoric modes of interpretation.

Of all his water descriptions, Messiaen’s metaphor for shocking rhythmic contrast—“the

stone in the water”—reflects a compositional perspective most directly, as striking

durational oppositions play analogous expressive roles in his birdsong settings and

depictions of divine breakthrough. In the final section, I speculate on the interpretive role

of quotations from poetry throughout the volume, for which I infer three hermeneutic

functions: the intertexts elevate the perceived significance of the music, ground musical

details within preexistent narratives, and provide imagery through which the reader can

assess musical details described in adjacent passages. My reading of the poems as

interpretive tools provides a model for interpreting Messiaen’s own music through the

lens of scripture quotations that precede many of his works. By reconstructing these

diverse modes of interpretation, the dissertation forms a picture of Messiaen as a dynamic

interpreter who engages with Debussy’s music through many of the same hermeneutic

perspectives that inform his compositional approach.

iii
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND DEDICATION

I wish to express my deepest appreciation to all the teachers, colleagues, institutions,

family members, and friends who made this project possible. The ideas found in this

dissertation were born out of an eclectic set of experiences, conversations, trips, and

research papers, so I am thankful to anyone who spent time batting thoughts around in a

coffee shop, in the library, at a conference, or in the classroom. I am particularly

indebted to my advisor Nancy Rao, who from our first interactions in an analysis seminar

to the completion of this project pushed me to explore complex issues of interpretation

with rigor and creativity. I must also thank the members of my dissertation committee—

Douglas Johnson, Floyd Grave, and Michael Klein—who each offered incisive and

stimulating commentary on my work. I want to express my gratitude to my friend Sarah

Timlin as well for her helpful comments on the translations that appear throughout the

dissertation.

I dedicate this project to my wife Carrie, who had an infinite reserve of encouraging

words even on the most uncertain days of research. Completing this dissertation has been

a team effort as her self-sacrifice and expressions of unconditional support were

invaluable motivators.

iv
An early version of Chapter Three will appear in the forthcoming proceedings of the 11th

International Congress on Musical Signification under the title “The Rhythm of Water:

Modes of Interpretation in Messiaen’s Analyses of Debussy’s Music.”

v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract of the Dissertation ii

Acknowledgements and Dedication iv

Table of Contents vi

List of Tables ix

List of Musical Examples x

Chapter One – Tome VI and Interpretation 1

I. Tome VI within the Traité 3

a. The Significance of Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie 3

b. Summary of Tome VI 8

1) Chapter One 10

2) Chapter Two 11

3) Chapters Three and Four 13

4) Chapter Five 14

II. Influence or Interpretation? 15

a. The Story of Influence 16

b. The Story Extended in Musicology 18

c. Shortcomings of the Story 21

III. Premises and Methodology 28

vi
Chapter Two – The Composer’s Eye 36

I. Innocent Listening and Interpretive Perspective 36

II. Debussy as a Method of Interpretation 37

a. 5/4 Harmonies 38

b. Neumatic Contours 41

c. The “Golaud” Chord 42

III. Analysis through Compositional Perspectives 48

a. The Rhythm of Dynamics 50

b. Neuvième avec la tonique à la place de la sensible 58

c. Inexact and Partial Augmentation/Diminution 69

IV. Conclusions 81

Chapter Three – Hermeneutic Approaches to the Rhythm of Water 83

I. The A Priori Mode of Interpretation 84

II. From Programmatic Meaning to Musical Topics 89

III. Topic and Metaphor: “The Stone in the Water” 105

IV. Conclusions 122

Chapter Four – The Meaning(s) of Rhythmic Contrast 123

I. Birds in Their Environment 126

a. Similarities and Correlations 126

b. Contrast as a Formal Tool 141

vii
II. Divine Power 145

a. Similarities and Correlations 145

b. Contrast as a Formal Tool 150

III. A Broader Context 153

IV. Conclusion: Accounting for Points of Contact 158

Chapter Five – Poetic Intertextuality as Interpretation 160

I. The Poems and Their Hermeneutic Functions 160

a. Elevating Musical Discourse 165

b. Grounding Music within Preexisting Narratives 168

c. Imagining Musical Details in Tandem with Poetic Imagery 175

II. Interpreting Messiaen’s Scripture Quotations 185

III. Ellipses 193

Epilogue 194

Appendix 1 – Translation of “Claude Debussy or the Rhythms of Water” 196

Appendix 2 – Translation of Two Analyses of Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, Scene 3 198

I. 1980 198

II. 1991/92 213

Bibliography 233

Curriculum Vitae 248

viii
 LIST OF TABLES

1-1: Table of contents for Traité VI 9

3-1: The expressive logic of “the stone in the water” 114

4-1: The expressive logic of birdsong contrasts 133

4-2: Summary of très lent progressions in “I. Le Rouge Gorge” from Messiaen’s 144
Petites Esquisses d’oiseaux

4-3: The expressive logic of divine power contrasts 147

4-4: The expressive logic of dazzlement 157

5-1: Literature quoted in Traité VI 162

5-2: List of formal sections in “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from Debussy’s 167
La Mer

ix
 LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES

1-1: Comparison of melodic contours, Technique, pp. 33-34 18

1-2: Reduction of chord progression from Pelléas et Mélisande, 18

Technique, p. 64

1-3: Variations on Pelléas et Mélisande progression, Technique, p. 64 18

2-1: Debussy, “Et La Lune descend sur le temple qui fut” from Images, Book 2, 39
mm. 1-3

2-2: Reduction of Act II, Scene 5 from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, 39

Traité VII, p. 106

2-3: Transcription of Adam de la Halle, “Diex, comment porroie,” 40

Traité VII, p. 106

2-4: Neumatic contours in Debussy, Traité IV, pp. 9-10 42

2-5: Debussy, prelude to Act I, Scene 1 of Pelléas et Mélisande, m. 12 44

2-6: Ravel, opening chord from “Danse générale (Bacchanale),” Daphnis et Chloé 46

2-7: Stravinsky, chord from “Augurs of Spring,” Rite of Spring 46

2-8: Example of non-retrogradable rhythm in Pelléas et Mélisande, 49

Traité VI, p. 73

2-9: Debussy, Act I, Scene 3 of Pelléas et Mélisande, three measures after 52

Rehearsal 42

2-10a: Diagram of dynamic arcs, Traité VI, p. 68 53

2-10b: Diagram of inferred dynamic levels and durations, Traité VI, p. 68 53

2-11: Composite rhythm of dynamics, Traité VI, p. 68 53

2-12: Debussy, “La Fille aux cheveux de lin” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 15 60

2-13: Debussy, “Cloches à travers les feuilles” from Images, Book 2, m. 37 62

2-14: Debussy, “Mouvement” from Images, Book 1, mm. 48-49 63

2-15: Debussy, “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” from Préludes, 63
Book 2, m. 19

x
2-16: Debussy, “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses” from Préludes, 64
Book 2, m. 24

2-17: Reduction of overture to Bizet’s Carmen, Traité VII, p. 136 65

2-18: Schumann, Noveletten op. 21, no. 8, mm. 279-281 66

2-19: Debussy, “La Chevelure” from Chansons de Bilitis, mm. 3-4 66

2-20: Ravel, “Ondine” from Gaspard de la nuit, mm. 24-25 66

2-21: The Chord of Transposed Inversions on the Same Bass Note, 67

Traité VII, p. 138

2-22: The Chord on the Dominant, Technique, p. 69 69

2-23: Analysis of Debussy’s “Brouillards” from Préludes, Book 2, 70

Traité VI, p. 8

2-24: Augmentation of the Pelléas theme, Traité VI, p. 66 71

2-25: Thematic variation in Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, 72

Book I, Traité VI, p. 7

2-26: Thematic variation in Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, 73

Traité VI, pp. 6-7, 32-33

2-27: Analysis of expanding durations in “Turangalîla I” from Turangalîla- 79

symphonie, Traité II, p. 194

2-28: Analysis of expanding durations in “Chant d’amour I” from Turangalîla- 79

symphonie, Traité II, p. 173

2-29: Rhythmic pedal, Traité I, p. 343 81

3-1: Debussy, “Poissons d’or” from Images, Book 2, mm. 90-91 90

3-2: Debussy, “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 15 91

3-3: Debussy, “La Cathédrale engloutie” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 68-73 92

3-4: Debussy, “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 55-59 93

3-5: Debussy, “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, mm. 1-3 94

xi
3-6: Debussy, “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, mm. 72-74 94

3-7: Debussy, “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, m. 124 94

3-8: Debussy, “Le Vent dans la plaine” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 1-2 96

3-9: Debussy, “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 38 96

3-10: Debussy, Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rehearsal 43 97

3-11: Debussy, theme from “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer 98

3-12: Debussy, “Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” from 99
Préludes, Book 1, mm. 41-42

3-13: Debussy, “Pagodes” from Estampes, mm. 19-24 100

3-14: Debussy, “Pour Les Agréments” from Douze Études, m. 7 100

3-15: Liszt, “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pèlerinage III, 103
S. 163, mm. 8-11

3-16: Liszt “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pèlerinage III, 104
S. 163, mm. 21-22

3-17: Schubert, “Der Fluß,” D. 693, mm. 1-2 104

3-18: Schubert, “Liebesbotschaft” from Schwanengesang, D. 957, mm. 1-2 104

3-19: Debussy, “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 16-18 106

3-20: Debussy, “Nuages” from Trois Nocturnes, mm. 1-6 109

3-21: Debussy, “Brouillards” from Préludes, Book 2, mm. 38-41 110

3-22: Debussy, “Mouvement” from Images, Book 1, mm. 63-64 110

3-23: Debussy, “Pour Les Sonorités opposées” from Douze Études, mm. 1-3 111

3-24: Debussy, "De L'Aube à midi sur la mer" from La Mer, four measures 112
before Rehearsal 9

3-25: Reduction of Act I, Scene 3 from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, three 118
measures before Rehearsal 41, Traité VI, p. 84

xii
3-26: Reduction of Act I, Scene 1 from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, three 119
measures before Rehearsal 13, Traité VI, p. 60

3-27: Reduction of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rehearsal 48, 121
Traité VI, p. 72

4-1: Messiaen, “Le Loriot” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3 128

4-2: Messiaen, “Le Traquet stapazin” from from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-5 130

4-3: Messiaen, “Le Traquet stapazin” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 258-261 131

4-4: Messiaen, “L’Alouette lulu” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3 131

4-5: Messiaen, “L’Alouette calandrelle” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3 132

4-6: Messiaen, “La Bouscarle” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 46-48 132

4-7: Messiaen, “La Rousserolle effarvatte” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, 133

mm. 142-145

4-8: Debussy, "De L'Aube à midi sur la mer" from La Mer, four measures 135
before Rehearsal 9

4-9: Messiaen, “Les Étoiles et la gloire” from Éclairs sur au-delà, three 136
measures after Rehearsal 4

4-10: Messiaen, “La Manne et le pain de vie” from Livre du Saint Sacrement, 140
mm. 6-9

4-11: Messiaen, Section VII of Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, 140
mm. 1-9

4-12: Messiaen, “Regard de l’étoile” from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, 145
mm. 1-4

4-13: Messiaen, “Resurrection” from Chants de terre et de ciel, m. 20 148

4-14: Messiaen, “Antienne de la conversation intérieure” from Trois Petites 150

Liturgies de la présence divine, mm. 1-3

4-15: Messiaen, “Première Communion de la Vierge” from Vingt Regards sur 153
l’Enfant-Jésus, mm. 1-2

5-1: Debussy, “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” from Préludes, 166
Book 2, mm. 13-14

xiii
5-2: Debussy, theme from Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 3 170

5-3: Debussy, Prélude á l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 8 172

5-4: Debussy, “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, Rehearsal 46 177

5-5: Debussy, “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, seven measures 179
after Rehearsal 54

5-6: Debussy, “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 1-3 182

5-7: Debussy, “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 22-23 184

5-8: Cyclical progression from “Reflets dans l’eau,” Traité VI, p. 19 184

5-9: Messiaen, “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, mm. 3-5 189

5-10: Messiaen, “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, m. 1 190

5-11: Messiaen, “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, mm. 6-9 192

All musical examples from Messiaen’s scores, Technique de mon langage musical, and
Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie have been reprinted by permission of
Éditions Musicales Alphonse Leduc. In the appendices of the dissertation, I have
translated large portions of Chapters Two, Three, and Four from Tome VI of Messiaen’s
Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie; these excerpts have been reproduced with
Messiaen’s musical examples by permission of Éditions Musicales Alphonse Leduc.

All other musical examples are based on scores in the public domain.

xiv
 1

Chapter One:

Tome VI and Interpretation

Tome VI of Olivier Messiaen’s Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie,

which is devoted entirely to analyses of Debussy’s music, opens with the following

quote:

Indeed, it is Debussy who broke the tyranny of equal time and regular rhythmic
figures—it is Debussy who opened the door to sound-color, to complexes of sounds
and timbres—it is Debussy who introduced into music the dream, the surreal, the
unreal—it is Debussy who got the courage to apply the lessons of water, wind, clouds,
to all that flees, to all that passes, in order to make the first condition of his conception
of Time: change (Messiaen 2001, xiii).1

Messiaen wrote this tribute in 1962 for the occasion of Debussy’s centenary celebration

in Japan. Within the context of Tome VI, the excerpt serves as an introduction to the

analyses that comprise the volume, yet it is also implicitly self-referential: by bringing

attention to topics such as rhythmic fluidity, sound-color, fantasy, and nature imagery in

Debussy’s music, the epigraph not only foreshadows the analytical priorities of Tome VI,

but also reflects the content of the treatise as a whole, which focuses primarily on

Messiaen’s approaches to rhythm, color, and birdsong. Furthermore, the picture that he

paints of Debussy in this speech bears a striking resemblance to the public image that he

created for himself as a composer of rhythm, birdsong, color, and faith. In public forums,

Messiaen often listed these attributes as the defining characteristics of his distinct

compositional identity. For example, in an interview with Claude Samuel, he described

conflicts between his compositional priorities and his audience’s aesthetic interests by

1
“En effet c’est Debussy qui a brisé la tyrannie des temps égaux et des figures
rythmiques régulières—C’est Debussy qui a ouvert la porte à la couleur sonore, aux complexes
de sons et de timbres—C’est Debussy qui a introduit en musique le rêve, le surréel, l’irréel—
C’est Debussy qui a eu le courage de demander des leçons à l’eau, au vent, aux nuages, à tout ce
qui fuit, à tout ce qui passe, pour en faire la première condition de sa conception du Temps: le
changement.” Emphasis in original.
 2

identifying himself as a “composer-believer” who “speak[s] of faith to atheists;” an

“ornithologist” who “speak[s] of birds to people who live in cities;” a listener who

associates colors with sounds but cannot convince others to hear in the same way; and a

“rhythmician” among composers who have neglected the rhythmic fluctuations of nature

(Samuel 1994, 249).2 Though in Tome VI Messiaen looks outward toward Debussy’s

music, his introductory tribute also reflects the identity that he articulated for himself in

interviews and various publications, including the other volumes of the Traité.

This entanglement of self and other in the epigraph of Tome VI invites questions

about how the analyses might enlighten connections between music written by the two

composers. Over several decades, Messiaen’s Debussian heritage has become a cliché of

his biography, and Tome VI has the potential to verify these presumed stylistic and

aesthetic connections. Though the volume refers only rarely to Messiaen’s music, the

prospect of substantiating Debussy’s influence via Messiaen’s written text remains

tantalizing. However, as I will argue, the significance of Tome VI lies not in its ability to

elucidate the mechanisms of influence, but rather in what it can reveal about the

interpretive lenses that Messiaen employs to understand Debussy’s work. The real

question for the volume is not of influence—“Who is Messiaen in relation to

Debussy?”—but of hermeneutics—“Who is Debussy in relation to Messiaen?”

2
A similar defense of his inspirations appears in “Obstacles,” in 20eme Siècle images de
la musique française: textes et entretiens, ed. Jean-Pierre Derrien (Paris: SACEM & Papiers,
1986). In his speech given at the conferring of the Praemium Erasmianum in Amsterdam, 1971,
he offered a similar list of priorities: time, rhythm, color, and birds (Rößler 1986, 40-46).
Christopher Dingle notes that though Messiaen described color as a part of his works as early as
1941 (see Quatuor pour la fin du temps), it was not until Couleurs de la cité céleste (1963) that he
began “active proselytising about the sound-color relationship,” making it a consistent element in
lectures on his style (2007, 162-164).
 3

I. Tome VI within the Traité

a. The Significance of Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie

Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie is a seven-volume treatise that was

published after Messiaen’s death. He began working on the Traité in 1949, just five

years after the publication of Technique de mon langage musical (1944). Whereas the

earlier treatise had given students and admirers a vocabulary for engaging with the

composer’s music in a concise format, the Traité treats a range of topics exhaustively,

and its focus wanders from individual works from within and outside of Messiaen’s

oeuvre to broader theoretical discussions that are tangential to music analysis. The

treatise includes analyses of Messiaen’s music, analyses of works by other composers

from several eras, ancient and modern theories of rhythm, philosophical reflections on

time and color, and exhaustive catalogues of birdsongs and invented chords. While the

more modest Technique established a basic vocabulary for Messiaen’s music, the Traité

aims at providing a comprehensive picture of an eclectic worldview.

Expanding in size and scope over four decades, the Traité remained unfinished at

Messiaen’s death; but following explicit instructions left by the composer, Messiaen’s

wife Yvonne Loriod and composer Alain Louvier edited the treatise for posthumous

publication, arranging its heterogeneous content into seven volumes. The first section of

Tome I (1994) focuses on philosophical and scientific notions of time, exploring the

concept from various perspectives including those of astronomy, physics, biology, and

theology. Messiaen devotes the remainder of the volume to rhythm: he examines its

manifestations in nature and language; presents definitions of rhythm from throughout

history; and produces exhaustive information on Greek metric patterns and ancient Indian
 4

durational formulae—deçi-tâlas—from which he derived various rhythmic techniques.

As a way of contextualizing his technique of non-retrogradable rhythm, Tome II (1995)

begins with a thorough exploration of symmetry, citing examples from nature (e.g.,

butterfly wings), architecture, language (e.g., palindromes), and numerology to illustrate

the pervasiveness and mystery of the concept. After demonstrating the technique in his

own music, Messiaen turns to his other distinctive approaches to rhythm, which include

rhythmic pedals, augmentation and diminution techniques, and personnages rythmiques.

The volume also contains his famous analysis of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as well as an

extensive explication of Turangalîla-symphonie, which draws on concepts derived from

Stravinsky’s work. Tome III (1996) focuses primarily on Messiaen’s use of symmetrical

permutations—sometimes called interversion3—but also includes information on the hors

tempo performance technique found in various orchestral works. Tome IV (1997)

describes the notation and performance of Gregorian chant, drawing heavily on the work

of Dom Mocquereau. In the volume, Messiaen lists the various neumes of plainchant;

illustrates how to interpret them; offers examples from the Roman Catholic liturgy; and

analyzes his own organ mass, Messe de la Pentecôte. Adopting Vincent d’Indy’s

conception of phrase structure, Tome IV concludes with analyses of melodic accentuation

in Mozart’s music and short descriptions of the twenty-one piano concerti. The two

volumes of Tome V (2000) contain exhaustive lists of the birdsongs that appear in

Messiaen’s music. He organizes them by country and provides examples of each song

from his own work. Tome VI (2001) focuses exclusively on Debussy, making it the only

3
For a thorough explanation of this reordering technique, see Amy Bauer, “The
Impossible Charm of Messiaen’s Chronochromie,” in Messiaen Studies, ed. Robert Sholl (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 148-150.
 5

volume in the Traité that does not contain a section on Messiaen’s music. Tome VII

(2002) explores the notion of sound-color in relation to Messiaen’s invented modes and

chords, which appear in exhaustive tables that indicate personal associations with color

for each transposition level. He precedes discussions of his own music with general

reflections on modes used throughout history—from Gregorian chant to dodecaphony—

and the world—China, India, and Greece—with a brief chapter on the folksong of

various countries.

Messiaen garnered his material for the treatise from decades of compositional

research and lecture notes used in analysis classes at the Paris Conservatoire; and the

Traité offers a newly unclouded view into the analytical methods and content of the

iconic class. Messiaen taught for thirty-seven years at the Conservatoire, receiving his

first harmony class just after release from a Nazi prison camp in 1941, and then a tailor-

made analysis class in 1946. In 1966, he acquired a more prestigious composition post,

which he served until his mandatory retirement in 1978 (Boivin 1998, 6-11). Over four

decades, Messiaen’s class was a magnet for aspiring composers from within and outside

the institution, serving as a center for postwar modernism with students as iconic as

Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Michel Fano, Alexander Goehr, Iannis Xenakis,

Tristan Murail, and Gérard Grisey.4 Prior to publication of the Traité, much of

Messiaen’s classroom approach was unknown to the public except for what could be

gleaned from student testimonies and scarce class notes.5 Jean Boivin remarks that these

4
Boivin reproduces the enrollments of Messiaen’s classes in La Classe de Messiaen
(Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1995), 409-432.
5
The content of Karel Goeyvaerts’s class notes correlates with various sections of the
Traité (Delaere 2002, 37-39). The most comprehensive account of the Messiaen class appears in
Jean Boivin, La Classe de Messiaen (Paris: Christian Bourgeois, 1995), which forms a picture of
 6

sources offered insight into “a general attitude, a list of favorite works Messiaen kept

coming back to, and the undeniable fact that his discourse left a lasting impression on his

students.” However, they did not provide sufficient details for understanding the

methods and contents of Messiaen’s classroom analyses (Boivin 2007, 139). Drawing

much of its content from class material, the Traité offers the most comprehensive picture

of Messiaen’s oral teaching practice to date. In the words of Christopher Dingle, it “is

essentially a ‘summation’ of Messiaen’s teachings in his celebrated class at the Paris

Conservatoire and, as such, provides some insight into a phenomenon previously only

experienced by a privileged few” (Dingle 1995, 29). Thus the treatise stands as an

essential historical document that sheds light on Messiaen as an analyst and the role he

played in shaping conceptions of music in the minds of the postwar generation. Though

one might lament with Boivin that “the posthumous treatise […] must be read—and not

heard—as it was in his class” (1998, 17), it goes a long way toward fleshing out the

conceptual world of Messiaen’s teaching: it represents the types of knowledge

exchanged between the teacher and his illustrious pupils during their formative years.

Along with the way it supplements our historical understanding of the Messiaen

class, the Traité provides the most thorough insight of any extant source into the way that

Messiaen conceptualized his own music. In its meticulous treatment of topics essential to

his identity as a composer who prioritized characteristics of birdsong, color, rhythm, and

faith, the Traité ushers the reader into a world of compositional perspectives. It builds a

the pedagogy and content through interviews with former students. Student reflections on the
Messiaen class appear also in Pierre Boulez, Orientations: Collected Writings, trans. Martin
Cooper (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), 404-420; Pierre Boulez, George Benjamin,
and Peter Hill, “Messiaen as Teacher,” in The Messiaen Companion, ed. Peter Hill (Portland:
Faber & Faber, 1994), 266-282; Alexander Goehr, Finding the Key: Selected Writings of
Alexander Goehr (Boston: Faber & Faber, 1998); and Harry Halbreich, Olivier Messiaen (Paris:
Fayard/SACEM,1980), 511-520.
 7

conceptual framework around the composer’s oeuvre as it explains the structure and

origins of his idiomatic techniques; stakes philosophical and aesthetic claims about time,

rhythm, and color; draws unlikely stylistic connections between ancient and modern

music on novel interpretive bases; and catalogues the source material for his music.

Reflecting the diversity of his musical language,6 Messiaen’s Traité is not truly a treatise

in the traditional sense, but rather “a compendium of ideas,” which Andrew Shenton

describes as “a kind of epistemology of Messiaen’s music” (2007, 186). According to

Boulez, the class was a forum for sharing in Messiaen’s evolving thought processes—

“his discoveries and day-to-day progress” (Boulez 1986, 405)—and the Traité could

never be complete until Messiaen’s worldview finished expanding. That the treatise was

in fact a constellation of perspectives rather than an instruction manual may explain why

it remained unfinished at the composer’s death.

Just as self-reflective analyses, theories, and philosophies offer the reader a nearly

comprehensive portrait of Messiaen’s musical world, so do his analyses of Stravinsky,

Mozart, and Debussy provide insight into the way he conceptualized music written by

other composers; and these explorations of repertoires other than his own are bound up

with the network of ideas encountered throughout the Traité. The analyses of works

outside Messiaen’s own oeuvre act as extensions of his musical worldview insofar as

they are suffused with concepts found in other sections of the treatise, and provide

vehicles for expressing singular notions of structure and meaning.

6
Björn Heile describes Messiaen’s eclectic compositional sources as “rhizomatic” in the
Deleuzian sense: his materials are heterogeneous, and each source can connect with any other no
matter how distinct (2009, 118).
 8

b. Summary of Tome VI

Like much of the larger treatise, Tome VI (Table 1-1) reflects an oral teaching

practice in written form.7 Resembling his classroom approach, the volume tends to

ignore hierarchical notions of musical structure (e.g., voice-leading and relationships

between key areas), and examines the musical elements as they appear measure by

measure.8 Throughout Tome VI, Messiaen is attentive to the minutest details of

harmony/sound-color, orchestration, rhythmic construction, thematic variation, and

modality. As in the Traité as a whole, Messiaen gears his approach toward vocabulary

rather than syntax—or as Boivin has put it, toward the typology of rhythmic cells,

thematic segments, and individual chords rather than the “organic, dialectical working

out of [such] elements” (2007, 155).

7
Though the volume is comprised of works that Messiaen claimed to hold in highest
regard, two orchestral works known for their consistent presence in Messiaen’s classes—Trois
Nocturnes and Iberia—are absent from the list. In a footnote, the editors of the volume remark
that Messiaen knew these works particularly well, and that he made observations in class based
on memory, refreshed by an unmarked orchestral score set before him. Though he would have
likely written lengthy analyses of these works if he had lived longer—given their prominence and
familiarity—Messiaen never documented his thoughts thoroughly enough to reconstruct even
fragmentary analyses suitable for publication (2001, xii), and only scattered references within
Tome VI to isolated excerpts reveal anything about Messiaen’s approach to these works. See for
example p. 5 where he analyzes the rhythm of the oboe theme from “Nuages.”
8
Reflecting on his former teacher, George Benjamin notes that “many harmonic
concepts—background harmonic motion, tension and, above all, polyphony—were foreign to his
thought” (Boulez et al. 1994, 271). Alexander Goehr refers to Messiaen’s chord-by-chord
approach as a distinctly French style of analysis (1998, 48). Making similar comments on
Messiaen’s lack of “any system or unifying method,” Jean Boivin observes the stark contrast
between the Anglo-Saxon tradition of methodological purity and Messiaen’s way of
incorporating varied domains of aesthetics, history, and criticism into acts of analysis as well as
his tendency to shift suddenly between the perspective of the original composer and that of the
listener (2007, 145).
 9

Chapter
1 Debussy's Rhythmic Procedures—Rational and Irrational Values
Chapter
2 1) Claude Debussy or the Rhythms of Water
a) Analysis of "Reflets dans l'eau" (for Piano)
b) Analysis of "Dialogue du vent et de la mer"
3rd Movement from La Mer (for Large Orchestra)
Chapter
3 Pelléas et Mélisande
1) General Presentation
a) The Poem
b) The Characters
c) The Scenery
d) The Leitmotivs
e) The Recitatives
f) The Interludes
2) Analysis of Act I, Scenes 1 and 3
3) Analysis of the Interludes
a) Act II, between Scenes 2 and 3
b) Act III, between Scenes 3 and 4
Chapter
4 Detailed Analysis of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande
Chapter
5 Group of Analyses

a) Chanson de Bilitis: "La Flûte de Pan," "Le Tombeau des naïades"

(for Voice and Piano)

b) Études for Piano: "Pour Les Quartes," "Pour Les Agréments," "Pour
Les Sonorités opposées," "Pour Les Accords"
c) Images for Piano: "Hommage à Rameau," "Mouvement," "Cloches à
travers les feuilles," "Et La Lune descend sur le temple qui fut,"
"Poissons d'or"
d) Estampes for Piano: "Pagodes," "La Soirée dans Grenade," "Jardins
sous la pluie"

e) Préludes for piano: (1st Book) 3. "Le Vent dans la plaine," 4. "Les
Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir," 6. "Des Pas sur la
neige," 7. "Ce qu'a vu le vent d'ouest," 8. "La Fille aux cheveux de lin,"
10. "La Cathédrale engloutie," (2nd Book) 1. "Brouillards," 2. "Feuilles
mortes," 3. "La Puerta del vino," 4. "Les Fées sont d'exquises
danseuses," 5. "Bruyères," 8. "Ondine," 10. "Canope," 11. "Les Tierces
alternées," 12. "Feux d'artifice"
f) Group of analyses from La Mer (for Orchestra): 1st Movement "De
L'Aube à midi sur la mer" and 2nd Movement "Jeux de vagues"

Table 1-1. Table of contents for Tome VI of Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie
 10

This formalistic emphasis on duration, sonority, and other local-level features of

Debussy’s scores does not preclude significant and insightful perspectives on

extramusical meaning within the volume. Metaphoric descriptions and quotations from

poetry linked with Debussy’s aesthetic world can be found in most analyses. Figurative

language is not extraneous to explorations of musical meaning in this context, but instead

acts as a partner with technical description in the search for the essence of Debussy’s

music. As Alain Louvier, co-editor of the Traité, notes poignantly, the treatise “allies

scientific precision with fantasy” (Messiaen 1994, 1), reflecting an eclectic view of

musical meaning that connects various semiotic domains at once.9

1) Chapter One

Chapter One prefaces the work-centered essays that follow with remarks on

Debussy’s rhythmic techniques. Instead of focusing on a specific piece or repertoire,

Messiaen articulates general concepts, which he deems essential for understanding

Debussy’s rhythmic style. He attends primarily to the fluid and transformational

properties of Debussy’s rhythms, arguing that they are defined by the interplay of

irrational and rational rhythmic groupings and the “free opposition of very long values

and very short values” (Messiaen 2001, 3). He proposes rhythmic liberty and contrast as

the common denominators of Debussy’s diverse techniques, and where possible, he

relates them to rhythms of the natural world. Messiaen discusses contrast at the phrase

9
Fred Maus notes how writing styles can mirror the concepts being expressed in “The
Disciplined Subject of Musical Analysis,” in Beyond Structural Listening? Postmodern Modes of
Hearing, ed. Andrew Dell’Antonio (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), 16-19. For
example, Allen Forte’s summary of Schenkerian theory features a controlled prose style that
reflects Schenker’s emphasis on control and subordination. Likewise, Messiaen’s eclectic
references to structure and poetry reflect a multidimensional and intertextual view of musical
meaning.
 11

level as well, noting the composer’s variation techniques, which include diminution,

augmentation, and interpolation. By attending to momentary contrasts as well as

transformations of thematic material, Messiaen implies that Debussy’s rhythms are in a

state of constant variation within and between phrases. The theme of rhythmic fluidity

and transformation will resound throughout the volume.

2) Chapter Two

In a brief preface that precedes the analyses of Chapter Two, Messiaen describes

Debussy’s fascination with water.10 He claims first that water and rhythm (particularly

rhythmic variation) bear inherently similar qualities, and that the two words even share a

common etymological heritage. He then turns toward Debussy’s repertoire, naming a

litany of pieces whose titles and subject matter refer to water.

In the first two analyses of Chapter Two, Messiaen assesses water-themed works:

“Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1 and “Dialogue du vent et de la mer,” the final

movement of La Mer. Though he does not attempt to map water imagery onto every

analytical detail, he surrounds these works with germane quotations—chosen for what he

calls their “Debussian resonance” (15)—from poets like Mallarmé, de Bergerac, and

Reverdy. These poetic references as well as other metaphoric descriptions contribute to

interpretations of musical structure in certain excerpts and elaborate on the subject matter

10
For a translation of the preface, see Appendix 1 of the dissertation. For other studies of
water imagery in Debussy, see Pietro Misuraca, “‘Eau sonore’: Liquidità e simbolismo nella
musica di Debussy,” in Ceciliana, per Nino Pirrotta, eds. Maria Antonella Balsano and Giuseppe
Collisani (Palermo: Flaccovio, 1994), 271-298; and Thomas Hochradner, “Wasser bei
Claude Debussy: Zur musikalischen Umsetzung des literarischen Symbolismus,” in Glasba,
poezija–ton, beseda, ed. Primož Kuret (Ljubljana: Ministrstvo za Kulturo Republike Slovenije,
2000), 175-187.
 12

in general. In the analysis of “Reflets dans l’eau,” Messiaen attends especially to

rhythmic transformation and contrast, adopting a quasi-paradigmatic approach to

illustrate subtle changes in variations of a theme. This focus may reflect his general view

of rhythmic variation as akin to the flow of water. He comments also on melodic

contour, harmony, and a passage of parsimonious voice-leading.11 Messiaen takes a

more explicit interest in form in the analysis of “Dialogue du vent et de la mer,” which he

claims bears characteristics of sonata, rondo, and variation forms simultaneously. As he

fleshes out each section of the work, he offers detailed descriptions of orchestration,

phrase structure, cyclic themes, fluid tempo, noteworthy harmonies, and rhythmic

subtlety along with various extramusical interpretations.

Chapter Two also contains analyses of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, “La

Danse de Puck” (Préludes, Book 1), and “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune”

(Préludes, Book 2). While these analyses feature many of the same emphases on

rhythmic technique, harmony, and thematic transformation, Messiaen foregrounds

connections with preexistent literature. He acquaints the reader with the plot and imagery

of Mallarmé’s poem before launching into a detailed analysis of Prélude à l’après-midi

d’un faune, claiming that Debussy added musical “enchantment” to the poet’s work (28).

His attention to the music’s formal sections, harmonic structure, melodic contour, modes,

and orchestrational details recalls the content of other analyses in the volume, but his

interpretation of the flute theme as the embodiment of Mallarmé’s dual-natured faun

lends the analysis a vaguely narrative quality bound up with the poem’s story. In similar

fashion, Messiaen adopts literary insights to frame observations about form, rhythm,

11
I am using the term in the music-theoretical sense of progressing from one chord to
another by way of the smoothest voice-leading possible, i.e., the shortest route.
 13

modality, and intervallic structure in his analysis of “La Danse de Puck.” Quotes from A

Midsummer Night’s Dream appear in a lengthy preface on Puck’s personality and the

origins of his character in literature, and as Messiaen investigates each formal section, he

relates minute details of the score to the story and its characters. He speculates about

poetic origins for the suggestive title of “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” as

well, citing Verlaine’s Fêtes galantes as a possible source in a brief analysis that

concludes the chapter.

3) Chapters Three and Four

Messiaen devotes the next two chapters of Tome VI to the opera Pelléas et

Mélisande. To establish the dramatic context, he adduces information about the opera’s

poem, characters, scenery, leitmotivs, recitatives, and interludes, and he uses terminology

defined by his opening remarks throughout the analyses. In Chapter Three, he analyzes

the three scenes of Act I as well as interludes between Scenes 2 and 3 of Act II and

Scenes 3 and 4 of Act III. As in other analyses, Messiaen focuses on minute details of

the opera score, particularly rhythmic variations, phrasing, noteworthy harmonies, and

orchestral color. To this list of familiar concepts, he adds a reference to the “rhythm of

dynamics,” which he defines as the subtle rate of volume change over the course of a

phrase (67). As in the analyses of Chapter Two, Messiaen relates structural details to

dramatic events wherever possible.

Chapter Four contributes an alternative analysis of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas.

Approximately twelve years passed between the analysis and its counterpart in Chapter

Three. According to editorial footnotes, this chapter consists of Messiaen’s last written
 14

analysis, assembled in the winter of 1991-2 only a few weeks before his death (79). In

this second take on Act I, Scene 3, Messiaen adopts a similar approach to the one in the

previous chapter, foregrounding many of the same observations and concepts.

Occasionally, they differ in points of emphasis or terminology, and on at least two

occasions, they contradict each other.12 Though the analyses are largely the same in

content and focus, their slight differences signal the dynamic nature of repeated

engagements with familiar works.

4) Chapter Five

Chapter Five contains an assortment of brief and fragmentary analyses. While

Messiaen completed the other sections of the volume for publication, the editors had to

cull the content of Chapter Five from his notes written in musical scores (95). Yvonne

Loriod copied and reconstructed the analyses after the composer’s death, placing measure

numbers along the left edge of the page to guide the reader through the disjointed prose.

Most of the analyzed works are for solo piano, drawn primarily from Debussy’s Études,

Images, Estampes, and Préludes.13 Though the analyses of Chapter Five are not as

coherent as other sections in Tome VI, their content and points of emphasis are familiar

from other chapters.

12
Messiaen comes to different conclusions about the opening harmonic progression in
each analysis (2001, 64, 81-82). He also describes the passage after Rehearsal 45 as an example
of silence vide in the first analysis (70), but as prolongational silence in the second (90), which
are two distinct conceptions of silence outlined in Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie,
Tome I (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1994), 48.
13
After publishing the Traité, Loriod also extracted Messiaen’s notes from his scores of
piano works by Ravel in Ravel: Analyses of the Piano Works of Maurice Ravel, trans. Paul
Griffiths (Paris: Durand, 2005).
 15

The analysis of La Mer—the two movements not included in Chapter Two—that

concludes Chapter Five appears more polished than the fragmentary analyses that

precede it, and several features of the layout suggest that the editors might have intended

it as an independent chapter. Until this point, the analyses had flowed one into the next,

separated only by a line and a bold heading, but between the analyses of “Feux d’artifice”

and La Mer, a new title page reads “Chapitre V La Mer” (81) as if it marked the

beginning of a new chapter. The analysis itself encourages this hypothesis as Messiaen’s

descriptions achieve a level of detail absent from other sections of the chapter.

II. Influence or Interpretation?

Though Tome VI provides windows into the way that Messiaen approached

Debussy’s music, he makes few comparisons with his own music in the volume. The

larger Traité may be explicitly self-referential, but direct references to Messiaen’s music

are conspicuously absent from the Debussy analyses. Whereas in Tome II he follows the

iconic analysis of personnages rythmiques in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with an

exhaustive study of how he appropriates and transforms the technique in his own music,

Tome VI begins and ends with Debussy.

However, despite the lack of self-reference from Tome VI, the volume’s presence

within a treatise of self-reflective theories and analyses suggests that its contents

comprise aspects of Messiaen’s musical thought in implicit ways. Indeed, several of his

observations about Debussy recall descriptions of his own music and aesthetics, and we

can infer a connection between analysis and composition.

 16

How to conceptualize that connection is not so straightforward. One option

would be to weave the similarities into the traditional story of Debussy’s influence on

Messiaen, which has been perpetuated by various scholars and the composer himself over

several decades. But what will become apparent is that that narrative is at once overly

reductive and nonspecific. It ignores the plethora of influential forces, just as it fails to

elucidate the interpretive practices underlying musical engagement. Rather than

contributing to the conventional narrative of Debussy’s influence on Messiaen, Tome VI

helps us write a different story.

a. The Story of Influence

Messiaen avowed Debussy’s influence explicitly throughout his career, referring

often to a formative childhood experience with Pelléas et Mélisande. In 1919, one of

Messiaen’s teachers, Jehan de Gibon, gave him the opera score as a gift, and he reflected

on the event in an obituary for de Gibon in 1952:

What did the teacher give to the child as a souvenir of these beautiful lessons? A
classic work, a harmony treatise? No: he gave him a score which at the time was the
height of daring (rather like serial music, or musique concrète, or a sonata by Pierre
Boulez nowadays). He gave him Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy! This present
served to confirm the young pupil’s vocation, and point him in the direction he wanted
(Hill and Simeone 2005, 15).

This story would become a leitmotiv of Messiaen’s autobiography; and in each retelling,

he emphasized the revolutionary power of the work over his impressionable mind, once

referring to it as a “veritable bomb in the hands of a mere child” (Samuel 1994, 110). He

suggested that imaginative score-readings catalyzed a lifetime of creative thoughts.14 By

14
As Bachelard says, “the places in which we have experienced daydreaming reconstitute
themselves in a new daydream, and it is because our memories of former dwelling-places are
relived as daydreams that these dwelling-places of the past remain in us for all time” (1997, 84).
 17

connecting past imagination with present creativity, Messiaen construes his early

experience with Pelléas as a fundamental component of his compositional identity.

Messiaen foregrounds this connection in particular excerpts from Technique de

mon langage musical where he describes minute melodic and harmonic structures from

his own work as transformations of patterns found in Debussy. In the introduction to the

treatise, he names Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande as a chief influence among other

inspirations, which include his mother, wife, Shakespeare, plainchant, and rainbows

(1966, 7). Though he refrains from explicating the details of Debussy’s influence

systematically, he does present his predecessor’s music as a model for his own techniques

in two excerpts. In a section on melodic patterns, Messiaen shows how he uses a three-

note contour from the opening of Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” in his own Poèmes pour

Mi, Les Offrandes oubliées, and Les Corps glorieux (33-34) (Example 1-1). Likewise, in

an explanation of added-note harmonies, he demonstrates how one can manipulate a pair

of chords from Act III, Scene 1 of Pelléas et Mélisande (Example 1-2) to create a

progression found in “La Maison” from Poèmes pour Mi (64) (Example 1-3). Messiaen’s

comparisons are general, abstract, and limited to short musical excerpts; but even if the

miniscule transformations do not provide comprehensive evidence of influence, they

perpetuate the same narrative as the Pelléas story, suggesting that Debussy remained a

part of his compositional consciousness.

 18

Example 1-1. Messiaen’s comparison of melodic contours excerpted from (a) “Reflets dans l’eau” from
Images, Book 1; (b) “L’Épouse” from Poèmes pour Mi; (c) Les Offrandes oubliées; (d) “Paysage” from
Poèmes pour Mi; and (e) “Combat de la mort et de la vie” from Les Corps glorieux

Example 1-2. Chord progression from Act III, Scene 1 of Pelléas et Mélisande

Example1-3. Chord progression inspired by the Debussy example: (a) and (b) are transformed by added
notes, and (c) is a resulting passage in “La Maison” from Poèmes pour Mi

b. The Story Extended in Musicology

For the most part, scholars have taken Messiaen’s attributions of influence at face

value, employing them as a documentary foundation for explorations of more detailed

connections. Several studies have emphasized stylistic and aesthetic similarities as

 19

indications of relation and as ways of linking Messiaen to his predecessor. In a series of

articles about Debussy’s impact on contemporaries and successors, Roger Smalley

highlights interests held in common between Debussy and Messiaen, including modes

that are neither major nor minor, the primacy of harmony, static temporality, and form

based on the accumulation of small phrase-units (1968, 129-130). In her lengthier study

of Messiaen’s stylistic influences, Madeleine Hsu adds that Messiaen and Debussy both

emphasize the decorative rather than functional role of harmony (1996, 71), explore the

varied timbres of the piano (67), and manifest mystery within their music (31).15

Reinhard Oehlschlägel proposes the exotic appeal of Debussy’s impressionist musical

language for Messiaen (1971, 354), and Zsolt Gárdonyi situates harmonies from Saint

François d’Assise within a long line of inventive sonorities, including chords found in

Debussy’s work (1985, 59, 61). Certain studies go beyond stylistic similarities to the

expressive and even spiritual connections between the composers. Theo Hirsbrunner

locates the link between composers in their common use of suggestive performance

directions and poetic subtitles (1998-1999, 156-157). Charles Riley posits a link between

Debussy’s secular asceticism—embodied in his fascination with Symbolist mystery,

subdued dynamics, temporal stasis, and nature—and Messiaen’s own reclusive devotion

to birdsong and the mysteries of the Catholic faith (1998, 190).16 In response to

Messiaen’s story of influence, musicologists have sought to isolate the locus of influence,

15
Though she mentions Debussy’s name repeatedly, Hsu is especially interested in the
less often discussed role of Bartók in the formation of Messiaen’s musical thought.
16
Paul McNulty takes a somewhat opposing view by suggesting that Debussy played a
formative role in Messiaen’s early years, but that he set aside such outside forces after he
discovered his true self in his journey toward asceticism, moving on from the Debussy influence
“to create something entirely personal and, it could be argued, introspective” (2007, 63).
 20

fleshing out the composer’s narrative with resemblances of all kinds. The corpus of

influence studies has constructed Messiaen’s identity as a reflection—no matter how

vague—of Debussy’s musical world.17

On the basis of similarity and personal testimony, many of the studies described

above extrapolate larger historical claims that go beyond connections between the

individual composers. Such studies tend to construe Messiaen not as merely Debussy-

like but as a step in a cultural narrative that progresses from or through Debussy. For

example, Hirsbrunner classifies Messiaen as a heroic figure who rescued Debussy’s

music from obscurity between and after the world wars.18 Whereas Cocteau had

dismissed Debussy as a Wagnerian epigone, Hirsbrunner claims that Messiaen came to

maturity in the age of Neoclassicism to retake the reins of a diminishing legacy: “behind

the scene in which was celebrated the exorcism of Debussy’s sound world, another

composer prepared in silence the return of Romanticism and Debussian Impressionism:

it was Olivier Messiaen” (Hirsbrunner 1998-1999, 154).19 Hirsbrunner construes

17
Paul Griffiths offers an opinion outside the mainstream when he says that despite the
stylistic similarities between composers, the paradigms underlying their work are essentially
different: “Debussy’s modality is not a liberation from the diatonic past but a search for it:
Pelléas’s tragedy is that he wants to be operating in the normal world, only he cannot find the
way there. In Messiaen, on the other hand, there is absolutely nothing of nostalgia or of longing
for more ordered, surer rules. Quite the contrary: his music exudes a joy that the old chains of
cause and effect have been forgotten, and that chords can be moved about in a symmetrical
universe that imposes no single flow of time” (1985, 16-17).
18
See also Françoise Gervais, “L’Influence de Debussy: France,” in Debussy et
l’évolution de la musique au XXe siècle, ed. Édith Weber (Paris: Centre National de la Recherche
Scientifique, 1965), 169-272.
19
“derrière la scène sur laquelle on célébrait l’exorcisme du monde sonore de Debussy,
un autre compositeur préparait en silence le retour au romanticisme et à l’impressionnisme
debussyste: c’était Olivier Messiaen.” See also Theo Hirsbrunner, “Vorwärtsweisende
Tendenzen bei Claude Debussy,” Schweizer musikpädagogische Blätter/Cahiers suisses de
pédagogie musicale 81 (1993): 130-134.
 21

Messiaen not only as an admirer or emulator of Debussy, but as a Messiah figure waiting

until his appointed time to redeem Debussy for posterity from the Neoclassicists.20 This

reclamation takes place not only in Messiaen’s advocacy for Debussy during lectures at

the Conservatoire, but through his own appropriation and development of Debussy’s style

and aesthetics. Dissatisfied with similarity in itself, Hirsbrunner weaves it into a larger

story about the preservation of Debussian aesthetics in which Messiaen plays a pivotal

role. Smalley makes similarly broad historical assumptions about the relationship

between the composers when he says that “there must be a close link between Debussy

and Messiaen because we instinctively recognize them both (and Boulez too) as

belonging to the same, unmistakably French, culture” (1968, 128). According to this

logic, an essential cultural heritage binds the different composers together, and this

manifests itself in varying degrees of similarity. However, this claim relies on circular

validation: Smalley’s presentation of stylistic connections builds the case for the very

heritage upon which the search rests in the first place. Like Hirsbrunner, Smalley views

resemblances as traces of a distinct cultural narrative.21

c. Shortcomings of the Story

While the story of influence may bring some interesting similarities in style and

aesthetics to light, it falls short of critiquing the contexts and methods of Messiaen’s

engagement with Debussy. It restricts the field of influence to a single source, exploring

20
Messiaen registered his distaste for Neoclassicism—particularly Stravinsky’s stylistic
change after the Russian period—in several sources, referring to it as “a waste of good talent”
(Dingle 2007, 11-12), “useless copy,” “complete absurdity” (Samuel 1994, 195), mere imitation
of past masters (Rößler 1986, 103), and “the rechewing of what’s already been done” (74).
21
For a critique of narrative history, see Leo Treitler, Music and the Historical
Imagination (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), 157-175.
 22

a narrow intertextuality22 that oversimplifies the dense web of predecessors,

contemporaries, conventions, moods, and events that play into acts of creation (Kramer

2011, 114; Meyer 1989, 143).23 It fails to recognize Debussy as a node in a network of

acknowledged as well as unconscious inspirations that meld into a single creative

moment. While the narrative of Debussy’s influence is reductive in this respect, it is also

problematically vague. It tells us that Messiaen drew inspiration from Debussy, but it

does not elucidate his means of engagement, i.e., the interpretive tools that he used to

access, evaluate, and conceptualize his predecessor’s work. The story of influence

renders Messiaen an object of historical forces rather than an interpreting subject.

Though resituating Debussy in the dense web of influences may be an impossible task, a

more robust conception of Messiaen’s interactions with Debussy could be gained from

considering the interpretive perspectives that he brought to bear on Debussy, including

the personal circumstances that fashioned his understanding of past music, his historical

vantage point, and his idiomatic view of musical structure and meaning.

22
Michael Klein considers studies of influence to be one type of intertextuality involving
agency. Other types include authorial and listener perspectives as well as historical, cultural, and
stylistic considerations. Each method of inquiry involves reading a work through a particular set
of texts (2005, 12).
23
Kevin Korsyn calls these framing narratives “privileged contexts,” which control and
filter our perception of history (1999, 68). Nancy Rao has deconstructed one such privileged
context in “The Color of Music Heritage: Chinese America in American Ultra-Modern Music,”
Journal of Asian American Studies 12 (2009): 83-119. She proposes a broader notion of musical
heritage that goes beyond European influences on American Ultramodernism to the formative
presence of Asian music within the borders of the United States. According to Rao, non-Western
sources are not merely Orientalist decoration but rather a key component of Henry Cowell’s
musical heritage, developed through personal contact, negotiation, mimicry, and transformation
(88).
 23

Instead of viewing Messiaen’s words about Debussy as the foundation for

elucidating influence,24 we can treat them as statements made from particular

perspectives. Instead of imagining Messiaen’s identity in relation to Debussy, we can

seek out Messiaen’s Debussy, whose identity is mediated by distinct points of view.25

When Arthur Wenk says that “to a remarkable degree we have disengaged Debussy from

la Belle Epoque and made him a man of our own time,” he implies that the composer is

not only an historical figure, but also an object of interpretation seen through lenses of

events and developments that came after him (1982, 43). Numerous scholars, critics, and

composers of the last century have defined Debussy’s historical significance post hoc,

fashioning his image in the likeness of retrospective aesthetic and political allegiances.26

Falling within this tradition, Messiaen’s statements about Debussy do not only convey

facts, but also bear traces of predilections, biases, memories, and motivations, in short,

ways of seeing and experiencing the world.

24
Taruskin remarks aptly that we tend to treat composers’ words “not as testimony but as
oracles” (2009, 375).
25
Joseph Straus notes that “composers’ interpretations of their predecessors […] may
strongly shape our experience of earlier works and thus their meaning” (1990, 27-28).
26
Jane Fulcher argues that scholarly views of Debussy are often reductive in that they
privilege particular stylistic features to preserve a certain image, e.g., ignoring the early and late
works in favor of an essentially “Impressionist” Debussy (2001, 2). Likewise, various composers
have construed Debussy as a predecessor for subsequent developments in modern music. See
Herbert Eimert, “Debussy’s ‘Jeux,’” Die Reihe 5 (1961): 3-20; Pierre Boulez, Stocktakings from
an Apprenticeship, trans. Stephen Walsh (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), 276; and Elliott
Carter, Elliott Carter: Collected Essays and Lectures, 1937-1995, ed. Jonathan Bernard
(Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 1997), 123-124, 133, 270. Barbara Kelly has argued
that it is the ambiguity of Debussy’s status in the history of French music and politics that makes
him easy to appropriate as a retrospective hero (2008, 72). Arnold Whittall provides a thorough
critique of scholarly and compositional interpretations of Debussy’s influence and historical
position within the twentieth century in “Debussy Now,” in Cambridge Companion to Debussy,
ed. Simon Trezise (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 278-287.
 24

Within musicology, Harold Bloom’s anxiety of influence has provided a means of

re-conceiving influence as a type of hermeneutic activity. Seeking to account for the

Oedipal anxieties and hidden agendas underlying composers’ words about their

predecessors, several recent studies have adopted Bloom’s theory as a model for

rethinking influence as a type of reaction instead of emulation.27 Notions of self-

consciousness, revision, misreading, and rivalry support a dialogic view of influence,

whereby the composer does not simply receive a tradition but rather struggles with it in

the pursuit of personal greatness (Yudkin 1992, 44; Straus 1990, 6-8). By replacing

influence as emulation with the notion of misreading (Korsyn 1991, 28), followers of

Bloom examine composer’s testimonies and works as documents of agonistic

interpretation.

However, despite the way that it renders the successor as an interpreter, Bloom’s

theory accounts for only a small portion of hermeneutic activity underlying a single text,

and it is ill-equipped for Messiaen’s confident and admiring statements about Debussy.

27
Bloom illustrates his work in The Anxiety of Influence, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1997); and A Map of Misreading, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press,
2003). The most notable applications of Bloom’s theory of poetry to music appear in Kevin
Korsyn, “Towards a New Poetics of Musical Influence,” Music Analysis 10 (1991): 3-72
(summarized in Martin Scherzinger, “The ‘New Poetics’ of Musical Influence: A Response to
Kevin Korsyn,” Music Analysis 13 (1994): 298-309); Joseph N. Straus, Remaking the Past:
Musical Modernism and the Influence of the Tonal Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1990); Jeremy Yudkin, “Beethoven’s ‘Mozart’ Quartet,” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 45 (1992): 30-74; and Mark Evan Bonds, After Beethoven: The Imperative
of Originality in the Symphony (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1996). Adam Krims
discerns the structuralist and post-structuralist qualities of Bloom’s work in “Bloom, Post-
Structuralism(s), and Music Theory,” Music Theory Online 0, no. 11 (November 1994),
http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.94.0.11/mto.94.0.11.krims.art (accessed December 17, 2011).
Criticisms of the method appear in Richard Taruskin, “Revising Revision,” in The Danger of
Music and Other Anti-Utopian Essays (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 354-381;
Lloyd Whitesell, “Men with a Past: Music and the ‘Anxiety of Influence,’” 19th-Century Music 18
(1994): 152-167; Lawrence Kramer, Musical Meaning: Toward a Critical History (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002), 158-188; and Lawrence Kramer, Interpreting Music
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 113-127.
 25

By privileging strength, anxiety, dominance (Whitesell 1994, 154), and what Kramer

calls “symbolic parricide” (Kramer 2002, 267), the musicological appropriation of Bloom

focuses on a particular type of agonistic interpretation that ultimately keeps the linear

framework of predecessor and successor intact. Messiaen’s statements about Debussy

fail to disclose the modernist anxieties that are so prevalent among twentieth-century

composers,28 but they are not lacking in interpretive perspectives that shape the way he

describes his engagement with the music of Debussy. Often, his words bear traces of

retrospective interpretations made in light of compositional points of view, challenging

the linearity of Bloom’s influence model in which interpretation of the past leads to

composition toward the future. Thus, Messiaen’s texts demand not a hermeneutics of

reactionary influence but rather a broad consideration of interpretation in general.

A wealth of interpretive perspectives underscores Messiaen’s seemingly

straightforward account of his experience with Pelléas et Mélisande. The story does not

simply record biographical facts of influence, but instead reflects particular ways of

viewing Debussy. For example, Messiaen’s first experiences with the opera took place

not in an opera house, but as an imagined reconstruction of the music via score reading.

Rather than becoming acquainted with the opera in itself, he engaged with it through

creative reenactments at home, singing and playing the parts at the piano (Benitez 2008,

2). Paul Griffiths notes that, despite Messiaen’s affection for the theatre from an early

age, he never mentioned visiting a real one during his youth (1985, 21), and it is most

likely that the childhood experiences with Pelléas were shaped primarily by the

interpretive activities of play and fantasy. Messiaen’s personal copy of the opera score

28
Within Messiaen studies, only Barbara Derfler has described Messiaen’s music as an
agonistic revision of Debussy in “Claude Debussy’s Influence on Olivier Messiaen: An Analysis
and Comparison of Two Preludes” (DMA dissertation, University of Alberta, 1999).
 26

functioned as what Alexander Rehding calls a “souvenir,” which “follows its own time

[…] of interiority” (2009, 106), allowing him to create the work for himself at home.

When Messiaen describes the work as a “veritable bomb in the hands of a mere child,” he

is not describing an unmediated form of influence, but rather a distinct moment of

performative interpretation. Just as experience with the opera involved acts of

interpretation, the memory of the childhood event contributed to an ideal image of

Debussy that would have an impact on future interpretations. In an interview with

Claude Samuel, Messiaen drew a retrospective distinction between two Debussys:

In his youth, Boulez liked the Debussy of Jeux; in my youth, I liked Pelléas et
Mélisande. Each of us has remained attached to his youthful emotions. I continue to
think that the Debussy who is in love with sound, in love with the chord, is the
composer of Pelléas, of Chansons de Bilitis, of Nocturnes (Samuel 1994, 183).

In this quote, Messiaen expresses an interest not in Debussy per se, but in a distinct cross-

section of his work bound together by childhood experience. Rather than an historical

figure, the “Debussy in love with sound” comprises a filter through which to parse his

music into stylistic and aesthetic categories. While it is not uncommon to distinguish

between different stages in Debussy’s career,29 Messiaen proposes a distinction in

Debussy’s style linked closely with former interpretations of Pelléas. Furthermore, he

defines his predecessor by reference to his own interest in harmonic color, making the

stylistic distinction an issue of identity as well.30 Messiaen does not describe Debussy

29
See Marianne Wheeldon, Debussy’s Late Style (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2009).
30
In reference to the piano, he says, “It is in Debussy that I found the piano-orchestra,
making counterfeit flutes, clarinets, horns, [and] muted trumpets more poetic than the originals”
(Goléa 1984, 107). [C’est dans Debussy que j’ai trouvé le piano-orchestre, faisant de fausses
flutes, de fausses clarinettes, de faux cors, de fausses trompettes bouchées plus poétiques que les
originaux.] See also Jean Boivin, “Messiaen’s Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire: A Humanist’s
 27

himself, but rather a highly personal conception of Debussy distinct from others.31

Recognizing the imaginative and selective interpretations underlying Messiaen’s account

of Pelléas et Mélisande does not refute the formative role of the opera in his career, but it

complicates the notion of Messiaen as a passive recipient of unidirectional influence.

Just as Messiaen’s archetypal story of childhood influence is built upon a

foundation of interpretive perspectives, Tome VI reveals detailed ways in which he

conceptualized Debussy’s music. The close readings found in the volume offer a clearer

picture of Messiaen’s hermeneutic engagement with past music than his more general

accounts of Debussy’s style found elsewhere. This is true in part because analysis is an

interpretive activity by definition, ever marked by the analyst’s inclinations,

commitments, historical context, and intellectual personality (Guck 2006, 193-194).

These perspectives shape the types of information deemed significant (197), providing

“ways of hearing” that guide the perception of the work (Dubiel 1999, 269). An analyst

produces musical meaning in the intersection between a work’s details and a frame of

mind, or as Rabinowitz puts it, between “chord and discourse” (Rabinowitz 1992, 42).

Legacy,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor &
Francis, 1998), 11.
31
This ideal image of Debussy may have influenced Messiaen’s description of “Pour Les
Sonorités opposées” from Études in Tome VI. He once referred to the composer of the work as
“less shimmering, less in love with sound, more anemic” than his own preferred Debussy of
harmonic color (Samuel 1994, 183). However, when Messiaen analyzes “Pour Les Sonorités
opposées,” he imbues the movement with qualities that reflect the Debussy of his youth: “What
marvelous harmonies! A feeling of mystery, with a theme recalling Saint Sébastien, an organ
mixture effect, an allusion to Faune, a theme of déploration, a memory evoking the chord of
Golaud, and at the end, the remoteness of these themes, joining the silence in a lone chord, as if
suspended…” (Messiaen 2001, 104). [“De merveilleuses harmonies! Un sentiment de mystère,
avec un thème rappelant Saint Sébastien, un effet de mixture d’orgue, une allusion au ‘Faune,’ un
thème de déploration, un souvenir évoquant l’accord de Golaud, et à la fin, l’éloignement de ces
thèmes, rejoignant le silence en un seul accord, comme suspendu…”] In descriptions of mystery,
harmonic color, and intertextual references to works like Pelléas and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un
faune, Messiaen allows his Debussian ideal to overshadow the movement, remaking the
interpretive object through its grid.
 28

Just as subjectivity suffuses analysis in general (Cumming 2000, 45), Messiaen’s writings

about Debussy feature various modes of interpretation that reflect his distinct way of

seeing the world of music. Though references to his own work are conspicuously absent

from Tome VI, Messiaen’s interpretive perspectives are apparent throughout the volume,

many of which reflect his compositional approach to musical structure and meaning.

Tome VI may not flesh out the narrative of influence, but it is a foundational text for a

more detailed account of hermeneutic engagement that takes place at the intersection

between Messiaen’s music, aesthetics, and conceptions of his predecessor.

III. Premises and Methodology

The goal of this dissertation will be to construct such an account by fleshing out

the ways that Messiaen conceptualizes the music of Debussy, and by showing how those

interpretations reflect back on Messiaen’s personal view of musical structure, meaning,

and aesthetics. I aim to shed light on the identity of Messiaen’s Debussy, to demonstrate

how many of the same hermeneutic perspectives underlie both analysis and composition,

and to illuminate numerous philosophical premises about the nature and role of

interpretation.

Messiaen interprets Debussy’s music through particular lenses.

Interpretation begins from a point of view, comprising past experiences, attitudes,

beliefs, and expectations. It takes place within history, tradition, time, and place. An

interpreter cannot simply cast off these perspectives to penetrate the essence of a text: in

the moment of interpretation, we find ourselves situated in prior relationships with the
 29

world, whereby the means of articulation are constrained by systems of language and

expression (Guignon 2002, 269). Kuhn summarizes this hermeneutic circumstance in the

following way: “What a man sees depends both upon what he looks at and also upon

what his previous visual-conceptual experience has taught him” (1996, 113). In other

words, interpretation occurs in the intersection between the text and the lens used to view

it. Gadamer uses the word prejudice to define this filter, rehabilitating the term from its

negative connotations to describe self-conscious interactions with texts, history, and the

world (1976, 9).

I will treat Messiaen’s analyses of Debussy not as objective judgments, but as

interpretations made from distinct perspectives. I view his analyses not only as

summaries of Debussy’s music, but also as statements filtered through particular

conceptualizations of Debussy and music in general. More than summarizing the content

of the analyses, I aim, with Marion Guck, to make the “analyst’s location and perspective

evident” (Guck 1994, 35; Guck 2006, 193) by identifying the compositional, semiotic,

and aesthetic lenses that Messiaen uses to illuminate Debussy’s work.

Messiaen’s lenses do not predetermine meaning, but rather provide points of access and

means of clarification for Debussy’s music.

Interpretive lenses are not pure projections of the self, but rather instruments for

navigating a hermeneutic problem. Prejudgment—or “fore-having” as Heidegger put

it—does not determine the results of interpretation, but rather provides an “anticipatory

structure” that lends direction and focus to interactions with phenomena (Ricoeur 1991,
 30

67-68).32 Objects of interpretation are not always transparent to meaning, and often pose

hermeneutic problems (Hermerén 1993, 16). Interpretive lenses help resolve the text’s

ambiguities by providing explanatory strategies that fill the problematic spaces in a text

(Weissman 2008, 24).33

I will treat Messiaen’s interpretive lenses as tools that help him make sense of

Debussy’s scores. He does not merely map concepts associated with his own music onto

Debussy’s work, but rather uses them as points of entry, forms of expression, and means

of clarification in analysis.

Messiaen manifests modes of interpretation in his choice of language.

Messiaen’s engagement with Debussy’s music manifests itself in the language

that he uses to interact with and organize features of a score. His terminology is not

bound objectively to the notes themselves, but rather provides a type of technology that

he uses to access and explore Debussy’s sonic world.34 Messiaen’s language reflects the

concepts underlying analytical pronouncements, providing us with windows into his

hermeneutic points of view. In fact, these are the only points of access: the dissertation

will be concerned not with Messiaen’s hidden self, but with the one apparent on the

32
Gadamer says that one is never enclosed within “a wall of prejudices” (1976, 9).
33
Thom notes how interpretation fills these problematic spaces through acts of
restructuring, idealizing, segmenting, stylizing, and substitution (2000a, 26-27; 2000b, 63).
34
Judith Lochhead draws on the philosophy of Heidegger and Ihde when she treats
analytical description as a tool or “technology,” not for uncovering immanent musical facts but
for entering the world of music from a particular angle in “Retooling the Technique,” Music
Theory Online 4, no. 2 (March 1998), http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.98.4.2/mto.98.4.2.
lochhead.art (accessed December 17, 2011). According to this view, descriptive language
becomes “the basis for our perceptual engagement with musical sound and for the more
explanatory modes of understanding, most notably that of music analysis.”
 31

surface of the text, i.e., the outer signs of language.35 Similarities in labeling, technical

descriptions, and uses of metaphor will provide the source material for connecting

analytical and compositional perspectives.

Messiaen’s interpretations contribute to as much as recognize meaning.

The intersection between the interpreter’s perspective and the text is the site of

new meaning. Novel questions, comparisons, circumstances, and descriptions render

texts as ongoing events (Guignon 2002, 276; Kramer 2011, 7). A text never exhausts

itself in a single act of interpretation but rather remains open to new and previously

unsuspected sources of insight (Gadamer 1975, 266; Irwin 1999, 8). Kofi Agawu adopts

this axiom of hermeneutics for music analysis, arguing that analysis does not replicate the

essential content of a musical work but rather remakes it for the present. Like

interpretation in general, analysis resembles creative acts of composition or performance

rather than scientific method (Agawu 2009, 5; 2004).

The various lenses that Messiaen brings to bear on the music of Debussy make

novel insights possible for the composer’s oeuvre. He furthers Debussy scholarship by

activating new meaning via technical, metaphoric, and poetic modes of interpretation.

Messiaen’s analyses are the end result of an interpretive dialogue.

Interpretation is a dialogue between the interpreter and a text, often described as

the hermeneutic circle.36 The interpreter examines the text through various lenses, while

35
For more on the relationship between inner feelings and the outer signs of expression,
see Naomi Cumming, The Sonic Self: Musical Subjectivity and Signification (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 2000), 32.
 32

the text causes the interpreter to recalibrate expectations. The interpreter pushes the text

in various directions, and the text answers back, resisting, validating, and revising

prejudgments. Rather than construing this interplay as a vicious cycle, Eco describes a

productive tension “between openness and form, initiative on the part of the interpreter

and contextual pressure” (1994, 21). Understanding occurs in the process of exchange

between self and other that navigates the divide between appropriation and disinterested

observation (Cumming 2000, 57, 70; Guignon 2002, 278).37

The hermeneutic circle provides a helpful way of conceptualizing the exchange

between interpreter and text underlying Tome VI. However, like most published

analyses, Messiaen’s treatise provides a “final-state report,” as Marion Guck might put it

(1993, 46-47), that removes the process from the product of interpretive engagement. He

does not narrate the dialogue of interpretation, which would be difficult to reconstruct

even with the most thorough introspection. Nonetheless, while the dissertation focuses

primarily on hermeneutic perspective and interpretive results instead of the reciprocal

process of interpretation, the premise of the hermeneutic circle reminds us that

Messiaen’s interpretations reflect a dynamic encounter with Debussy’s scores.

I am an interpreter of Messiaen’s Debussy analyses.

I have proposed that Tome VI is a valuable source for discovering Messiaen’s

hermeneutic conception of Debussy’s music, arguing for a consideration of interpretive

36
Ronald Bontekoe provides a full history of the hermeneutic circle in philosophical
discourse in Dimensions of the Hermeneutic Circle (Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press
International, 1996).
37
Rorty argues to the contrary that “all anybody does with anything is use it,” suggesting
that there is no distinction between use and interpretation (1992, 93).
 33

perspective instead of objective judgment in the volume. Likewise, I do not pretend to

have separated judgment from prejudice in my own study. Though I aim to keep my own

creative inferences close to the language and concepts of the analyses, my descriptions of

Messiaen’s interpretive approaches are themselves acts of interpretation. To attempt a

disinterested reflection on the hermeneutic viewpoints of Messiaen’s writings would be

to adopt a methodology divided against itself: Messiaen’s interpretations inspire others.

***

The chapters of the dissertation work out these premises in diverse ways. Chapter

2 will explore the lenses that Messiaen brings to analyses of various techniques, noting

the entangled relationship between compositional and analytical perspectives within his

writings about Debussy. The first half of the chapter focuses on how Messiaen uses

excerpts from Debussy within several volumes of the Traité to conceptualize features of

other music. Debussy’s music comprises an interpretive lens that opens up retrospective

views of past works and classifies progressive elements of twentieth-century music.

Shifting toward the methods that Messiaen uses to interpret Debussy’s music itself, the

second half of the chapter explores how analytical approaches in Tome VI are bound up

with ways that Messiaen conceptualizes features of his own music. This chapter

demonstrates the pervasiveness of interpretive lenses in Messiaen’s writings, and it

reveals the prominent role of Debussy in interpretation: he appears within the Traité as a

hermeneutic perspective on the one hand, and as an object of interpretation from a

compositional perspective on the other.

Chapter 3 will focus on the plurality of interpretive approaches that Messiaen

employs in Tome VI by unpacking four interconnected descriptions of water imagery in

 34

Debussy’s repertoire. In the opening section, I note an a priori method through which

Messiaen creates a general notion of water as rhythmic, drawing on observations from

nature and etymology. Next, I infer a programmatic mode of interpretation from

Messiaen’s text, through which water imagery becomes linked to the explicit subject

matter of a given work rather than a general order. Some of these references to water

draw on wider conventions of water signification within and outside of Debussy’s

oeuvre, suggesting that a topical mode of interpretation underlies the programmatic

approach. Lastly, I demonstrate the topical and metaphoric functions of Messiaen’s

reference to “the stone in the water,” a phrase that he uses repeatedly to label a recurring

type of rhythmic shock. These discrete but integrated methods underscore the fact that

interpretation is not a single action or method but rather the assemblage of diverse

techniques.

Chapter 4 returns to the dialogue between analysis and composition by exploring

links between the stone in the water metaphor and analogous rhythmic strategies in

Messiaen’s own work. Though Messiaen does not name the stone in the water among his

rhythmic techniques, he adopts its underlying expressive strategy of rhythmic contrast as

stasis-disruption at hermeneutically significant moments throughout his oeuvre. He often

frames the rapid rhythms and angular contours of birdsong with sustained chords in

homophonic textures. Analogous to the shock of a stone disturbing a placid surface, the

elongated sonorities signify the stillness of the environment, which is shattered by the

bird’s sudden entrance. Similarly, Messiaen uses rapid arabesques to pierce the calm of

sustained tones in works that contemplate entrances of divine power into mundane

experience. Drawing on the expressive strategy of contrast highlighted in Tome VI, his
 35

rhythms suggest an overpowering spiritual force that ruptures a tranquil setting. The

stone in the water concept manifests itself more generally in Messiaen’s theology and

aesthetics as well. The correlation drawn in the chapter between semiotic strategies and

interpretive methods indicates a common logic between analytical and compositional

approaches.

Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation by assessing the interpretive role of poetic

intertexts that appear throughout Tome VI. More than an aesthetic gloss on technical

analyses, these quotations fulfill several hermeneutic functions even when Messiaen does

not make the connections between poetry and analysis explicit. I isolate three

contributions that the poems make to the analyses: they elevate the perceived

significance of the music by surrounding it with a poetic aura; they ground musical

details within preexistent narratives implied by a work’s title; and they provide imagery

that the reader can correlate with musical details described in adjacent passages. At the

conclusion of the chapter, I demonstrate how quotations from scripture found in the

subheadings of Messiaen’s own works can serve hermeneutic functions similar to the

poems found in Tome VI.

Put together, these explorations of technical, semiotic, and poetic modes of

interpretation will provide us with an enriched conception of Messiaen’s approach to

Debussy. By situating Debussy in relation to Messiaen’s worldview, we arrive at a more

robust notion not only of Messiaen as interpreter but of Messiaen as composer and

theorist as well.
 36

Chapter Two: The Composer’s Eye

I. Innocent Listening and Interpretive Perspective

Messiaen once asserted that his analytical approach consisted of two goals: “in

my analyses, I tried to look at the score with a virgin’s eye but also the composer’s to tell

the students everything” (Mille 2002).38 Though Messiaen implies that the methods

complement each other, they actually create a paradox: the first perspective is willfully

ignorant, while the second has an agenda by definition. One strives for analytical purity,

while the other remains biased by issues of style and technique, and by the goals of

further creativity. The virgin’s eye is an unrealistic pursuit for an established composer

like Messiaen: he sees through the filter of an interpretive perspective. His is not the

disinterested gaze of an ideal composer but the outlook of Messiaen himself.

When it comes to the analyses of Debussy’s music, Messiaen’s interpretive

perspective manifests itself in two different ways. First, in several excerpts from the

Traité, he uses the music of Debussy to ground interpretations of music written by other

composers. If one of the goals of analysis is to unearth creative possibilities suitable for a

modern context, Debussy’s music serves as a twentieth-century filter for certain inquiries.

Messiaen uses it to view past music from the perspective of a recent composer and to

classify progressive elements of style in the twentieth century itself. Second, Messiaen

brings concepts associated with his own works and theories to bear on Debussy’s music

in Tome VI. Analytical language used in other contexts provides a type of technology

through which Messiaen explores and conceptualizes the world of Debussy’s music. Just

38
Messiaen referred to his classes as exercises in “super-composition” (Samuel 1994,
176), a term that treats analysis as a source of further creativity. According to Boulez,
Messiaen’s goal of teaching was to “reveal you to yourself” (1994, 266). In this light, the
composer’s eye is a perspective that guides the analyst toward what is useful and productive,
toward what suits his/her interests as a creator of musical sound.
 37

as he uses Debussy as a prism through which to categorize past and present music in the

Traité, so does he engage with Debussy’s music through the lens of his own creative

approach in Tome VI.

II. Debussy as a Method of Interpretation

When references to Debussy within the Traité occur outside of Tome VI, they

often serve the interpretive purpose of making unlikely connections between works

across history. Messiaen uses features of Debussy’s music to highlight modern

techniques latent in music of the past and to situate Debussy as a source for technical

developments in the early twentieth century. Because these historical links require

imaginative, and often far-fetched, comparisons, Messiaen suggests that the reader adopt

a strategic naiveté: “it suffices to listen. To listen virginally, with a new ear, hearing

what another has foreseen, without saying it, and without his immediate contemporaries

being able to hear it” (2002, 105).39 He argues that if one rejects assumptions about

historical contingency and musical context, then the listener will become open to

unforeseen points of contact between works across time and place. However, Messiaen’s

imaginative connections are not free of interpretive bias, but rather rely on features of

Debussy’s music to shape each inquiry. Even if he eschews traditional stylistic and

historical categories in order to highlight striking resemblances, he adopts a no less

hermeneutic approach defined by the parameters of Debussy’s music.

39
“Certaines de ces étymologies et racines paraîront forcées à plusieurs. […] il suffit
d’écouter. Écouter virginalement, avec une oreille neuve, entendre ce qu’un autre a pressenti,
sans le dire, et sans que ses contemporains immédiats aient pu l’entendre.”
 38

a. 5/4 Harmonies

In Tome VII, Messiaen uses a progression from Debussy’s “Et La Lune descend

sur le temple qui fut” from Images, Book 2 to construct a stylistic heritage of 5/4

harmonies (Example 2-1). The beginning of the work features a string of 5/4 chords in

parallel motion, doubled between the hands, and though such harmonic dissonances are

typical of Debussy’s style, Messiaen argues that predecessors for the chord exist in music

of the past, namely the Commendatore Scene from Act II of Mozart’s Don Giovanni

(Example 2-2).40 The chord in question lies between a B dominant-seventh chord and a

French augmented-sixth chord, but despite its passing function, Messiaen argues for its

harmonic viability, noting that the 5/4 configuration is “so extended that it becomes a

sonority in itself” (2002, 105).41 However, he does not arrive at this conclusion through

the evidence of the music alone, but rather adopts a hermeneutic strategy that uses

Debussy’s music to separate significant from insignificant details. Despite the salience of

the dissonance, Messiaen uses the Debussian chord-type as a pattern for comparison,

weighting the retrospective similarities more heavily than syntax, context, and common

practice. Despite the goal of virginal listening, he does not avoid interpretation, but

instead chooses an alternative hermeneutic that privileges the particular structure of

Debussy’s harmony above traditional voice-leading and dissonance treatment. This

retrospective hermeneutic becomes more apparent when Messiaen refers to the French

augmented-sixth chord as a whole-tone sonority (106), further magnifying the Debussian

40
In his mid-war harmony class at the Conservatoire, Messiaen focused on the evolution
of harmony from Monteverdi to the present, emphasizing harmonic technique and function.
However, in his analysis class, he tended to emphasize the structure and evolution of particular
chord types (Benitez 2000, 120), a characteristic that would pervade his publications.
41
Emphasis in original.
 39

resonance of Mozart’s progression. Debussy’s harmonies provide Messiaen with a

perspective through which to assess past harmonic dissonances.

Example 2-1. “Et La Lune descend sur le temple qui fut” from Images, Book 2, mm. 1-3

Example 2-2. Messiaen’s reduction of the Commendatore Scene (Act II, Scene 5) from Mozart’s Don
Giovanni

Messiaen reaches further into the musical past to find another 5/4 chord in Adam

de la Halle’s rondel, “Diex, comment porroie,” making a similarly Debussian

interpretation but without the benefit of harmonic salience. Whereas in the Mozart

example Messiaen brought the reader’s attention to a passing dissonance prolonged over

an entire measure, he cites the same chord on a fleeting eighth-note simultaneity that

resolves on the second half of the beat in de la Halle’s work. The second measure of

Example 2-3 features a string of parallel seconds in the upper voices. Both lines descend

toward the goal note A, but because of its initially higher position, the top voice arrives
 40

an eighth note later than the middle voice. This delay results in a momentary 5/4 discord,

which resolves promptly to a perfect-fourth consonance. Instead of describing the

relationship between contrapuntal voices, Messiaen interprets the accented dissonance as

a harbinger of Debussy’s harmonic practice, deemphasizing its melodic resolution while

accentuating its intervallic properties. The model of Debussy’s harmony provides a way

of defining the vertical results of a contrapuntal moment.

Example 2-3. Messiaen’s transcription of Adam de la Halle, “Diex, comment porroie”

Messiaen’s use of Debussy’s harmony demonstrates an iterable view of context

and structure in Derrida’s sense of the term. Derrida argues that when a sign is excised

from the original context of its production and reception, it does not lose its ability to

thrive in a new one, that is, to signify within a novel field of relationships distinct from

prior connections and intentions (Derrida 1988, 119; Kramer 1993, 8). He maintains that

a sign originating in one context can be grafted into another that awakens new meanings.

Though Messiaen presents the Mozart and de la Halle examples as predecessors for

Debussy’s harmony, he constructs this heritage by de-contextualizing past sonorities, and

resituating them within an entirely modern interpretive context. In the case of the 5/4
 41

harmony, Messiaen’s “virginal” listening provides a method of deconstruction that strips

the chords of their original functions in order to define them in relation to Debussy.

b. Neumatic Contours

In Tome IV, Messiaen uses melodic motives from Debussy’s oeuvre to introduce

twentieth-century readers to the neumes of Gregorian chant. By presenting them as

features of Debussy’s music before examining plainchant notation and liturgical practice

more closely, he renders an arcane topic familiar and relevant for a modern context. At

the beginning of his essay, Messiaen proposes that all melodies—including birdsong—

are built from classes of melodic segments that ancient musicians codified into neumes

(1997, 7). He suggests that such note-groupings are not limited to the chant repertoire,

but instead provide archetypes of contour that appear throughout music history. Several

examples from recent centuries supplement this assertion, three of which come from

Debussy’s repertoire. According to Messiaen, the arching, three-note motives that

pervade the opening of Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” exemplify the torculus (9);

Mélisande’s theme from Pelléas features the scandicus flexus; and the flute arabesque

from Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune combines scandicus flexus and climacus

resupinus (10) (Example 2-4).42 Not only do the Debussy examples validate his thesis

that all music—both natural and manmade—is built from melodic segments familiar to

the ancients, but they also provide points of entry from a twentieth-century perspective.

Like his retrospective interpretation of 5/4 harmonies, Messiaen employs excerpts from

42
In Tome VI, Messiaen lists several Debussy works that employ the combination of
scandicus flexus and climacus resupinus, including “Nuages” and “Sirènes” from Trois
Nocturnes, “Reflets dans l’eau” and “Cloches à travers les feuilles” from Images, “La Danse de
Puck,” “Brouillards,” “Feuilles mortes,” and “Canope” from Préludes, and “Pour Les Sonoritiés
opposées” from Études (2001, 30).
 42

Debussy as a way of viewing the past, rendering an ancient practice germane and

significant.

Example 2-4. Messiaen’s examples of (a) torculus from “Reflets dans l’eau,” Images¸ Book 1; (b)
scandicus flexus in Mélisande’s theme from Pelléas et Mélisande; and (c) the combination of scandicus
flexus and climacus resupinus from Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

c. The “Golaud” Chord

While Messiaen uses features found in Debussy to conceptualize past music, he

also enlists Debussy’s repertoire to make interpretations of modern harmonies found in

music by Stravinsky, Ravel, and Messiaen himself. He argues that the “Golaud” chord

from Pelléas et Mélisande became a model on which to base other distinctive harmonies

of the twentieth century. Though the chord functions as a “triple decoration” of a B-flat

major chord with added sixth in its original context (m. 12 of the Prelude to Act I)

(Example 2-5),43 Messiaen refers to it as a viable chord throughout Tome VI and other

sources (Messiaen 2001, 58).44 In a filmed lecture from 1972,45 he notes that, unlike the

43
This is actually the second appearance of the neighboring motive. The first time,
Debussy harmonizes it with notes from the whole-tone scale, but he transforms its next
appearance with the dissonance described by Messiaen. Richard Langham Smith argues that
Golaud is “the only character who appears to be capable of self-determination in the opera,” and
the varied dissonances and rhythmic agency of his motive reflect this “initiative” (1989, 89).
44
See the analyses from Tome VI of “Reflets dans l’eau” (2001, 19) and “Hommage à
Rameau” (107) from Images, Book I, “Pour Les Agréments” (103) and “Pour Les Sonorités
opposées” (104-105) from Études, “La Soirée dans Grenade” from Estampes (130), “Les Fées
sont d’exquises danseuses” (166) from Préludes, and the first movement of La Mer (189).
Messiaen associates the rhythmic motive of the neighboring progression with Golaud throughout
Tome VI, a correlation that he may have garnered from Maurice Emmanuel’s analysis in Pelléas
et Mélisande de Claude Debussy: Étude et Analyse (Paris: Éditions Mellottée, 1926), 136. See
also Richard Langham Smith, “Motives and Symbols,” in Claude Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 87-89. Elaborating on the analysis found in
 43

traditional method of ornamenting chords with metrically-unaccented neighbor-tones,

Debussy elongates the embellishment so that “we hear it as a thing in itself, a sound

complex in itself” (Benitez 2000, 122). He notes that Debussy uses the chord

independently in other sections of the opera. Not only does Messiaen grant the

decoration an independent harmonic status, but he also maintains that it was influential

for composers of the early twentieth century. Describing its structure as A major

superimposed above B-flat minor,46 he labels the chord as a “polytonal prophecy”

worked out by the youth of the era (2001, 58).47

Lawrence Gilman, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande: A Guide to the Opera (New York: Schirmer,
1907), 58-59, Elliott Antokoletz argues for a more general interpretation of the leitmotiv as a
symbol of “fate” based on its whole-tone construction and separation from Golaud at points in the
opera in Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók: Trauma, Gender, and the
Unfolding of the Unconscious (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 59.
45
The interview appeared originally in Tual and Fano’s Olivier Messiaen et les oiseaux
(1973). Jean Boivin has transcribed the scene in La Classe de Messiaen (Paris: Christian
Bourgeois, 1995), 214-223 (English translation appears in Vincent Benitez, “A Creative Legacy:
Messiaen as a Teacher of Analysis,” College Music Symposium 40 (2000): 117-139). Portions of
the same class can be viewed in Olivier Messiaen: La Liturgie de cristal, DVD, directed by
Olivier Mille (Artline Films, 2002).
46
In Tome VII, Messiaen describes the chord as A major above B-flat major, but this is
presumably a typographical error (2002, 40).
47
“It is this way that the youth of the era have heard [the chord]. And Debussy himself
gives reason for this second analysis, when he divides this aggregation (Act II, Scene 2 – moment
where Golaud describes his fall from the horse) and specifies this his polytonal prophecy” [“C’est
ainsi que l’ont entendu les jeunes de l’époque. Et Debussy lui-même donne raison à cette
seconde analyse, lorsqu’il sépare complètement cette agrégation (acte II, scéne II – moment où
Golaud raconte sa chute de cheval) et précise ainsi sa prophétie polytonale.”]
 44

Example 2-5. Prelude to Act I, Scene 1 of Pelléas et Mélisande, m. 12

Though he suggests that Debussy’s chord inspired future polytonalists like Darius

Milhaud in a general way (Messiaen 2001, 59; 1994, 125; 1966, 74), Messiaen focuses on

the generative role of the Golaud chord for specific harmonies found in music by Ravel

and Stravinsky. Debussy’s harmony provides a hermeneutic tool for drawing together

diverse chords from the era. Messiaen notes that if one exchanges the top and bottom

harmonies of the Golaud chord, putting A major below B-flat/A-sharp minor (Example 2-

6), the result resembles the chord at the beginning of the “Danse générale (Bacchanale)”

from Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (Benitez 2000, 122-124). Going beyond the recognition

of intervallic similarities, he suggests that Ravel’s harmony is a transformation of

Debussy’s original. He refers to Ravel’s chord as “the inversion of the famous

aggregation from the Golaud theme” (Messiaen 1994, 125; 2001, 58), and claims that

Debussy’s chord “engendered” Ravel’s harmony (1966, 74). Just as Debussy provides

Messiaen with a way of accessing and defining the musical past, the Golaud chord forms

a background identity for the structure of a distinctive chord from Ravel’s work.

Messiaen locates another offspring of the Golaud chord in a polytonal sonority from

Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (Benitez 2000, 124-125). In a filmed lecture from 1973,
 45

Messiaen reconstructs the harmony from “The Augurs of Spring” by taking the Golaud

chord, transposing it down a tritone, adding a seventh to the major triad, and converting

the lower triad to major (Example 2-7). By re-composing Stravinsky’s harmony on the

basis of Debussy’s model, he implies that Debussy’s chord defines a class of harmonies,

which Stravinsky’s music articulates. In Messiaen’s interpretation, Debussy’s chord is a

harmonic type, of which Stravinsky’s chord is a token expression:

There are two added notes, and obviously it is muddier, dirtier, and darker. It has to
be, since the Rite is a brutal work; it is not at all the same type of thing. Yet,
curiously, it is the same chord as in Pelléas (Benitez 2000, 125).

In Tome II, Messiaen takes the notion of family resemblance further by using active

verbs that imply an intentional transformation of the Golaud chord model:

It is the famous polytonal chord from the theme of Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande by
Claude Debussy. It is transposed and ought to give E-flat major over E-natural minor.
Stravinsky has aggravated it with 2 added notes: A-flat and D-flat; result: a sixth and
diminished fifth above G superimposed on a root-position chord on F-flat. As much
as Debussy’s chord was expressive and warm, so this one is ugly, heavy, and dirty
(Messiaen 1995, 99-100).48

Messiaen implies that Stravinsky developed his enigmatic harmony directly from

Debussy as an initial source, manipulating it to suit his own expressive goals without

effacing the distinct qualities of the model. In analyses of Ravel and Stravinsky,

Debussy’s Golaud chord provides Messiaen with a way of imagining connections among

paradigmatic harmonies.

48
“C’est le fameux accord polytonal du thème de Golaud dans Pelléas et Mélisande de
Claude Debussy. Il est transposé et devrait donner mi bémol majeur sur mi bécarre mineur.
Strawinsky l’a aggravé de 2 notes ajoutées: la bémol et ré bémol; résultat: une sixte et quinte
diminuée sur sol superposée à un accord parfait sur fa bémol. Autant l’accord de Debussy était
expressif et chaleureux, autant celui-ci est laid, lourd, et sale.” Messiaen notes another version of
this same chord in the “Danse sacrale” (1995, 125).
 46

Example 2-6. Messiaen’s reduction of the opening chord of “Danse générale (Bacchanale)” from Ravel’s
Daphnis et Chloé

Example 2-7. Messiaen’s reduction of the chord from “Augurs of Spring” in Rite of Spring

In Tome II, Messiaen turns this interpretation of the Golaud chord toward his own

La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ, imagining the opening progression of

the seventh movement as a token expression of the chord’s history.49 In the self-

reflective analysis, Messiaen uses Debussy’s archetypal sonority and its transformation in

Ravel to classify the brief progression:

The 1st chord is the chord from the Golaud theme, at the beginning of Pelléas et
Mélisande by Debussy: F major over F-sharp minor. It is darkened by the addition of
the minor third, G-sharp. This same darkening has been used by Stravinsky at the
49
Messiaen refers explicitly to other instances of the “Golaud” chord in his work,
including the opening movement of Messe de la Pentecôte (1997, 85), page 8 of “La Bouscarle”
from Catalogue d’oiseaux, and Rehearsal 131 (“ils n’ont rien, et Dieu les nourrit”) of Act II,
Scene 6 from Saint François d’Assise (2001, 130). Though he links these progressions with the
operatic model, these examples are best compared with a rising line of parallel 6/3 chords that
appears over a perfect-fifth pedal in mm. 21-22 of Debussy’s “Hommage à Rameau” from
Images, Book 1 (Messiaen 2001, 108, 130).
 47

beginning of the 2nd part of Sacre. From top to bottom, its color is: bluish green, over
rather dark acidic green. The 2nd chord (the inversion of the preceding) is found in the
Danse générale that ends Daphnis et Chloé by Ravel under the form: F-sharp minor
over F major. It is again darkened once by the addition of the minor third, G-sharp
(2002, 309).50

As in the analyses of other works, Messiaen treats Debussy’s chord as a harmonic class

that generates other harmonies. However, he goes beyond noting resemblances and

transformations by imagining his progression as a microcosm of the Golaud chord

history. Not only does he treat the harmonies as variations on a sonority from Pelléas,

but Messiaen also uses his interpretation of the Golaud chord to conceptualize a heritage

for his own progression that reaches back to Debussy’s original and Ravel’s variation.

***

Each of the preceding examples demonstrates a different way in which Messiaen

uses Debussy as a lens through which to view other music, both past and present. He

interprets dissonances of the past by using Debussy’s 5/4 chords as the primary basis of

comparison, ignoring traditional notions of function and convention. He attempts to

render the notational practice of Gregorian chant familiar and relevant for present

composers by noting neumatic patterns in Debussy’s melodies. Lastly, he binds together

a diverse collection of chords from the twentieth century by reference to a Debussian

original. In each case, Messiaen employs Debussy’s music as an interpretive tool for

making structural and stylistic connections across history. Debussy’s music provides a

50
“Le 1er accord et l’accord du thème de Golaud, au début du Pelléas et Mélisande de
Debussy: Fa majeur sur Fa dièse mineur. Il est noirci par l’ajout de la tierce mineure, Sol dièse.
Ce même noircissement a été utilisé par Strawinsky au début de la 2e partie du Sacre. De haut en
bas, sa couleur est: vert bleuté, sur vert acide presque noir. Le 2e accord (inversion du
précédent), se trouve dans la danse générale qui termine Daphnis et Chloé de Ravel, sous la
forme: Fa dièse mineur sur Fa majeur. Il est encore une fois noirci par l’ajout de la tierce
mineure, Sol dièse.”
 48

means of removing phenomena from their original contexts and resituating them within a

novel field of relationships that yields new meaning.

III. Analysis through Compositional Perspectives

Whereas the examples above showed how Messiaen conceptualizes musical

material through Debussy, this section will examine ways in which his view of Debussy

in Tome VI reflects his compositional perspective. Debussy may play an interpretive role

in Messiaen’s descriptions of past and present music, but Messiaen uses various

hermeneutic lenses through which to engage with Debussy’s music in the volume. His

interpretive points of view become apparent in the language that he employs to describe

structural components of Debussy’s music. As Judith Lochhead has observed, analytical

language is a type of “technology” that one uses to access and explore the world of music

(1998). It shapes and guides interpretation, helping the analyst conceptualize the musical

material and decide among alternative explanations. In most cases, Messiaen articulates

his understanding of Debussy through language associated with his own theories of

harmony and rhythm. These similarities suggest that Messiaen engages with Debussy’s

music from the perspective of his own creative approach. Though he does not make the

link between analytical technique and compositional method explicit in Tome VI, their

shared means of description suggest a common conceptual underpinning.

Throughout Tome VI, Messiaen uses terms invented for his own musical

language to define the structure of Debussy’s music. These names represent the concepts

that gave Messiaen access to the works. He affixes the label of non-retrogradable

rhythm to durational symmetry in the contrabass variation of Mélisande’s theme (2001,

 49

73) (Example 2-8); and elsewhere, he classifies an octatonic scale as Mode 2 of the

modes of limited transposition (44, 47, 84, 86, 90).51 Likewise, he describes

permutations of melodic cells found in Debussy’s “Pour Les Agréments” from Études

(103) and “Le Vent dans la plaine” (135), “La Cathédrale engloutie” (153), and “Feux

d’artifice” (176) from Préludes as interversion, a concept associated with his quasi-serial

works in which outer elements in a series swap with inner elements.52 The terms of

Messiaen’s musical language provide schemata through which to organize and articulate

musical relationships in Debussy.

Example 2-8. Messiaen’s example of non-retrogradable rhythm in the interlude between Scenes 2 and 3 of
Act II from Pelléas et Mélisande

Not only does he use the language of compositional technique to define aspects of

Debussy’s music, but also the language of personal experience when he labels harmonies

as colors in the analyses. Such interpretations are bound up with Messiaen’s

compositional approach to harmony, but they also emanate from his synaesthetic

experience of musical sound. He describes a progression from a B-flat harmony with

added minor ninth and major sixth to a D minor-seventh chord in Act I, Scene 3 of

Pelléas as “purple with a slightly yellow tint (complementary colors)” and “white with a

slightly greenish tint (extremely cold colors, sad like the moon above the sea)”

51
He refers to Mode 4 in Tome VI as well (2001, 46). Messiaen outlines the structure of
the modes in Technique of My Musical Language, trans. John Satterfield (Paris: Alphonse Leduc,
1966), 87-108; and Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome VII (Paris: Alphonse
Leduc, 2002), 110-134.
52
See Amy Bauer, “The Impossible Charm of Messiaen’s Chronochromie,” in Messiaen
Studies, ed. Robert Sholl (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 148-150.
 50

respectively (2001, 89).53 Within the same analysis, he uses the experience of color to

make both structural and dramaturgical points. Elaborating on the significance of a ninth

chord with diminished fifth, he says that “the chord—already dark in itself—acquires a

color here: red, blue, and black, and the D-flats are a blackish, nearly cavernous, grey,

which foreshadows the underground scene” (2001, 83).54 Messiaen absorbs the harmony

into a personal vision of sound-color, which he uses to interpret the chord further as a

portent of future events. The subjective experience draws music and plot together into a

single image of darkness.

Though less transparent than references to non-retrogradable rhythm, modes of

limited transposition, interversion, and color associations, other analytical observations

within the volume suggest a compositional perspective as well. His descriptions of

dynamic rhythm, altered V9 harmonies, and inexact and partial augmentation are

suffused thoroughly with conceptions of structure that Messiaen articulates for his own

music in other sources.

a. The Rhythm of Dynamics

While analyzing the third measure after Rehearsal 42 of Act I, Scene 3 from

Pelléas, Messiaen pauses to note a type of rhythm not linked to sound duration itself:

“There is […] a rhythm that one hears, but that is not written with durational values: it is

53
“un violet légèrement teinté de jaune (couleurs complémentaires);” “un blanc
légèrement teinté de verdâtre (couleur extrêmement froide, triste comme la lune au-dessus de la
mer).”
54
“L’accord – déjà sombre en lui-même – prend ici une couleur: roux, bleu, et noir, et les
ré bémol sont d’un gris noirâtre presque caverneux qui préfigure la scène des souterrains.”
 51

a rhythm of dynamics” (2001, 88).55 This excerpt introduces the notion that dynamics

are not simply qualities of sound but also means of segmenting time. While the notated

rhythm in the second half of the measure is rather simple—a fanfare-like horn call rings

above held notes in the clarinets, bassoons, and trumpet that contrast with tremolo

strings—Messiaen claims that a more subtle rhythmic impetus is at work in the varying

rates of dynamic change from instrument to instrument (Example 2-9). He highlights

slight differences in the dynamic arc of each part: the trumpet’s crescendo-decrescendo

occurs at the beginning of the note, but the same fluctuation spreads evenly between two

beats in the string section; the horns reach their dynamic peak just before the second beat.

Messiaen asserts that one can account for these different rates of dynamic change in

durational terms, which he summarizes in the diagrams of Example 2-10. Using

Debussy’s placement of indefinite crescendo markings as a guide, he assigns a specific

dynamic level to the softest and loudest part of each note, and marks it with a duration

based on its implied length in the score. Even if the instrument holds a long note,

according to his logic, dynamic changes create articulations within the sounding note,

which are quantifiable through specific dynamic levels and durations. Messiaen

summarizes the composite rhythmic effect of the dynamic climaxes in the diagram of

Example 2-11, and concludes his description by envisioning a similar rhythmic approach

to timbre and harmony (2001, 68).

55
“Il y a […] un rythme qu’on entend, mais qui n’est pas écrit avec des valeurs de durées:
c’est un rythme des intensités.” Emphasis in original.
 52

Example 2-9. Act I, Scene 3 of Pelléas et Mélisande, three measures after Rehearsal 42
 53

Example 2-10a. Messiaen’s diagram of varying dynamic arcs

Example 2-10b. Messiaen’s diagram of inferred dynamic levels and durations

Example 2-11. Composite rhythm of dynamics

 54

Messiaen’s analysis of the rhythm of dynamics is not a fleeting observation about

Debussy’s orchestration, but rather the manifestation of a broader compositional theory

of rhythm across parameters, which he describes in Tome I. Though he takes an explicit

interest in Greek meters, Indian rhythmic cells, and durational symmetry throughout

Tomes I and II, Messiaen’s notion of rhythm is much broader than sound duration in

itself. In the second chapter of Tome I, he cites various scholars and philosophers in

support of a multi-parametric view of rhythm, including Matila Ghyka, who in his Essai

sur le rythme speaks of rhythm as a combination of rhythms, including those of

dynamics, durations, and melodies (Messiaen 1994, 44). Gaston Bachelard provides

Messiaen with a similar view of rhythmic continuity as the coordination of diverse

musical phenomena rather than the exact measure of duration itself (Benitez 2009, 281).

Drawing on these philosophical sources, Messiaen builds a case against a narrowly

metric view of rhythm,56 instead proposing that rhythms from across parameters combine

to form multi-dimensional events (282). In an exhaustive list, he imagines “rhythmic

languages” for durations, dynamics, density, melody, timbre, attack, rhythmic motion,

tempo, rhythmic permutations, polyrhythm, the composite results of polyrhythm,

harmony, modality, and silence (Messiaen 1994, 46-47). The term “rhythmic language”

suggests that his multi-parametric view is not only descriptive but also compositional,

conjuring notions of creativity and personal style. In this light, Messiaen’s observations

56
He says that the bar line provides only “a convenient reference, often without any
connection with the true rhythm” (Messiaen 1994, 46). [“un repère commode, souvent sans
aucun rapport avec le rythme véritable.”]
 55

about dynamic change in Pelléas are token expressions of his theory of rhythm in

multiple parameters.57

Not only does the analysis of Debussy’s rhythm of dynamics work out a

compositional theory, but it also relies on some of the same assumptions that comprise

the conceptual foundation of works like Mode de valeurs et d’intensités, which follows a

quasi-serial logic. First, the rhythm of dynamics and Mode de valeurs both rest on the

premise that various parameters contribute independently to multidimensional sound

events. To construct the materials of his work, Messiaen creates three separate modes,58

each containing twelve chromatic pitches. To each note, he ascribes a particular duration,

dynamic level, and articulation marking. Just as rhythm manifests itself on various levels

in Debussy’s opera, Messiaen treats each note as a manifold interaction of pitch, duration,

57
Messiaen’s rhythm of dynamics bears some striking similarities with theories and
techniques adopted by Henry Cowell and other Ultramodernist composers. As in Messiaen’s
conception of rhythm across parameters, many within Cowell’s circle sought to generalize
abstract qualities of music that could be applied to numerous dimensions at once (Rao 2005, 287).
Cowell hypothesized a scale system of dynamics based on ratios similar to the overtone series,
proposing an analogy between pitch contour and gradations of dynamic change (283-284). Just
as Messiaen discerned a rhythmic counterpoint of dynamic levels in Debussy’s staggered
crescendo-decrescendo markings, Charles Seeger recognized the simultaneity of diverse dynamic
levels as a type of dissonance by contrast with the consonance of dynamic levels shared across
instruments (Greer 1999, 16). Ruth Crawford-Seeger realized both Cowell’s notion of dynamic
sliding and Seeger’s concept of dynamic dissonance in the third movement of her String Quartet
where she indicates frequent pulses of crescendo and decrescendo for held notes. She creates a
counterpoint of these dynamic slides by assigning different dynamic arcs to each voice, and she
often coordinates changes in other parameters with dynamic peaks to shape larger structural
patterns (Rao 2005, 306-309). For further reading, see Taylor Greer, “The Dynamics of
Dissonance in Seeger’s Treatise and Crawford’s Quartet,” in Understanding Charles Seeger,
Pioneer in American Musicology, eds. Bell Yung and Helen Rees (Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 1999), 21; and David Nicholls, American Experimental Music 1890-1940 (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1990), 119-121.
58
It is important to distinguish between the terms “mode” and “row” because Messiaen’s
modes are unordered. See M.J. Grant, Serial Music, Serial Aesthetics: Compositional Theory in
Post-War Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 61. Boulez would soon
illustrate the marginal gap between Messiaen’s modes and the serial method in Structures where
he constructed an ordered row based on Messiaen’s mode. See Paul Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen
and the Music of Time (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 153.
 56

dynamic, and articulation.59 Fabbi summarizes the resulting mode as a sequence of

“four-dimensional entities, each of which is determined by an indissoluble combination

of four parameter values” (1998, 66).60 Each note represents a unique mixture of separate

elements. Though one can find some loose correlations between pitch, rhythm, and

dynamics,61 Messiaen does not arrange the parameters into an explicit hierarchy, but

instead treats the separate components as independent contributors to the sound event.62

Just as half a measure in Debussy can contain varied interactions of rhythmic languages,

so does Mode de valeurs invite attention to a “microaesthetic level of form” (Grant 2001,

161).63 Second, the Pelléas analysis and Mode de valeurs share a chromatic view of

59
For a study of Mode de valeurs—its genesis in postwar Europe, its relationship with
Messiaen’s prior compositional techniques, and its influence on the serialist movement—see Paul
McNulty, “Messiaen’s Journey towards Asceticism,” in Messiaen Studies, ed. Robert Sholl (New
York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 63-77. For a perceptual study that examines the work
according to pitch salience via duration, attack, and dynamics, see Kate Covington, “Visual
Perception vs. Aural Perception: A Look at Mode de valeurs et d’intensités,” Indiana Theory
Review 3 (1980): 4-11. For an analytical study of Messiaen’s serialist techniques in other works,
see Allen Forte, “Olivier Messiaen as Serialist,” Music Analysis 21 (2002): 3-34; Eleanor
Trawick, “Serialism and Permutation Techniques in Olivier Messiaen’s Livre d’orgue,” Music
Research Forum 6 (1991): 15-35; and Vincent Benitez, “Reconsidering Messiaen as Serialist,”
Music Analysis 28 (2009): 267-299.
60
Christopher Dingle describes the process similarly: “each note is an individually
tailored sound, created from a unique combination of these parameters so that the modes form a
kind of musical periodic table. […] The importance of Mode de valeurs, though, is that it
explodes all pre-existing notions of how the notes of music should relate to each other, with there
being no continuity of melody, rhythm or dynamics. Instead, each individual sound stands in its
own right” (Dingle 2007, 124).
61
As Richard Taruskin notes, the higher pitches tend to have shorter durations than the
lower tones, and different registers bear characteristic dynamic profiles (2005, 25).
62
Robert Sherlaw-Johnson notes that in reality the chromatic series of attacks will
sometimes undermine the duration or volume of a sound (1975, 106).
63
Though the work is more modal than serial, it requires what Grant calls “serial
hearing,” which focuses “not only on the connections (or more often, disconnections) between
different events, but on the internal structure and character of individual events” (2001, 161).
Catherine Hirata describes a similar type of close listening for the music of Morton Feldman in
 57

dynamics: in both cases, Messiaen treats dynamics as discrete steps in a scale of

quantifiable levels.64 In Mode de valeurs, he constructs a chromatic scale of dynamics

that omits the ambiguous nuances of crescendo and decrescendo, and assigns specific

markings to each note in the work, identifying its position within the scale. This

chromatic view of dynamics spills into Messiaen’s interpretation of Debussy. In order to

make the notion of dynamic rhythm viable, he disambiguates Debussy’s crescendo-

decrescendo markings with discrete dynamic levels.65 While Debussy may not have

indicated fortissimo at the height of his crescendo, Messiaen maps a preconceived scale

of dynamic degrees onto each change, treating each swell as an articulation of a specific

level rather than progress in a non-specific continuum. Though Mode de valeurs may not

contain a rhythm of dynamics strictly defined, it rests on some of the same premises as

Messiaen’s analysis.

Messiaen’s analysis reveals an interest not only in individual durations, but in the

counterpoint created by varying dynamic levels as well, another concept that features

prominently in his work from the so-called experimental period. The inspiration for

Messiaen’s digression on the rhythm of dynamics in Tome VI comes from the varied

rates of dynamic change in a single measure of Debussy’s music. His diagram in

Example 2-10b uses discrete dynamic levels to highlight a unique polyphony between

“The Sounds of the Sounds Themselves: Analyzing the Early Music of Morton Feldman,”
Perspectives of New Music 34 (1996): 6-27.
64
As early as 1944, Messiaen imagined the possibility of chromatic series of dynamics,
timbres, and rhythms, but it was not until he entered a more experimental phase with works like
Mode de valeurs and Cantéyodjayâ that he realized this vision. See Robert Sherlaw-Johnson,
Messiaen (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 38, 105; and Antoine Goléa,
Rencontres avec Olivier Messiaen (Paris: Slatkine, 1984), 247.
65
Messiaen also mentions the rhythm of dynamics in relation to the interlude between
Acts III and IV of Pelléas (2001, 74), but does not ascribe set dynamic levels to the crescendo
markings.
 58

instruments. Messiaen constructs the same effect in sections of Neumes rythmiques,

which appears alongside Mode de valeurs in the collection Quatre Études de rythme. At

first glance, the voices of mm. 17-20 appear united by a single rhythmic pattern, but

below the homogeneous surface, the passage is in a constant state of dynamic fluctuation.

Each voice has a unique dynamic profile that often works in opposition to the other parts.

Despite the homophonic texture, the dynamics create a continuous interplay of distinct

volume levels. In granting dynamics a contrapuntal role in analysis, Messiaen works out

the same conception of dynamic polyphony that undergirds his own work.

Through a series of intertextual comparisons with Messiaen’s writings and works,

a compositional perspective becomes apparent within the analysis of Debussy’s rhythm

of dynamics. The language and diagrams of the analysis work out concepts that feature

prominently in Messiaen’s own theories of and technical approaches to dynamics. He

engages with dynamic fluctuations in Debussy through the theory of rhythmic languages

and the creative premises of works like Mode de valeurs and Neumes rythmiques.

b. Neuvième avec la tonique à la place de la sensible

When Messiaen employs the phrase “neuvième avec la tonique à la place de la

sensible”66 throughout Tome VI, he uses the terms of functional harmony to classify a

recurring chord-type in Debussy’s musical language. In an example of the chord from m.

66
Debussy’s dominant-ninth chords are frequently non-functional and coloristic. For
more on Debussy’s emphasis on sonority over syntax, see Mark DeVoto, “The Debussy Sound:
Colour, Texture, Gesture,” in Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 189. When Messiaen refers to a dominant sonority in his
analyses, the label reflects intervallic construction more than functionality. I will be focusing
explicitly on Messiaen’s descriptions of V9 chords with displaced leading-tones, but he refers to
other chords with the fourth replacing the third in several sections of Tome VI.
 59

15 of “La Fille aux cheveux de lin” from Préludes, Book 1 (Example 2-12), he treats the

C-flat as a type of unresolving suspension over an otherwise V9 sonority (Messiaen 2001,

150).67 Messiaen’s harmonic analysis draws on conventional notions of dominant, tonic,

and leading-tone to conceptualize the intervallic structure of Debussy’s chord, and his

language links this sonority with the wider history of tonal harmony and notions of

altered chords.68

67
He finds the same voicing of the chord in Rehearsal 36 of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas
(2001, 65).
68
Altered chords are frequent topics of discussion in treatises of the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. Like Messiaen’s V9 with displaced leading-tone, these treatises classify
altered chords as harmonies with a pitch lowered or raised by a half step. However, Messiaen’s
displacement is diatonic, while altered chords are chromatic, often arising for purposes of voice-
leading (e.g., secondary dominants). Dubois’s supplement to Reber’s Traité d’harmonie—Notes
et Études d’harmonie pour servir de supplément au traité de H. Reber (Paris: Heugel, 1889)—
which was a standard textbook for Conservatoire students including Messiaen (Zank 2009, 344;
Samuel 1994, 110), lists several functions of altered chords, which include ascending,
descending, common-tone, and enharmonic resolutions (92). However, Messiaen’s harmonic
analysis may be closer conceptually to Schoenberg’s harmonic theory, which separates altered
harmonies from voice-leading function (As Schoenberg says, “such a chord could very likely be a
phenomenon produced by voice-leading, but it is not used in a certain place on account of this
qualification; it is there because it is a chord, like any other”). Among his list of altered chords,
Schoenberg provides the enharmonic equivalent of what Messiaen would call a V7 chord with the
tonic in place of the leading-tone (1983, 355).
Messiaen’s interpretation overlooks the pentatonic construction of the chord as well as its
plagal function. Jeremy Day-O’Connell describes the chord as a V11 that creates “‘mixed’
dominant-plagal” cadences in certain contexts (e.g., m. 18 of Debussy’s “La Fille aux cheveux de
lin” from Préludes, Book I), supporting a “plagal leading tone” resolution from scale-degree 6 to
the tonic note. This cadential pattern appears in works throughout the nineteenth century (2007,
160-161).
 60

Example 2-12. “La Fille aux cheveux de lin” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 15

Though his descriptions employ conventional means of explaining harmonic

construction, Messiaen’s name for the chord is no objective label, but rather a structural

concept linked with his own harmonic technique that provides a way of hearing

Debussy’s chords. In certain contexts, several interpretations of Debussy’s chords are

possible, and the altered-V9 concept offers a way of categorizing and articulating their

identity. Because Messiaen is consistent in his use of the label throughout Tome VI, he

creates the impression that each instance is a token expression of a recurring harmonic

class. Not just an analytical description, the V9 chord with displaced leading-tone

comprises the foundation of several invented chords in Messiaen’s musical language.

The similarities between Tome VI and Messiaen’s harmonic theories suggest another

interpenetration of analytical and compositional perspectives.

Several references to the altered V9 model in Tome VI suggest that the concept

helped shape Messiaen’s interpretation, providing a mechanism for assigning structural

roles to individual tones and weeding out alternative explanations. In m. 37 of “Cloches

à travers les feuilles” from Images, Book 2 (Example 2-13), Messiaen discerns a V9

chord built on G-sharp with an added-sixth and the tonic replacing the leading-tone
 61

(2001, 116). What is striking about this interpretation is that the B-sharp leading-tone is

actually present throughout the measure. Messiaen does not ignore the B-sharp in his

description of the passage, but instead construes it as an appoggiatura to the ninth of the

chord, drawing a distinction between the core structure of an altered V9 harmony and its

decorations.69 He may have based this interpretation on the musical context: the note

passes between C-sharp and A-sharp within a sixteenth-note cascade in the right hand,

and steps downward to A-sharp like an upper neighbor at the conclusion of the left-hand

progression. However, these resolutions take place within lengthy scalar descents and

parallel progressions that fail to make a hierarchy of pitches obvious. Though B-sharp

appears within lines stepping down from F-sharp to A-sharp and C-sharp to F-sharp, it is

the only note that Messiaen considers to be a non-chord tone. Furthermore, the B-sharp

rings saliently above the texture at several points without neighboring resolution. The

various manifestations of the leading-tone in this measure demonstrate that Messiaen’s

harmonic label is not based purely on the musical context, but is instead an interpretation

of each note through the filter of a harmonic archetype. The V9 with displaced leading-

tone provides a way of categorizing the diatonic collection. Other excerpts from Tome

VI demonstrate a similar preference for the altered V9 explanation. For versions of the

chord built on G in “Mouvement” (Example 2-14) and A in “La Terrasse des audiences
69
By referring to added notes, Messiaen does not mean that the tones are insignificant,
but rather that they are distinct from Debussy’s core harmony. He construes unresolved
appoggiaturas as valuable components of harmonic resonance in Technique de mon langage
musical: “With the advent of Claude Debussy, one spoke of appoggiaturas without resolution, of
passing notes with no issue, etc. In fact, one found them in his first works. In Pelléas et
Mélisande, the Estampes, the Préludes, the Images for the piano, it is a question of foreign notes,
with neither preparation nor resolution, without particular expressive accent, which tranquilly
make a part of the chord, changing its color, giving it a spice, a new perfume. These notes keep a
character of intrusion, of supplement: the bee in the flower! They have, nevertheless, a certain
citizenship in the chord, either because they have the same sonority as some classified
appoggiatura, or because they issue from the resonance of the fundamental. They are added
notes” (1966, 63).
 62

du clair de lune” (Example 2-15), the leading-tone is again present, but Messiaen

relegates it to the decorative role of an upper neighbor (2001, 112, 48). On the second

beat of m. 24 from “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses” (Example 2-16), Messiaen

notes a V9 with displaced leading tone, but ignores the C held over in the bass from the

first beat (2001, 164). The leading-tone is technically present but is not factored into the

harmonic interpretation. In each case, the V9 with displaced leading-tone provides a way

of categorizing a collection of notes, and discerning between chord and non-chord

tones.70

Example 2-13. “Cloches à travers les feuilles” from Images, Book 2, m. 37

70
There is one example where the neuvième avec la tonique à la place de la sensible
appears to stand in competition with another archetype. In the first analysis of Act I, Scene 3
from Pelléas, Messiaen describes a minor-ninth harmony with added sixth and the tonic replacing
the leading-tone (2001, 64). Though he might have viewed the E as a lower-neighbor and G-
sharp as an upper-neighbor to F-sharp according to their resolutions, he absorbs them into the
altered ninth-chord model as unresolved appoggiaturas. However, the second analysis of the
same scene, written approximately twelve years later, refers to the same chord as an F-sharp
diminished-seventh chord with a major ninth above a B pedal, “a chord beloved by Debussy”
(2001, 82). See Appendix 2 of the dissertation. Messiaen describes this chord similarly in the
analyses of “La Danse de Puck” (43) and La Mer (23).
 63

Example 2-14. “Mouvement” from Images, Book 1, mm. 48-49

Example 2-15. “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” from Préludes, Book 2, m. 19
 64

Example 2-16. “Les Fées sont d’exquises danseuses” from Préludes, Book 2, m. 24

In Tome VII, Messiaen uses similarly selective analytical techniques to construct

a heritage for the same harmony. Though he renders it a commonplace feature of

Debussy’s music in Tome VI, the interpretation of Debussy is part of Messiaen’s broader

conception of the chord throughout history. In his discussion of its origins, he cites

progressions in Romantic works that feature the tonic note above the dominant (2002,

136). For example, he notes the tonic A above the dominant in the Overture to Carmen

(Example 2-17), and the D in Schumann’s Noveletten op. 21, no. 8 (Example 2-18).

Though the tonic is indeed present and the leading-tone absent in each example,

Messiaen treats the chords as isolated from context. He could have noted that Bizet

moves quickly away from the tonic note, which appears as a remnant of the previous

harmony in a swift tonic-dominant vamp, or that Schumann’s held note acts as a pedal-

tone linking subdominant with tonic.71 Much like his interpretation of 5/4 harmonies in

71
In Tome VI, Messiaen refers to the altered V9 chord to describe a similar type of
anticipation in mm. 9 and 18-19 of Debussy’s “La Fille aux cheveux de lin” from Préludes, Book
1 (Messiaen 2001, 150-151).
 65

Mozart and de la Halle, he treats the chords as stand-alone entities within a historical

chain of altered dominants, as Arnold Whittall puts it, “throwing formal and expressive

weight on to the individual sonority and leaving its role within the phrase […] outside the

realm of harmonic theory” (2007, 239).72 To complete the heritage of altered V9 chords,

he provides examples from Ravel and Debussy for which he distinguishes between the

core harmony and the leading-tone appoggiatura, making a conceptual distinction

familiar from the analyses of Tome VI (2002, 136-137). Though the example from

Debussy’s “La Chevelure” does place the G-natural leading-tone on a weak beat as an

upper-neighbor to F (Example 2-19), the excerpt from Ravel’s “Ondine” features the

leading-tone in a prominent register as A-sharp tolls above the undulating texture for a

majority of the measure (Example 2-20). Not only does Messiaen use the altered V9

model as a way of discerning among interpretations of Debussy, but he employs it as a

way of classifying harmonies from across repertoires and eras.

Example 2-17. Messiaen’s reduction of Carmen, Overture

72
Whittall describes this harmonic conception as “a particularly French version of
emancipated dissonance.”
 66

Example 2-18. Schumann’s Noveletten op. 21, no. 8, mm. 279-281

Example 2-19. Debussy, “La Chevelure” from Chansons de Bilitis, mm. 3-4

Example 2-20. Ravel, “Ondine” from Gaspard de la nuit, mm. 24-25

The purpose of presenting the chord’s history in Tome VII is not solely to make a

claim about style or to elaborate on an analytical paradigm, but rather to build a

foundation for Messiaen’s invented Chord of Transposed Inversions on the Same Bass
 67

Note (hereafter, CTI),73 and the way Messiaen conceives of his own harmony may have

played a role in how he interprets the altered V9 chords in music by Debussy and others.

To create the chord, he constructs a V9 harmony with a fourth above the bass instead of a

third, then superimposes a pair of chromatic “appoggiaturas of appoggiaturas”—that is,

two tones placed two whole-steps above the ninth and the fifth (2002, 137).74 Example

2-21 shows how the chord can appear in three inversions, each with a different member

of the altered V9 in the bass. Messiaen transposes each inversion so that the bottom note

returns to the pitch-level of the root position harmony, resulting in a progression of

distinct harmonic colors above an unchanging bass (2002, 138). Though the chromatic

appoggiaturas and progression of transposed inversions distinguish CTI from the chords

cited in Debussy’s oeuvre, the notion of a V9 chord with displaced leading-tone forms

the conceptual foundation of both his analytical insights and harmonic approach. They

each rely on the altered V9 as a primary structure around which other tones are

organized.

Example 2-21. The Chord of Transposed Inversions on the Same Bass Note

73
I have adopted the abbreviation put forth in Cheong Wai-Ling, “Rediscovering
Messiaen’s Invented Chords,” Acta Musicologica 75 (2003): 85-105. The 1st Chord of
Contracted Resonance also features an altered V9 at its core (Messiaen 2002, 150-160).
74
These chromatic appoggiaturas obscure the underlying diatonicism and modify the
chord’s resonance or color. For more on the structure of CTI, see Vincent Benitez, “Aspects of
Harmony in Messiaen’s Later Music: An Examination of Chords of Transposed Inversions on the
Same Bass Note,” Journal of Musicological Research 23 (2004): 187-226; and Cheong, Wai-
Ling, “Rediscovering Messiaen’s Invented Chords,” Acta Musicologica 75 (2003): 85-105.
 68

If CTI and the harmonic analyses of Tome VI share an emphasis on the V9 chord

with displaced leading-tone as core structure, Messiaen’s Chord on the Dominant—a

precursor to CTI—offers further compositional insight into the subordinate role assigned

to Debussy’s leading-tones in the analyses. As outlined in the preface to La Nativité du

Seigneur and again in Technique de mon langage musical, the Chord on the Dominant

contains all the notes of the major scale arranged from bottom to top as scale degrees 5-6-

1-2-4-7-3 (1966, 69) (Example 2-22a). The bottom five notes comprise the V9 chord

with displaced leading-tone, and the leading-tone appears in an upper voice. When

Messiaen suggests attaching chromatic appoggiaturas to the chord (Example 2-22b), he

refers to its upper two tones as “added notes,” suggesting that the leading-tone functions

not as part of the harmony proper, but instead as an unresolved appoggiatura above the

core structure (Cheong 2003, 90).75 As in the interpretations of Debussy, Messiaen forms

his own chord through a harmonic conception of the altered V9 as the primary structure

around which other tones are organized. The Chord on the Dominant connects with his

interpretations of Debussy by relying on an explicit notion of the leading-tone as an

added note above an essential structure. Thus, Messiaen uses criteria similar to those of

his own harmony to discern the role of the leading-tone in analyses of Debussy. His

personal dichotomy of core structure and added tones rearticulates itself in harmonic

conceptions of Debussy.

75
Messiaen provides a possible resolution of the chord to a G triad with added sixth, but
it does not appear to be the way he preferred to use the chord since he does not resolve the
appoggiaturas in subsequent descriptions of the technique.
 69

Example 2-22. Messiaen’s Chord on the Dominant

Messiaen’s explanation of altered V9 chords in Debussy bears resemblances to

the way he describes his own CTI and Chord on the Dominant, suggesting that a

compositional perspective is at work in the harmonic analyses of Tome VI. When

Cheong Wai-Ling refers to the intervallic constitution and spacing of Messiaen’s

invented chords as “pre-composed,” she implies that the composer used a highly

paradigmatic approach to harmony, governed by persistent conceptions of structure and

resonance (2004). The analyses bear marks of these preconceptions as the V9 chord with

displaced leading-tone offers not only a structural foundation for Messiaen’s harmonic

inventions but also a model for assessing Debussy’s chords.

c. Inexact and Partial Augmentation/Diminution

Messiaen highlights aspects of Debussy that reflect his own approach to rhythmic

variation. He devotes several excerpts in Tome VI to augmentation and diminution

techniques, and though he does not theorize different types of variation, most examples

fall into one of two categories: (1) rhythms that grow or contract generally without

preserving their original proportions, and (2) rhythms containing segments that contract
 70

or grow independently of the whole. These concepts are also essential components of

Messiaen’s most characteristic rhythmic techniques.

In the opening chapter of Tome VI, he uses an example from “Brouillards” to

illustrate the way Debussy repeats rhythmic patterns via augmentation or diminution

(Example 2-23). He compares the original and altered phrases by dividing them into

three sections—anacrouse, accent, and désinence—which describe each formal arc.76

Parsing the rhythms in this way reveals that the second phrase contains a more rapid

anacrusis and elongated ending than the original. Messiaen notes further that these

general expansions and contractions do not occur in equal proportion with the original

phrase. While Debussy cuts several of the opening durations in exactly half, the other

notes of the diminution follow a different ratio. Likewise, though bearing a general

quality of elongation, the final three notes follow ratios of 3:2, 2:1, and 1:1 respectively.

Because Debussy employs disproportionate processes of contraction and growth,

Messiaen labels each part of the varied phrase “inexact diminution” and “inexact

augmentation” (2001, 8).

Example 2-23. Messiaen’s analysis of inexact augmentation and diminution in “Brouillards” from
Préludes, Book 2

Though Messiaen does not refer to inexact augmentation and diminution as an

explicit concept elsewhere in the volume, the notion undergirds various references to

76
Messiaen articulates his approach to phrase accentuation in the analyses of Mozart’s
music in Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome IV (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1997),
133-141. He borrows his terminology from Vincent d’Indy (Boivin 2007, 147).
 71

augmentation and diminution in general. For example, at Rehearsal 40 of Act I, Scene 3

from Pelléas, the flute states the theme associated with Pelléas; but when the melody

repeats immediately thereafter, Debussy lengthens the values of all but the first note

progressively (Example 2-24).77 Eighth notes in a compound meter become duplets,

which are tied in the next expansion to quarter notes. While Messiaen refers to this

moment aptly as augmentation by irrational values (2001, 66), the conversion is inexact:

the first note of the repetition (beat 3) is shorter than its counterpart in the initial

statement, while the conclusion of the repetition becomes protracted beyond expectations.

Debussy equalizes the initial quarter-note/eighth-note pair in the duplet variation, and

transforms the initial 2:3 ratio between eighth notes and eighth-note duplets into 2:7 by

the end of the variation. Though Messiaen does not name inexact augmentation in this

passage, his interpretation of the augmented repetition depends on it.

Example 2-24. Augmentation of the Pelléas theme in Act I, Scene 3 of Pelléas et Mélisande

The example from “Brouillards” exemplifies a second type of variation featured

prominently in Tome VI in which sections of a rhythm grow and expand independently

of the whole. Messiaen’s segmentation of the “Brouillards” melody reveals two

opposing transformations: diminution through the anacrusis and augmentation at the

conclusion. These variations take place separately as each operation distorts the theme in

a way independent from the rest of the phrase. Messiaen foregrounds such segmented

77
Messiaen notes a similar pattern of imbricated variations in the interlude between
Scenes 3 and 4 of Act III from Pelléas (2001, 8, 75-76).
 72

transformations in various rhythmic analyses. In his diagram of the theme from “Reflets

dans l’eau,” he provides an example of how Debussy contracts the internal parts of the

phrase while the opening segment remains invariant (2001, 7, 19). As Example 2-25

demonstrates, he highlights diminution within the phrase that contrasts with the durations

preserved from the original theme. In his analysis of the flute theme from Prélude à

l’après-midi d’un faune, Messiaen notes how Debussy transforms three segments of the

melody (labeled A, B, and C in Example 2-26) in distinct ways (2001, 6). In the first

variation, segment A appears in augmentation; segment B omits its repetition but

preserves its original durations; and segment C appears in diminution. As Messiaen’s

analysis of these thematic cells illustrates, one variation procedure affects the head of the

melody, while the other alters the tail (2001, 32-33). By segmenting iterations of the

theme in this way, he illustrates that Debussy’s rhythms are in a constant state of

rhythmic change: not only does he alter rhythmic patterns from one statement to another,

but different sections of the pattern undergo unique variation processes.

Example 2-25. Diminution within the theme of “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book I
 73

Example 2-26. Thematic comparison of the theme from Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Messiaen theorizes these same types of variation in a brief passage from Tome II

(1995, 45-51),78 implying that the Debussy analyses manifest distinct conceptions of

rhythmic variation. Placed between exhaustive sections on the characteristic rhythms of

Messiaen’s musical language, this excerpt lists various types of augmentation and

diminution, including two that correspond to the variation-types found in Tome VI:

partial and inexact. Messiaen defines partial augmentation/diminution as a type of

variation in which only part of a rhythmic pattern undergoes change. He illustrates this

concept through the metaphor of the human body, which is a whole comprised of

separate parts: head, torso, and feet. Drawing images of corporeal disproportion from

Alice in Wonderland and the Procrustes myth, he suggests that one can alter segments of

phrases without affecting the other portions or compromising the coherence of the larger

rhythmic pattern (50). Even if he refrains from using the term explicitly, Messiaen’s

segmentation of varied rhythmic cells in Tome VI rests on this understanding of partial

78
See also Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome I (Paris: Alphonse
Leduc, 1994), 268.
 74

augmentation and diminution techniques: he notes a distinction in Debussy’s rhythms

between part and whole when he foregrounds transformations of individual cells within

larger rhythmic patterns. The notion of partial augmentation/diminution provides a

conceptual framework for the analytical method.

Messiaen’s analysis of Debussy’s inexact augmentation and diminution manifests

a distinct conception of rhythmic technique from outside the analyses of Tome VI as

well. Within the same passage of Tome II, he defines inexact augmentation and

diminution as a variation in which a rhythm expands or contracts generally but without

following an exact ratio.79 He gives credit for the notion of inexact variation to

Lakskmîça—one of 120 ancient-Indian rhythmic formulae that he used to derive rhythmic

techniques80—which features two rhythmic pairs, one an unequal expansion of the other

(Messiaen 1994, 268). Whereas in Tome VI he directs the label of inexact augmentation

and diminution toward “Brouillards” alone, Messiaen quotes the same work to illustrate

the ancient formula in Tome II, classifying “Brouillards” as a token expression of a

broader approach to variation. While the Debussy example provides a point of access for

modern readers to an arcane topic much like the Tome IV introduction to plainchant, the

citation also renders Debussy’s work an iteration of wider compositional techniques. By

reading the analysis of “Brouillards” in tandem with the appearance of the same work in
79
In his summary of types of augmentation in Messiaen’s work, Robert Sherlaw-Johnson
treats partial and inexact augmentation as part of a single variation type: “Inexact augmentations
and diminutions represent the freest treatment. In these cases a different proportion is added to
each note-value, but not in proportion to its length, or some values remain constant while others
are augmented” (Sherlaw-Johnson 1975, 34).
80
Messiaen learned about the deçi-tâlas from Lavignac’s Encyclopédie de la musique et
dictionnaire du conservatoire, Vol. I, which contained a table of 120 ancient rhythms collected
by thirteenth-century musician Sharngadeva (Sherlaw-Johnson 1998, 122). See also Christopher
Dingle, The Life of Messiaen (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 54-55. Messiaen
reproduces this list with his own annotations in Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie,
Tome I (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1994), 273-305.
 75

Tome II, we can infer that Messiaen’s analytical observations are not determined by the

score alone, but are instead laden with unspoken connections to ancient rhythmic

formulae.

These concepts of rhythmic variation form essential components of varied

rhythmic strategies in Messiaen’s music. He builds many of his signature rhythmic

techniques on the conceptual foundation of partial or inexact augmentation and

diminution. Thus his analytical predilection for particular methods of variation is bound

up with a compositional affinity for equivalent types of what Siglind Bruhn calls “growth

processes” (2007, 54). In particular, his non-retrogradable rhythms, added values, and

personnages rythmiques testify to the pervasiveness of these techniques in his musical

language.

Messiaen often construes non-retrogradable rhythms as perpetually expanding and

contracting in ways that recall his analysis and theory of partial augmentation/diminution.

“In practice,” he says, “one never repeats a non-retrogradable rhythm, precisely because

this repetition does not bring about anything new” (1995, 8).81 Rather than choosing an

entirely different pattern however, he often achieves rhythmic novelty by altering the

central or outer values of a palindrome while keeping the other durations intact. The

second symmetry is born out of the first through a type of dynamic repetition that avoids

duplication and stasis. When Messiaen alters segments of the rhythm without changing

the entire pattern, he adopts an approach built on the premises of partial augmentation

81
“dans la pratique, one ne répète jamais un rythme non rétrogradable, précisément parce
que cette répétition, n’amène rien de nouveau.” See also Jean Marie Wu, “Mystical Symbols of
Faith: Olivier Messiaen’s Charm of Impossibilities,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love,
ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1998), 100.
 76

and diminution, which treats sections of a rhythm as separate parts of a coherent whole.

Expansions and contractions occur in isolation without affecting surrounding rhythms or

the overall symmetry. Messiaen makes the link between partial variation and non-

retrogradable rhythm explicit when he employs the same image of bodily disproportion to

theorize the notion of expanding and contracting symmetries (1995, 42). As in his

description of partial augmentation and diminution, he adopts the metaphors of head,

torso, and feet to describe the varied segments of a non-retrogradable rhythm, and he says

that like Alice’s body growing out of proportion in Alice in Wonderland, non-

retrogradable rhythms undergo augmentations and diminutions in sections distinct from

the whole. For example, a rhythm with expanded beginning/ending and contracted center

would appear “as if the character had a very large head and very large feet with a waist of

a wasp” (1995, 44).82 This dynamic approach to non-retrogradable rhythms relies on the

same conception of segmented growth and expansion at the heart of partial augmentation

and diminution, a bond cemented by shared metaphors of corporeal distortion.

The method of personnages rythmiques83 makes points of contact with partial

augmentation and diminution as well. This technique splits a rhythmic pattern into

separate segments and assigns each one a unique role: when one set of durations

contracts, another expands, and a third segment remains unchanged.84 Messiaen

82
“c’est comme si le personnage avait une très grosse tête et de très grands pieds, avec
une taille de guêpe.”
83
He derives personnages rythmiques from the tâla Simhavikrîdita, which features pairs
of durations in which one note remains invariant while the other expands and contracts in “a
perfect crescendo-decrescendo of durations” (1994, 267). Much of Tome II is composed of
analyses that demonstrate personnages rythmiques, including the analysis of Stravinsky’s Rite of
Spring and those of his own Turangalîla-symphonie, Livre d’orgue, and Messe de la Pentecôte.
84
Roberto Fabbi summarizes the interaction between dynamic process and symmetry in
personnages rythmiques when he says that “enlargement, elimination, and repetition intersect one
 77

describes the relationship between rhythmic cells metaphorically as characters interacting

on a stage: one acts, another reacts, and other characters observe (1995, 112-113).85

Unlike partial augmentation and diminution, changes in one segment lead to adjustments

in another. However, personnages rythmiques share the principle of segmented

transformations with partial variation. Both concepts rely on growth and contraction in

distinct rhythmic cells.

Whereas partial augmentation and diminution form fundamental components of

non-retrogradable rhythm and personnages rythmiques, inexact augmentation manifests

itself in Messiaen’s approach to added values. In a manifesto that circulated at early

performances of La Nativité du Seigneur, Messiaen proposed the mixture of general

augmentation with the subtle expansion of individual notes: “Still more by rhythmic

means: rhythms immediately preceded or followed by their augmentation and sometimes

increased by a short value (adding half the value)” (Simeone 1998, 46; translated in

Dingle 2007, 56). He implies that added values—notes extended by a dot, rest, or tied

note (Messiaen 1966, 11)—can be used to create subtle disproportions within a generally

expanded phrase.86 In other words, added values can be a tool for inexact

augmentation.87

another in accordance with a kind of ‘conceptual symmetry’ that is not interested in given forms,
but in how they mutate” (1998, 65).
85
For a history of personnages rhythmiques—precedents in earlier music, their evolution
in Messiaen’s style, and their conceptual influence on succeeding generations—see Gareth
Healey, “Messiaen and the Concept of ‘Personnages,’” Tempo 58 (2004): 10-19.
86
Pople notes that the combination of augmentation and diminution techniques with the
use of added values provided Messiaen with variations that could not be traced easily to their
source, but he says that later in his career, Messiaen made these transformations more obvious
(1994, 38). Though Messiaen cites the deçi-tâlas as the source of added values, Griffiths notes
that Lavignac may have transcribed the formulae incorrectly: what he lists as dotted eighth notes
might actually have indicated an eighth note followed by an eighth-note rest. Griffiths describes
 78

In certain works, Messiaen adopts a systematic approach to inexact augmentation

via added values. In an analysis of the third movement from Turangalîla-symphonie, he

outlines a procedure whereby pairs of durations expand methodically through a chromatic

series of durations, measured in sixteenth-note units.88 As Example 2-27 demonstrates,

the first pair consists of a sixteenth note and the equivalent of five sixteenth notes. The

second cell expands to two and six, and so on up to eight and twelve (1995, 194).89 This

method of augmentation forms a chain of continuously added values, and the process

yields regular but inexact augmentation from one pair to the next, creating dynamic but

disproportionate growth. Messiaen makes the connection between his concept of inexact

augmentation and additive growth explicit when he describes a similar phrase from the

second movement as “unequally augmented” (1995, 173). Example 2-28 reproduces this

rhythmic progression in which each duration increases the preceding value by either two,

three, or one sixteenth note, such that five follows three, eight follows five, and nine

follows eight. What results is a continuous expansion of durations based on the addition

Messiaen’s view of the deçî-tâlas as “an abstract fascination, concerned with the formulae and
not with any musical embodiment they might once have had, or might now retain in
contemporary Indian practice” (1985, 60).
87
Boulez applauds Messiaen for the way added values create more flexible types of
diminution and augmentation (1991, 49).
88
For more on Messiaen’s “principle of the chromaticism of durations,” see Olivier
Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome I (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1994),
269.
89
Julian Hook refers to brief rhythmic segments that grow systematically in Turangalîla-
symphonie as “generative rhythms,” i.e., rhythms that “grow from a small initial segment [or
seed] by means of some systematic process” (1998, 105). The rules of generation vary
throughout the work. The most common is “simple progression” in which a simple value is
added to or subtracted from notes with each repetition (106). The goal of Hook’s algebraic
method is to quantify and define rules for rhythmic transformations in the symphony. Messiaen
published his own analysis of the work in Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome
II (Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1995), 151-384.
 79

of small rhythmic values, which again yield inexact augmentation: the ratio of 9:11:14 is

similar to but not an exact multiple of 3:5:8. Recognizing the concept explicitly,

Messiaen engineers systematic processes of durational expansion that produce

perpetually inexact augmentations.

Example 2-27. Messiaen’s analysis of expanding durations in “Turangalîla I” from Turangalîla-symphonie

Example 2-28. Messiaen’s analysis of expanding durations in “Chant d’amour I” from Turangalîla-
symphonie

Messiaen’s interpretations of inexact augmentation and diminution in Debussy

not only reflect the rhythmic concepts underlying his own techniques, but also the

expressive roles assigned to such patterns. Let us recall the connection that Messiaen

draws between Lakskmîça as a compositional formula and the excerpt from

“Brouillards.” Messiaen used the model of Lakskmîça—the basis of inexact

augmentation and diminution—for the conclusion of a signature rhythmic pedal in many

of his own works spanning thirty-five years.90 The pedal features three ancient

formulae—Râgavardhana, Candrakalâ, and Lakskmîça (Example 2-29)—that form a

general arc from long to short then long values. We can infer from Messiaen’s

90
These works include Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Chants de terre et de ciel, Les
Corps glorieux, Visions de l’Amen, Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, Harawi, Cinq Rechants,
Turangalîla-symphonie, Catalogue d’oiseaux, and Des Canyons aux étoiles. Because it is so
prevalent in Messiaen’s oeuvre, Siglind Bruhn calls this pedal Messiaen’s “rhythmic signature”
(2008a, 49). See also Olivier Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome I
(Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1994), 363; and Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome II
(Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1995), 258, 370, 443, 484-485.
 80

interpretation of Lakskmîça as “calm, peaceful – like the peace of the goddess Lakshmî,

like the peace that descends from the goddess Lakshmî” (1994, 296) that he placed its

expanding durations at the conclusion of his rhythmic pedal to foster a sense of repose or

balance.91 Messiaen theorizes the rhythmic relationships and the expressive meaning of

“Brouillards” on the same basis. The two phrases in Debussy’s work follow an

expressive arc similar to Messiaen’s rhythmic pedal: a lumbering melody line in the bass

gives way to inexact diminution, which leads eventually to inexact augmentation,

grinding the phrase toward a gradual halt. He says that Debussy’s concluding expansion

is “in the spirit […] of Lakskmîça” (2001, 157), and that “the effect of languidness is all

the more striking that it follows an acceleration of very marked values” (1995, 51).92 Just

as Messiaen uses the formula as a calming mechanism for the shorter values at the center

of his rhythmic pedal, he highlights its pacifying role at the conclusion of Debussy’s

rapid diminution as the manifestation of the formula’s intrinsic qualities. When Messiaen

talks about inexact augmentation in Debussy, he is not making a pronouncement about

Debussy’s style in itself, but rather about its token expression of a timeless approach

linked closely with Messiaen’s own musical language. His interpretation of inexact

augmentation in Debussy as a type of calming dissipation is not bound to Debussy’s

musical materials, but instead reflects personal associations with and uses of Lakskmîça.

91
Shenton notes that Messiaen put his rhythmic cycle into practice a number of years
before he fully understood the traditional meanings of the formulae (2008, 55). Messiaen’s
accounts of learning the meaning appear in Almut Rößler, Contributions to the Spiritual World of
Olivier Messiaen, trans. Barbara Dagg and Nancy Poland (Duisberg: Gilles & Francke Verlag,
1986), 85, 41; and Olivier Messiaen, Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, Tome I
(Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1994), 264.
92
“L’effet d’alanguissement est d’autant plus saisissant qu’il suit un accelerando des
valeurs très marqué.”
 81

Example 2-29. Messiaen’s rhythmic pedal

Messiaen pays frequent attention to specific types of rhythmic variation in Tome

VI, and as the examples above demonstrate, these observations are bound up with

broader theoretical and compositional notions of augmentation and diminution. We can

classify references to expansion and contraction in Tome VI as articulations of his

predilection for specific types of growth processes.

IV. Conclusions

Interpretive perspectives generated by and pointed toward Debussy’s music

permeate Messiaen’s analyses in the Traité. If he looked at the music initially through

the virgin’s eye, as he maintains, it was only the first step in a hermeneutic process that

cleared out certain points of view to make room for others. He promptly filled the blank

space of stripped presuppositions with intertextual comparisons and self-reflective

notions of compositional technique. Outside of Tome VI, Debussy helps Messiaen

imagine music of the past and present, lending relevance and a means of organization to

diverse phenomena. He replaces preconceptions of style and history with a Debussian

perspective. Within Tome VI, Messiaen uses the language and concepts associated with

his own music to engage with Debussy. His theories and techniques hover over analyses

of dynamics, harmony, and rhythmic variation, comprising the perspective through which

he explored Debussy’s music. While Tome VI may not make points of influence

between the repertoires apparent, the volume does represent an intersection between the
 82

way Messiaen conceptualizes his own music and his means of engaging with Debussy.

Within and outside of Tome VI, Messiaen’s references to Debussy are always bound up

with ways of hearing made possible by Debussy’s music on the one hand and Messiaen’s

musical language on the other.

 83

Chapter 3:

Hermeneutic Approaches to the Rhythm of Water

Messiaen proposes that among all the captivating images to be found in nature,

the “liquid element” was Debussy’s favorite (2001, 15).93 Yet despite the ubiquity of

references to water throughout Tome VI, Messiaen does not adopt a single, unifying

methodology for his interpretations. He calls attention to the presence of water in several

excerpts, but does so through a multitude of means.94 In this chapter, I infer several

distinct approaches to water imagery from Messiaen’s text, and unpack the semiotic

implications of each mode of interpretation.

I will isolate four methods that Messiaen uses to make interpretations of water

imagery in Debussy’s scores. In the opening section, I describe an a priori method

through which Messiaen creates a general notion of water as rhythmic that transcends

time and culture through observations from nature and etymology. Next, I infer a

programmatic mode of interpretation, which links water to the particular subject matter

93
In a later analysis of “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, Messiaen says “all his life
he sang of water…: La Mer, ‘Reflets dans l’eau,’ the cave in Pelléas, and the ring that drops in
the water… the Sirens… Everywhere we find the love and contemplation of water and the sea”
(2001, 132-133). [“toute sa vie il a chanté l’eau…: ‘La Mer’, les ‘Reflets dans l’eau’, la grotte de
‘Pelléas’, et l’anneau qui tombe dans l’eau… Les sirens…Partout nous trouvons l’amour et la
contemplation de l’eau et de la mer.”]
94
Nature signification in Debussy has been the focus of several recent studies. Raymond
Monelle reads the “sympathy of nature with human feelings” at the heart of Symbolist literature
into Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées, “Des Pas sur la neige,” and “Harmonie du soir” (1990, 194),
proposing a juxtaposition of both human activity and natural landscape within the music (205-
206). In a similar vein, Peter Dayan explores Debussy’s fascination with nature not as direct
imitation in musical sound but as “transposition,” that is, the subjective emotional or spiritual
response to natural phenomena (2005, 218, 222). Caroline Potter suggests that the combination
of descriptive titles and evocative musical figurations in Debussy’s work encourage the listener to
compare the music to personal experiences of natural phenomena (2003, 149). In an essay from
1934, Adorno contrasts Debussy’s emphasis on simple overtone relations—what he calls “back to
nature”—with Schoenberg’s transformation of historical material—“forward to nature” (2002,
206).
 84

of a given work. The programmatic method does not lead to discoveries of timeless

meaning, but to detailed connections with the extramusical sphere invoked by a work’s

title or scenario. However, programmatic descriptions lead quickly to other modes of

interpretation with broader points of reference. While many of Messiaen’s descriptions

of water reveal a fundamental dependency of musical meaning on the explicit subject

matter of individual works, others suggest a topical mode of interpretation in which

musical signs act as token instances of a recurring sign-type from within and outside of

Debussy’s oeuvre. The topical mode makes interpretations based on a wider network of

signifiers and associations. In the final section, I explore one of Messiaen’s descriptive

labels, “the stone in the water,” in detail, and I assess its role as both a topical and

metaphorical mode of interpretation. By parsing Messiaen’s interpretations into a series

of separate (though integrated) perspectives, a multidimensional and pluralistic view of

extramusical interpretation will emerge out of Tome VI.

I. The A Priori Mode of Interpretation

Near the beginning of the prologue to Chapter Two, Messiaen articulates a

relationship between water and rhythm that existed long before Debussy. He says,

more than anything else [water] is mobile, exquisite, treacherous, illusory—more than
anything else it is rhythm and the suggestion of rhythms (not forgetting that the word
rhythm derives from the Indo-European root: SREU: to flow, and fastens itself to
concepts of irregular periodicity and of perpetual variation of which the waves of the
ocean offer a magnificent example) (Messiaen 2001, 15).95

95
“plus que tout autre il est mobile, exquis, perfide, illusoire – plus que tout autre il est
rythme et suggestion de rythmes (n’oublions pas que le mot Rythme dérive de la racine indo-
européene: SREU: couler, et se rattache aux idées de périodicité irrégulière et de variation
perpétuelle dont les vagues de l’Océan nous offrent un magnifique exemple).”
 85

In this statement, Messiaen positions water as the primordial source of rhythmic music in

general, using etymology and the observable qualities of nature to substantiate his claim.

He implies an essential bond between water and rhythm that exists a priori: water

displays inherent rhythmic properties just as musical rhythm reminds us of its origins in

nature. Through the lens of this mode of interpretation, rhythm in general becomes a

microcosm of a timeless order:

root and derivative are in agreement: rhythm comes from the movements of waves, the
undulations of waves of the sea. It joins itself therefore originally to movement […]
Moreover, like the waves of the sea which recover themselves without ceasing,
rhythm is a perpetual imbrication of past and future, marching toward the future, like
Time (Messiaen 1994, 39-40).96

This viewpoint allows Messiaen to construe the water/rhythm bond as a universal fact, a

deep and preexisting context that gathers particular rhythmic moments into itself. The

mode of interpretation establishes a general framework or backdrop for more specific

interpretations throughout Tome VI.

Though this context is vast, it is not without limitations. Rather than saying that

all organized durations manifest the rhythm of water, Messiaen narrows his definition of

liquid music to that which employs dynamic rhythmic variations. Eschewing static

repetition, the rhythm born of water enacts “irregular periodicity” (2001, 15), which is the
96
“Racine et dérivés sont d’accord: le rythme est issu des mouvements des flots, des
ondulations des vagues de la mer. Il se rattache donc primitivement au mouvement, mais au
mouvement répété avec des variantes toujours nouvelles; c’est-à-dire à l’infini de la périodicité
irrégulière. Non pas la répétition du même, non pas l’alternance du même et de l’autre: mais la
succession de mêmes qui sont toujours autres, et d’autres qui ont toujours quelques parentés avec
le même: c’est la variation perpétuelle. De plus, comme les vagues de la mer qui se recouvrent
sans cesse, le rythme est une perpétuelle imbrication de passé et d’avenir, en marche vers
l’avenir, comme le Temps.” Emphasis in original. He continues the elaboration on the concept
of periodicity as waves of the sea on p. 42. His view of water is rooted in a general view of
nature described in a lecture in Brussels in 1958: “I only wish that they would not forget that
music is a part of time, a fraction of time, as is our own life, and that Nature, ever beautiful, ever
great, ever new, Nature, an inextinguishable treasure-house of sounds and colors, forms and
rhythms, the unequalled model for total development and perpetual variation, that Nature is the
supreme resource” (Messiaen 1960, 14; translated in Dingle 2007, 137).
 86

opposite of repetition as such (1994, 42). Like water, it should be malleable and subtly

unpredictable even in its cycles and reiterations. In Tome I, Messiaen describes irregular

periodicity in music as a reflection of the changing rhythms of nature: “Not repetition of

the same, not the alternation of the same with the other: but the succession of the same

which are always others, and of others which always have some relationship with the

same: it is perpetual variation” (1994, 39-40). If rhythm is bound to water a priori as

Messiaen suggests, then it expresses its identity best in the form of inexact repetitions,

subtle expansions and contractions, and flowing durational changes. In fact, if music is

to be considered rhythmic at all, it must actively defy static repetition.97 Conjuring its

heritage from the water of nature, rhythmic music “scorns repetition, squareness, and

equal divisions” (Samuel 1994, 67). Bar lines and meter are no longer aides but instead

hindrances to rhythm, which seeks a freer identity as it spills over the sides of its

containment.

While such a grandiose appeal to nature, etymology, and time could potentially

overshadow the significance of Debussy’s individual achievements as a rhythmic

composer, Messiaen uses his definition of the water/rhythm bond to validate the rhythmic

fluidity that permeates Debussy’s work. In the prologue, we learn first about Debussy’s

fascination for “all that ravishes the eye or the eyes, all that lulls, shimmers, changes, and

disappears” (2001, 15). Messiaen presents Debussy as one interested in nature, not as a

static object for observation but as the site of subjective experience, filled with

transformations, contrasts, and modulations. His assertion that water was Debussy’s

preferred inspiration sets up his elaboration on the primordial and etymological bond

97
In a separate essay defending his compositional affinities, Messiaen refers to the
repetitive rhythmic patterns of the march as the “negation of rhythm” (Messiaen 1986, 168).
 87

between water and rhythm, which, instead of marginalizing Debussy’s work, elevates the

importance of his style, validating it as representative of timeless truths. He implies that

Debussy’s attentiveness to the ephemeral qualities of water led him to a rhythm beyond

the bar line. Thus, with the assistance of a grand theory of water and rhythm, he presents

Debussy’s style as acutely in tune with the rhythm of water.98

Messiaen may establish Debussy’s work as an evocation of the elemental bond

between rhythm and water near the beginning of the volume, but since he does not

elaborate on the analytical potential of the connection, the analyses reflect this

interpretive point of view only indirectly. Rhythmic subtlety—particularly durational

change and thematic variation—is a pervasive theme of Tome VI. Messiaen remarks

frequently on Debussy’s use of short notes tied across beats and bar lines to longer tones

(e.g., Messiaen 2001, 4, 19, 31, 43, 46-47, 84), augmentation and diminution techniques

(e.g., 6-9, 24, 26, 61, 75-76, 85), rhythmic ornamentation (e.g., 19-20, 36,103), and

irrational values (e.g., 3, 18, 43, 66). He also offers quasi-paradigmatic analyses of

thematic variations from “Reflets dans l’eau” (7, 18-21) and Prélude à l’après-midi d’un

faune (6, 32-36). Though he does not refer explicitly to the a priori meaning of rhythmic

phenomena beyond the preface, each analytical observation reflects an evaluation process

that privileges the smallest contrasts, the minutest variations, and the flexibility of

durational possibilities. He foregrounds rhythmic techniques that challenge the efficacy

of meter and mechanical repetition, manifesting the water-inspired value of irregular

periodicity and perpetual variation. Messiaen’s occasional references to tempo reflect

this mindset as well. He describes the tempo change in mm. 70-71 of “Reflets dans

98
Messiaen once claimed that “all of Debussy’s pieces are written about things in the
water and about things that shine” (Benitez 2000, 138).
 88

l’eau” as growing “languid little by little” (20). The flow of the piece has shifted, and the

reflexive verb s’alanguir conjures an image of decreasing energy, force, and motion.

Likewise, in the analysis of “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, he notes that

the tempo of the second theme’s return is “indecisive, mobile, changing” (25). Rather

than describing the tempo as simply slow or fast, metaphors of motion and plasticity

evoke concepts that he associates with water’s elemental subtlety and vagueness.

Though the rhythmic concepts that Messiaen associates with water in general are

points of interest throughout Tome VI, the leaps of interpretation required to link theory

with analysis may point to the function and limitations of the a priori mode of

interpretation. The prologue’s role is to provide a context for Debussy’s rhythmic

language; it sets up a symbolic order that hovers implicitly over subsequent analyses.

Rather than using the theory to interpret particular moments of water signification,

Messiaen’s introductory remarks define an ideal rhythmic language that is exemplified by

Debussy’s style. According to Messiaen, the rhythm of water is ubiquitous in Debussy’s

oeuvre; therefore, to revisit the concept in the analyses would seem to be redundant. The

function of the a priori mode of interpretation is not to provide tools for segmenting and

assessing distinct instances of water in Debussy’s work; rather, it establishes the

fundamental presence of water throughout his oeuvre.

Messiaen’s appeal to a priori meaning lays a foundation on which to build with

other methods. Within this continuous stream of signification, he uses other modes of

interpretation that complement the universal theory. These approaches highlight

particular manifestations of water imagery within the general stylistic order. Having

established that Debussy’s music exemplifies the langue of water, the more explicit and
 89

localized references to water in the analyses of Tome VI suggest an interest in Debussy’s

parole as well.99

II. From Programmatic Meaning to Musical Topics

While the movements of nature and the heritage of etymology affirm Debussy’s

fluid rhythms as inherently water-like, Messiaen’s analyses often rely on a programmatic

mode of interpretation, in which particular gestures, contours, and textures become linked

to the presumed subject matter of the individual work. Rather than defining the

relationship between water and rhythm on the broad level of musical language,

Messiaen’s specific references to water often depend on the implications of a work’s title

for highlighting particular instances of water imagery. Within the very prologue that

introduces his grand theory of rhythm, he implies the interpretive possibilities of a work’s

title or scenario by saying that pieces like “Reflets dans l’eau,” “Sirènes,” “Ondine,” “Ce

qu’a vu le vent d’Ouest,” and La Mer “leave no doubt about [water’s] presence” (2001,

15). If a work is about water, then specific moments can be interpreted as particular

manifestations of the subject matter.

In some analyses, Messiaen uses the title as a basis for interpreting a single

gesture or pattern as an image of water. When he claims that a subtle chromatic arch

“recalls the movement of water” (125), it is within the context of “Poissons d’or,” whose

explicit reference to goldfish conjures a number of water-based associations with the

musical fabric (Example 3-1). Likewise, Messiaen uses the title of “Ce qu’a vu le vent

99
Ferdinand de Saussure used these terms to distinguish between shared language and
individual speech acts in Course in General Linguistics, eds. Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye,
trans. Wade Baskin (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959), 14. Kofi Agawu draws the same
distinction for music between the style of an era and “the peculiarities, mannerisms, and strategies
of the composer” (2009, 82).
 90

d’ouest” as a point of departure for extramusical interpretations. At the beginning of the

analysis, he concludes that “what the Western wind saw” was the “ocean, the furious

waves, the cries of agony from castaways” (146). Debussy may not refer to water

explicitly in the title, but Messiaen treats the prelude as a type of dialogue du vent et de la

mer, drawing an intertext with the third movement of La Mer.100 In light of this

expansion on the subject matter of the work, the sixteenth-note triplets embedded within

eighth-note triplets in m. 15 create waves that become “more and more menacing” (147)

(Example 3-2). The irrational rhythms superimposed in rising chromatic arches manifest

the implied program.

Example 3-1. “Poissons d’or” from Images, Book 2, mm. 90-91

100
He may also be drawing on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Garden of Paradise,
which inspired Debussy’s title in the first place, and refers to the west wind’s travels over the sea
(Bruhn 1997, 69).
 91

Example 3-2. “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 15

For other works, Messiaen uses the implications of the title to suggest a narrative

progress of water images. In reference to m. 68 of “La Cathédrale engloutie,” he states

that low notes signify the cathedral’s organ, “introducing the swirl of water” in whole

tones whose undulations transform into an ostinato pattern that “evokes the movements

of water” (Example 3-3). When the motion in the bass comes to a halt and the opening of

the work returns, Messiaen refers to the reprise as “the return of the calm of the water

which no longer has waves nor swirls, and which conceals its secret” (154).101 In light of

the title’s reference to an engulfed cathedral, the conclusion of the work becomes stages

of water activity from action to stillness.

101
“le retour au calme de l’eau qui n’a plus de vagues ni de remous, et qui cache son
secret.”
 92

Example 3-3. “La Cathédrale engloutie” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 68-73

The tempestuous imagery that Messiaen infers from the title of “Ce qu’a vu le

vent d’ouest” makes a similar narrative possible. A low tremolo with frequent

crescendos introduces “the waves and the swirls of water,” while rapid falling gestures in

the right hand recreate the notes from the opening waves in the piece (Example 3-4). The

contrast between rapid undulation and falling gestures gives way to a larger wave, which

rises and falls in mm. 57-58, but a suddenly soft tremolo takes over two measures later,

which Messiaen describes as “the menacing calm” (149). A programmatic image of the

ocean’s fury provides Messiaen with a framework for interpreting the frequent textural

changes near the end of the prelude.

 93

Example 3-4. “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 55-59

The imagery implied by the title of “Jardins sous la pluie” provides Messiaen with

a vehicle for describing the form of the entire work as stages in a rainstorm. He argues

that the opening arpeggios imitate the noise of the rain and its “mechanical regularity”

(132-133) (Example 3-5). The arpeggio pattern begins to slow down and become

simplified in m. 64 as each articulation comprises fewer and fewer notes. By m. 73, all

that remains are eighth-note triplets in stepwise vacillation, which he hears as raindrops

dripping from the trees (133) (Example 3-6). He claims that the rain has tapered off by

m. 122, and only two more drops (a pair of major seconds sounded an octave apart) are

left to fall, symbolizing the end of the storm (134) (Example 3-7). A network of
 94

associations with the title helps Messiaen to organize each section of the work into

distinct representations of the programmatic content.

Example 3-5. “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, mm. 1-3

Example 3-6. “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, mm. 72-74

Example 3-7. “Jardins sous la pluie” from Estampes, m. 124

Because Messiaen allows the program to influence his interpretations so heavily,

his analyses can appear ad hoc at times. While the a priori mode of interpretation

provided an irreducible context for water signification, unifying rhythmic processes

across time and style, the programmatic method treats each work on an individual basis,
 95

recommencing the hermeneutic process for each piece. Its fundamental contingency

becomes apparent when we compare the different meanings that Messiaen ascribes to

similar stylistic features shared across Debussy’s oeuvre. For example, while his

proposed narrative of rainfall for “Jardins sous la pluie” may be quite reasonable given

the work’s order of events and subject matter, he interprets similar techniques differently

in other contexts. The opening of “Le Vent dans la plaine” bears a resemblance to that of

“Jardins sous la pluie” (Example 3-8). Aside from the differences in dissonance and

melodic character, the two pieces share a similarly unyielding rhythmic impulse, arching

contours, blurred texture, and soft dynamics. Despite the similarities, Messiaen hears the

ostinato pattern of “Le Vent dans la plaine” as “the light blowing of the wind that makes

the grass and wheat sway” (135) rather than the metric regularity of rainfall. Though the

works open with certain features of style, mood, and technique in common,102 shared

patterns point to different referents because of the distinct programmatic contexts.103

Other interpretive discrepancies emerge when we compare analyses of “Jardins sous la

pluie,” Pelléas et Mélisande, and “Ce qu’a le vent d’ouest.” In mm. 38 and 43 of “Ce

qu’a le vent d’ouest,” Messiaen hears the rapid vacillation between right and left hand as

the bubbling water of the sea (148) (Example 3-9). He offers a similar interpretation of

analogous neighbor-note motion from Act I, Scene 3 of Pelléas (88-89), which takes

102
For more on the opening patterns of Debussy’s works, see James Hepokoski,
“Formulaic Openings in Debussy,” 19th-Century Music 8 (1984): 44-59.
103
Water imagery is not fully absent from Messiaen’s interpretation of “Le Vent dans la
plaine” however: he labels a cascade of staccato seventh chords as “slow and cold drops of
water” (2001, 136). It is unclear, however, whether this description refers to literal raindrops
within his narrative of the piece, or if he hears a metaphoric correspondence between the
resonance of parallel harmonies and the water color or temperature. He refers alternatively to this
moment as “smooth gems” [“pierreries douces”] to indicate the harmonic resonance of parallel
seventh chords, cross-referencing similar techniques in Dukas’s Ariane et Barbe-bleue.
 96

place by the sea (Example 3-10). By contrast, he interprets such vacillations as rain

dripping from the trees in “Jardins sous la pluie” after a storm. While the scenario of

each work features water imagery, Messiaen uses the program as a guide for how to

determine the details of its distinct presence in the music.

Example 3-8. “Le Vent dans la plaine” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 1-2

Example 3-9. “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest” from Préludes, Book 1, m. 38

 97

Example 3-10. Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rehearsal 43

The programmatic mode of interpretation can lead to moments of interpretive

indecision as well. In his analysis of “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer,

Messiaen notes an arching theme that repeats itself immediately, but with a truncated

climax (Example 3-11). At first, he interprets the bipartite phrase as representing a wave

rising and falling, followed by a smaller wave, but he also poses a second programmatic

possibility, suggesting that the theme is “like the wind, of which the howling climbs and
 98

falls again, followed by a shorter echo” (2001, 23-24).104 With references to the wind

and the sea in its subtitle, the movement from La Mer offers a programmatic context

amenable to both interpretations, and Messiaen’s program-specific approach allows for

competing interpretations equally suited to the work in question.

Example 3-11. Theme from “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer

Not all of Messiaen’s water descriptions are contingent on programmatic context,

a fact that becomes apparent in analyses of works without an obvious link between

Debussy’s title and Messiaen’s interpretation. Though in the epigraph for his analysis of

“Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” Messiaen refers to quotes by Charles

Baudelaire and Leonardo da Vinci that mention water, Debussy’s title makes no explicit

reference to water, nor does its language encourage such a leap of interpretation.

Nonetheless, Messiaen refers to four measures of continuously rising and falling arches

of sixteenth notes as “the liquid element,” which “begins a passage on water and the

waves of water” (142). The performance direction “tranquille et flottant” may conjure an

oblique association with the flowing qualities of water; but from a programmatic

standpoint, these words best describe the setting composed of sounds and smells floating

in the evening air (Example 3-12). Similarly, in the analysis of “Pagodes,” Messiaen

refers to waves that rise and fall in triplets despite the lack of clear reference to the sea in

the title (127) (Example 3-13). Messiaen even suggests the presence of wave imagery in

104
“Ou comme le vent, dont le hurlement monte et retombe, suivi d’un écho plus court.”
He refers to the theme as the wind in his analysis of the opening movement (2001, 184), but
offers both interpretations again in his reference to the theme within Tome II (1995, 408).
 99

“Pour Les Agréments,” which he claims is an hommage to water (103) despite the non-

representational title of the work. Drawn from Debussy’s book of piano etudes, the work

provides no scenario through which to imagine extramusical meaning. Though he does

not name specific measures, he is likely referring to the movement’s stepwise vacillations

and arching contours (Example 3-14).

Example 3-12. “Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir” from Préludes, Book 1, mm. 41-42
 100

Example 3-13. “Pagodes” from Estampes, mm. 19-24

Example 3-14. “Pour Les Agréments” from Études, m. 7

In the absence of clear programmatic references, Messiaen appears to draw

aspects of his interpretations from wider codes of meaning—that is, a larger body of

signifiers associated with water imagery in other contexts. He uses a mode of

interpretation that is not contingent on individual titles, but instead situates appearances
 101

of arching contours and neighbor-note vacillations in relation to similar features of works

with an explicit water theme. Recall that Messiaen interprets features found in “Les Sons

et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir,” “Pagodes,” and “Pour Les Agréments” as

symbols of liquid motion in the tempest of “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest,” the undulating

accompaniment of Pelléas et Mélisande, and the rising water around “La Cathédrale

engloutie.” Analogous waves and undulations appear throughout La Mer in varying

intensities (22, 24). Though Messiaen often uses an implied program to make ad hoc

pronouncements about musical meaning, he also draws on a class of style features

associated with water in numerous contexts to read meaning into Debussy’s scores. By

recognizing water in “Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir,” “Pagodes,”

and “Pour Les Agréments,” he acknowledges a language of wave imagery shared among

Debussy’s works that goes beyond programmatic context alone.

Because these analyses imply broader points of reference for wave imagery than

the title or scenario, this third mode of interpretation is topical. In recent decades,

scholars have turned to topic theory as a way of describing commonplace gestures,

textures, and styles found across a given repertoire, whose recurrence compels us to

group them into classes.105 When a topic appears in a given work, its significance derives

105
The concept of musical topic was first introduced by Leonard Ratner in Classic
Music: Expression, Form, and Style (New York: Schirmer Books, 1980). Robert Hatten focuses
on expressive correlations with musical topics in his theory of musical meaning in Musical
Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1994); and Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart,
Beethoven, Schubert (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004). Kofi Agawu demonstrates
how musical topics are integrated into musical structure in Playing with Signs: A Semiotic
Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991). Raymond Monelle
presents research on cultural and historical associations with various musical topics over time in
The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000); and The
Musical Topic: Hunt, Military, and Pastoral (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000). See
also Wye Jamison Allanbrook, Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro & Don Giovanni
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983). A useful summary of topic theory and its
 102

not purely from its particularity, but from its resemblance to an intertext of related signs

or classemes (Grabócz 1996, 195-218). Each instance becomes a token of a generalized

type. Through continuous usage, such classes of signs become bound up with particular

networks of meaning (Klein 2005, 56), often signifying outside of musical repertories in

literary and cultural domains (Monelle 2000, 79). Generally speaking, to interpret a sign

as a musical topic is to classify it within wider musical and non-musical contexts with

which it has become associated by convention.

Though, as Kofi Agawu has remarked, musical topics can take form within a

single composer’s idiolect (2009, 48), they often comprise aspects of a musical language

common to a group of composers, a style, or an era. The features that inspire Messiaen’s

interpretations of waves in both programmatic and non-programmatic contexts—namely

arching contours and vacillations between tones—bear striking resemblances to

conventional evocations of water throughout the nineteenth century.106 Liszt employs

both techniques in “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from the third volume of Années de

pèlerinage (Example 3-15).107 Swift gestures sweep upward and then down at the start of

the work before giving way to measured tremolos between harmonic tones, which settle

into stepwise vacillations (Example 3-16). Smetana layers the two techniques in his

depiction of the river Moldau, creating a counterpoint of wave motions—sometimes

application appears in Kofi Agawu, Music as Discourse: Semiotic Adventures in Romantic Music
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 41-50.
106
Studies of water imagery in the nineteenth century include Alexandra Lewis,
“Evocations of Water at the Piano from Schubert to Liszt and Ravel” (Ph.D. dissertation, City
University of New York, Graduate Center, 2005); and Gerda Burkhard, “‘Rollend in
schäumenden Wellen’: Musikalische Wasserspiele,” Universitas: Orientierung in der
Wissenswelt 48 (1993): 745-754.
107
Paul Roberts maintains that this work inspired the techniques in subsequent water
pieces, particularly those in the French repertoire (1996, 28).
 103

rising and falling simultaneously—while the viola at the bottom of the texture provides

neighboring motion as support. Schubert’s accompaniment patterns are famous for

depicting the theme of water via these signifiers. For example, “Der Fluss,” D. 693

implies the presence of the river through gently rocking waves in arching arpeggios

(Example 3-17), and “Liebesbotschaft” from Schwanengesang, D. 957 creates a

murmuring brook via thirty-second note arpeggios embedded within a larger rising and

falling contour over a G/D pedal (Example 3-18). Die schöne Müllerin, D.795, in which

the brook is a main character, is filled with such images. Dvořák’s Vodník, Op. 107

(“Water Goblin”) enlists vacillations that change pitch level frequently, while the entire

prelude to Wagner’s Das Rheingold is a crescendo of increasingly rapid arches that

spread throughout the texture. Debussy may write the music of water in Messiaen’s a

priori sense, but his music and Messiaen’s interpretation draw on a rich heritage of

significations from the preceding era.

Example 3-15. Liszt “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pèlerinage III, S. 163, mm. 8-11
 104

Example 3-16. Liszt “Les Jeux d’eau à la Villa d’Este” from Années de Pèlerinage III, S. 163, mm. 21-22

Example 3-17. Schubert “Der Fluß,” D. 693, mm. 1-2

Example 3-18. “Liebesbotschaft” from Schwanengesang, D. 957, mm. 1-2

Messiaen’s analyses demonstrate a thin line between programmatic contingency

and topical association. Despite the inconsistencies that different programmatic contexts

inspire in his analyses, his references to waves in non-water contexts suggest an input

from wider knowledge of style and conventional associations. Based on the language of
 105

the analyses, we cannot say definitively whether he drew these topical connections from

Debussy’s oeuvre alone, or from a broader understanding of water symbology throughout

history. Either way, his interpretations of wave motion perpetuate and contribute to a

discourse of water signification that came into being before Debussy’s evocations of the

sea.

III. Topic and Metaphor: “The Stone in the Water”

Having established Messiaen’s a priori, programmatic, and topical modes of

interpretation in Tome VI, the remainder of this chapter will focus on the topical and

metaphorical functions of the phrase “the stone in the water,” which he uses repeatedly

throughout the volume to capture what he perceives as the shock of rhythmic contrast in

Debussy’s work.108 Though rhythmic fluctuation is a ubiquitous component of

Debussy’s style, Messiaen pays particular attention to striking contrasts between long and

short rhythmic values, which he interprets as a sudden interruption of durational stillness.

In the opening chapter of Tome VI, Messiaen maintains that the contrast between short

and long durations is the “primary state of Debussian rhythm” (2001, 3), a claim that is

compatible with his implication that all types of rhythmic variation signify flowing water

in Debussy’s oeuvre a priori. However, throughout the volume, Messiaen highlights

these durational oppositions as tokens of a special type that recur in often dramatic ways

throughout Debussy’s repertoire. The label of the stone in the water unites these diverse

108
This image of the stone in the water also featured in Messiaen’s lectures. Jean Boivin
summarizes Messiaen’s observations: “la musique de Debussy est souvent rythmiquement calme,
telle une eau dormante. Lorsqu’un objet, part exemple une feuille, tombe sur une surface d’eau,
sa surface en est bouleversée et on observe des révolutions concentriques. Le calme rythmique de
la musique est de la même manière rompu par des événements rapides et soudains” (1995, 279).
 106

moments of rhythmic interruption in a singular class of signs that resembles a musical

topic.

Messiaen highlights one such contrast in mm. 17-19 of “Reflets dans l’eau” in

which Debussy collapses a widely spaced chord with open fifths and added sixth into a

dyad of inner voices doubled at the octave (Example 3-19). Debussy coordinates this

compression with a decrescendo and a noticeably long eighth note tied across the bar line

to a quarter note. This duration appears particularly protracted by contrast with the

steady stream of sixteenth notes that precede the phrase. However, just as Debussy calls

our attention to the lengthy rhythmic values, he uses them as a foil against which an

interruption of sixty-fourth-note triplets appears particularly swift. Debussy foregrounds

this eruption of lively rhythms in the midst of long values again in the following

measure.109

Example 3-19. “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 16-18

109
Roy Howat describes the contrast as a type of dovetailing, whereby new material is
introduced first as an interruption and then takes over the texture in the succeeding section. He
notes the same use of contrast as a transition to new material in mm. 27-34 of “Poissons d’or”
from Images, Book 2 (2009, 41). David Lewin’s interpretation bears resemblances with both
Messiaen and Howat’s work: he refers to the rhythmic interruption as a “ruffling motive”
through which “the wind first ruffles the surface of the pond;” and he notes the motive’s
continued presence in subsequent measures (2007, 238).
 107

Messiaen interprets the rhythmic contrast between long and short as an image of

disturbed water:

It is the surface of the water, still, calm, [and] serene. Suddenly, it is troubled! A
stone in the water, a bundle of dead leaves that fall, a shock amid the stillness, a
sudden star in the night, a memory that like an arrow injures the subconscious (2001,
18).110

He may have appropriated his figurative description from Debussy himself, who once

referred to the reappearance of the opening theme amid active accompaniment as “a little

circle in the water […] with a little pebble falling into it” (Long 1972, 25). However,

despite the shared imagery, Messiaen does not merely echo Debussy’s description, but

instead uses the phrase to fulfill his own interpretive goals. If Messiaen was familiar with

Debussy’s reference, he narrows its application to a specific rhythmic construction.

Whereas Debussy’s phrase evokes the general relationship between melody and texture

(Howat 2009, 55), Messiaen reserves the term for a particularly stark opposition between

long and short durations, which he correlates with the dialectic of stasis and disruption.

The stone in the water may provide an apt image for rhythmic contrast in “Reflets

dans l’eau” given the work’s title, but Messiaen employs the phrase to describe moments

in works that do not imply a body of water. These analyses demonstrate that he uses the

label to define a class of signs beyond the contingency of programmatic associations. He

hears the stone in the water in the English horn solo from “Nuages,” which disrupts the

languid homophony of the opening measures with a swift sixteenth-note triplet (Example

3-20). He notes the stone in the water near the end of “Brouillards,” where the “hastened

anacrusis” of a theme in diminution follows after the elongated conclusion of the theme’s

110
“c’est la nappe d’eau, dormante, paisible, sereine. Brusquement, la voilà troublée! Un
caillou dans l’eau, un paquet de feuilles mortes qui tombe, un choc sur du calme, une brusque
étoile sur la nuit, un souvenir en flèche qui blesse le subconscient.”
 108

original statement. We can infer from Messiaen’s example printed in the analysis that the

scattered thirty-second-note arpeggio hovering above the texture augments the effect (84-

85) (Example 3-21).111 According to Messiaen, the stone in the water appears in m. 63 of

“Mouvement” where a fortissimo sixteenth-note triplet interpolates itself between a

pianissimo ostinato in the right hand and elongated notes in the left (112) (Example 3-

22). The triplet does not contrast rhythmically with the ongoing ostinato pattern, but it

does inject rhythmic agency into the left hand and dynamic force into the texture as a

whole. In his introduction to “Cloches à travers les feuilles,” Messiaen invokes the

“faithful stone in the water and the circles enlarging themselves,” pointing implicitly

toward a number of sudden contrasts (e.g., m. 43) that appear throughout the work (114).

He even uses the phrase to describe moments from Études, an entirely non-

representational work (104).112 At the start of “Pour Les Sonorités opposées,” Debussy

sounds a soft G-sharp in three registers that rings for three measures, but subtly rapid

values embedded within rolled A octaves inject subtle energy into the stasis created by

the held tones (Example 3-23). Messiaen describes the intervening notes as “always the

stone coming to trouble the water” (104). These examples demonstrate that Messiaen

111
For a nuanced examination of Debussy’s arabesque technique, see Caroline Potter,
“Debussy and Nature,” in Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 143-147; and Boyd Pomeroy, “Debussy’s Tonality: A
Formal Perspective,” Cambridge Companion to Debussy, ed. Simon Trezise (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 158-161. For an essay on performing Debussy’s intricate
lines, see Jann Pasler, “Timbre, Voice-Leading, and the Musical Arabesque in Debussy’s Piano
Music,” in Debussy in Performance, ed. James Briscoe (New Haven: Yale University Press,
1999), 225-255.
112
He opts for similar imagery in reference to m. 31 to highlight the sudden rhythmic
contrast between a rising figure that mixes sixteenth notes with dotted rhythms and calando
quarter-notes: “But the trumpet theme approaches rising from these calm values. It is like the
colored Kingfisher who passes over the water, or like the arrow of memory that crosses
thought…” (2001, 104). [Mais le thème de trompette s’approche surgissant de ces valeurs calmes.
Il est comme le Martin-pêcheur coloré qui passe sur l’eau, ou comme la flèche de la mémoire qui
traverse la pensée…”]
 109

uses the stone in the water to describe recurring rhythmic contrasts from a wide sampling

of works without regard for programmatic associations.

Example 3-20. “Nuages” from Trois Nocturnes, mm. 1-6

 110

Example 3-21. “Brouillards” from Préludes, Book 2, mm. 38-41

Example 3-22. “Mouvement” from Images, Book 1, mm. 63-64

 111

Example 3-23. “Pour Les Sonorités opposées” from Douze Études, mm. 1-3

Messiaen sometimes alludes to the stone in the water without using the phrase

explicitly. In the measures preceding Rehearsal 9 of "De L'Aube à midi sur la mer" from

La Mer, Debussy thins out the texture systematically until the pianissimo timpani roll and

hushed contrabass are the only tones remaining (Example 3-24). The strings play a

reversed dotted figure before attacking a held-note sforzando.113 Messiaen describes the

scene as follows: “Everything is going to get quiet, to clear itself, […] as if the music

could rediscover the night at the beginning of the piece. Out of this silence bursts the 3rd

theme” (187). Though he does not refer to the stone in the water directly, he cites the

contrast between stillness and rhythmic action as an image of reenergized water: “life

and motion seem reborn from the liquid mass” (187).114

113
Messiaen notes in the preface to Chapter Two that this reversed dotted figure appears
regularly in themes and accompaniments throughout Debussy’s work including Prélude à
l’après-midi d’un faune and Act III, Scene 3 of Pelléas et Mélisande. He pays special attention to
his use of the motive in the accompaniment of “Auprès de cette grotte sombre” from Le
Promenoir des deux amants, in which the text refers to images of water (2001, 15). See
Appendix 1 of the dissertation.
114
“Tout va se calmer, s’éliminer, […] comme si la musique voulait retrouver la nuit du
début du morceau. […] la vie et le mouvement semblent renaître de la masse liquide.”
 112

Example 3-24. "De L'Aube à midi sur la mer" from La Mer, four measures before Rehearsal 9

These examples demonstrate how Messiaen’s use of the stone in the water

resembles a topical interpretation. Though there are works like “Reflets dans l’eau” and

La Mer whose programs make the stone in the water a convenient label for the

phenomenon of rhythmic contrast, Messiaen uses the phrase as an interpretive category

that classifies token instances of a recurrent sign linked to a particular network of

 113

signifiers. The picture of a disturbed liquid surface may make points of contact with the

programs of works, but its use is not limited to or determined by them entirely. Messiaen

recognizes a commonplace element of Debussy’s stylistic language, and interprets it as a

singular category of water signification separate from notions of wave imagery and

general rhythm fluctuation.

Raymond Monelle has argued that topics “signify a large semantic world,

connected to aspects of contemporary society, literary themes, and older traditions”

(Monelle 2000, 79; 2006, 9). For example, the pianto’s descending melodic second

signifies not just weeping but conventional notions of sadness and mourning. The

stylistic components of a musette signify a dance, which carries broader associations

within a pastoral context (Allanbrook 1983, 52). Thus, musical topics have a direct or

literal meaning as well as a constellation of associated meanings (Monelle 2006, 3; 2000,

80), bringing musical and non-musical codes into dialogue with each other (Monelle

2000, 19).

While the stone in the water lacks the long heritage of conventional associations

that surround traditional topics such as hunt, pastoral, and military, Messiaen

supplements the sign with a metaphoric mode of interpretation in order to construct a

semantic realm beyond literal musical construction.115 The stone in the water is an

115
Marion Guck demonstrates how metaphoric description provides a way of articulating
aspects of music outside the reach of technical description in “Musical Images as Musical
Thoughts: The Contribution of Metaphor to Analysis,” In Theory Only 5 (1981): 29-42. Leo
Treitler takes a similar stance when he suggests that we take seriously writings about music by
poets and novelists whose “use of language is often more subtle and versatile than those who are
skilled in theorizing” (2011, 6). For more on the power of figurative language, see Frank Sibley,
“Making Music Our Own,” in The Interpretation of Music: Philosophical Essays, ed. Michael
Krausz (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 165-176.
 114

evocative title that creates as much as recognizes the possibility of meaning.116 It

provides what Max Black calls a “strong metaphor” in that it does not merely name or

add an ornamental gloss to the rhythmic phenomenon, but instead brings resonant

implications for interpretation (1990, 57). Through metaphoric language, Messiaen

construes long duration as a still liquid surface featuring a static peace, and the

succeeding rapid values as a threat to that stillness (Table 3-1). The swift interjection

troubles the surface and displaces its stasis with chaotic action. The metaphor renders the

swift gesture in “Reflets dans l’eau” and other works as not only an interpolated

arabesque but also a disruptive and energetic presence. A new meaning emerges through

the discursive act of metaphoric utterance;117 and in creating such meaning, the stone in

the water provides a mode of interpretation, a way of seeing the world of rhythm.

Long Durations → Short Durations

Stillness → Action

Calm → Shock

Stasis → Chaos

Peaceful → Violent Threat

Table 3-1. The expressive logic of “the stone in the water”

116
As Michael Klein reminds us, “decoding and interpreting are interrelated acts” (2005,
57).
117
Paul Ricoeur summarizes the discursive and creative nature of metaphor by saying
that “the dictionary contains no metaphors” (Ricoeur 1975, 97). See also Max Black,
Perplexities: Rational Choice, the Prisoner’s Dilemma, Metaphor, Poetic Ambiguity, and Other
Puzzles (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 73-74; and Roger Scruton, The Aesthetics of
Music (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997), 84.
 115

The expressive correlations that the stone in the water makes with rhythmic

contrast initiate a chain of metaphors in several excerpts from Tome VI. Through these

images, Messiaen constructs a wider semantic field that supplements the central water

concept with a network of associations from various domains. Near the beginning of a

chapter on Debussy’s varied rhythmic techniques, Messiaen chooses “Debussy – the

stone in the water” as a subheading for the section devoted to juxtapositions of short and

long durations; but within the text, he elaborates on the primary image with other

metaphors of disruption: “a shock amid stillness – desire in the subconscious – the stone

in the water – the thing that shines all of a sudden in the night” (2001, 3).118 Likewise, in

a passage cited above, a similar chain appears after establishing the stone in the water as

the point of reference: “a bundle of dead leaves that fall, a shock amid the stillness, a

sudden star in the night, a memory that like an arrow injures the subconscious” (18).

Because Messiaen gives the stone in the water precedence—as a heading, as a primary

image in a passage, and as an independent description throughout the volume—we can

read these lists of metaphors for rhythmic shock not as competing interpretations but as

figurative elaborations on the archetype of disturbed water that provide complementary

hermeneutic viewpoints. They become metaphors for the metaphor that help Messiaen

better approximate the essence of the rhythmic contrast.

To illustrate this point, let us examine the hermeneutic function of a metaphoric

chain that appears in Messiaen’s analysis of “Reflets dans l’eau.” After ascribing the

label of the stone in the water to the passage cited above, Messiaen enumerates his list of

analogous images: leaves falling, shock amid the calm, a bright star at night, and an

118
“Un choc sur du calme – le désir dans le subconscient – le caillou dans l’eau – la
chose qui brille tout à coup dans la nuit.”
 116

unexpected memory. Instead of challenging the notion of the stone in the water, these

parallel metaphors expand its semantic reach through the interaction of multiple codes.

The cascade of brittle, dead leaves highlights the subtlety of the disturbance, while

images of shock and piercing light correspond with the surprising and perhaps

overwhelming violence of the interruption. The notion of the unconscious adds a

subjective parallel for the natural phenomenon, bringing an external observation into the

psychological sphere. Messiaen’s metaphors create varied points of view on the stone in

the water, positioning it within multiple discourses at once.

As a metaphor that produces other metaphors, the stone in the water appears in

Messiaen’s analysis not as a fleeting moment of figurative language, but as a unifying

presence among other metaphoric descriptions. The stone in the water spawns and unites

a diverse field of references as an “organizing metaphor” (Guck 1981, 31). Its central

position in a network of images elevates the image to the status of what Paul Ricoeur

calls a “root metaphor,” which he defines as “the dominant metaphors capable of

engendering and organizing a network that serves as a junction between the symbolic

level with its slow evolution and the more volatile metaphorical level” (1976, 64). The

place of Messiaen’s image atop a hierarchy of metaphors renders the stone in the water

durable and expansive, more like a permanent symbol than a metaphor, which is but a

discursive moment. Even if Messiaen does not appeal to conventional codes of meaning

to extend his topical interpretation into a broader web of associations, his chain of

metaphors achieves a similar effect by expanding the semiotic reach of the stone in the

water into multiple discourses.

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This network of metaphors in which the stone in the water plays an engendering

and organizing role becomes apparent as an interpretive tool in Messiaen’s analyses of

Pelléas et Mélisande where he uses the image of a disturbed liquid surface to link aspects

of rhythm, setting, plot, and psychology. In the analysis of Act I, Scene 3, Messiaen

correlates the shock of rhythmic contrast with analogous oppositions between calm and

disruption in the drama. Just after Rehearsal 40, Genevieve remarks on the gloomy sea,

and Pelléas predicts a coming storm despite the current lull: he says, “We will have a

storm tonight. […] yet [the sea] is so calm now.” Suggesting that Pelléas is referring to

both a literal storm and the tragedy to come, Messiaen interprets the stillness of the music

at this point as ominous: he says, “there is no worse water than the water that sleeps,” as

if disturbance to the rhythm and plot were inevitable. Just as he highlights the contrast

between calm and impending chaos literally in the sea and figuratively in the drama’s

relationships, Messiaen notes its rhythmic manifestation as well. According to him, three

statements of a G sharp minor chord represent the “calm and yet menacing sea” (2001,

66) (Example 3-25). A rapid dotted figure in the horns resembling Golaud’s theme

interrupts the placid setting. Messiaen describes the rhythmic interpolation as “an

irruption of liveliness in the midst of slowness, of agitation in the calm, this stone in the

water” (84).119 The momentary rhythmic contrast and its associations with disturbed

water provide Messiaen with a model for interpreting an entire symbolic context, uniting

music, setting, and drama under a single expressive trajectory.

119
“Cette irruption du vif dans le lent, de l’agité dans le calme, ce caillou dans l’eau.”
 118

Example 3-25. Messiaen’s reduction of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande, three measures before
Rehearsal 41

In the analysis of Act I, Scene 1, Messiaen conjoins the stone in the water with the

parallel image of light piercing the darkness. Again, the root metaphor colors and

organizes the interpretation. A sixteenth-note fanfare interrupts the aura of stillness

following Mélisande’s description of her home: “Far from here…far…far…” (Example

3-26) At this same moment, Golaud notices something shining in the bottom of the

nearby well, and Messiaen implies a connection between his sudden perception and the

iteration of rhythmic contrast. Mélisande claims that the gleaming object is the crown

that she threw away, but Messiaen offers a more elaborate interpretation:

Golaud […] is interested only in what shines. But what shines is at the bottom of the
water: the still and deep water, full of dramas and secrets—and what shines is perhaps
the love, attainable under its fatal and super-terrestrial form only to Pelléas and
Mélisande. We know that Debussy was the passionate lover of clouds, wind, the sea,
and marvelous illusions that are a backwards landscape, a light that repeats itself, by
the magic of reflections, in the tranquil and perpetual mirror of the water. It does not
matter whether it is a crown of gold or a ray of light! Something shines—in the
water: it is the intrusion of movement in the calm, of change in the irremovable, of
very short values in the very long values (60).120
120
Golaud […] s’intéresse seulement à ce qui brille. Mais ce qui brille est au fond de
l’eau: l’eau dormante et profonde, pleine de drames et de secrets—et ce qui brille est peut-être
l’amour, accessible sous sa forme fatale et supra-terrestre à Pelléas et Mélisande seuls. On sait
que Debussy a été l’amant passionné des nuages, du vent, de la mer, et de ces illusions
merveilleuses que sont un paysage renversé, une lumière qui se répète, par la magie des reflets,
dans le miroir tranquille et perpétuel de l’eau. Peu importe que ce soit une couronne d’or ou un
rayon de soleil! quelque chose brille – dans l’eau: c’est l’intrusion du mouvement dans le
 119

Messiaen notes three times in this excerpt that the shining object not only supplies light

but that it radiates through the medium of water. Light penetrates the stillness and depth

of the well, disturbing its fragile stasis. Rhythmic contrast may signify light shining in

the dark in direct relation to imagery from the scene, but Messiaen connects it explicitly

with the stone in the water concept (3). Like Golaud’s perception of the light within the

well, Messiaen views complementary metaphors through the lens of the stone in the

water, which determines an aspect of their signification.

Example 3-26. Messiaen’s reduction of Act I, Scene 1 from Pelléas et Mélisande, three measures before
Rehearsal 13

calme, du changement dans l’inamovible, des valeurs très brèves dans les valeurs très longues.”
Emphasis in original.
 120

The root metaphor of the stone in the water suffuses Messiaen’s interpretation of

the opera’s psychological components as well. Just before the end of Act I, Scene 3, a

rapid dotted rhythm in the French horn interrupts a held chord in the strings, and

Messiaen implies that this irruption of rapid values signifies the presence—either

mentally or physically—of Golaud, creating an uncanny and aggressive articulation

within an otherwise peaceful conclusion (Example 3-27). Despite the dissonance

between Golaud’s jealousy and the couple’s burgeoning desire manifested in this

rhythmic contrast, Messiaen asserts that “this distant aggressiveness would not be able to

trouble the still water of Mélisande’s dream, which takes place at a height, on another

planet” (93).121 While Messiaen does not name the stone in the water explicitly, he

employs its descriptive language in conjunction with rhythmic contrast to make a

judgment about Mélisande’s mental state. Rhythmic contrast may appear to disturb the

calm of the music, but Mélisande’s dream-life remains smooth and untroubled like still

water. Even the startling iteration of Golaud’s theme cannot penetrate its surface. The

stone in the water provides the conceptual underpinning for the contrast between her

dream and the violent thought of reality that threatens to disrupt it.

121
“Mais cette lointaine agressivité ne saurait troubler l’eau dormante du rêve de
Mélisande, qui se situe en hauteur, sur une autre planète.”
 121

Example 3-27. Messiaen’s reduction of Act I, Scene 3 from Pelléas et Mélisande, Rehearsal 48

In each of these examples from Pelléas et Mélisande, Messiaen’s interpretations

of the music, scene, and drama are organized by the stone in the water as a root metaphor,

which extends the reach of its signification beyond rhythm itself. Like other recurrent

metaphors,122 the stone in the water creates a pattern that reproduces and reinvents itself

in various forms and domains, never exhausting itself in a single context. Through the

network that it engenders, the stone in the water becomes a nearly symbolic entity—

rather than a mere rhetorical invention—in Messiaen’s analytical discourse. Though it

does not draw on conventional associations with the rhythmic phenomenon, the hierarchy

that Messiaen constructs around the central water image approximates a symbolic order,

defining a hermeneutic landscape for token contrasts that recur throughout Debussy’s

oeuvre.
122
For more on recurring types and patterns of metaphors, see Jorge Luis Borges, This
Craft of Verse (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000), 23.
 122

IV. Conclusions

Jean Boivin once described the agility that Messiaen displayed in his lectures on

Pelléas et Mélisande: “Messiaen swims in this imposing score like a fish in the water”

(Boivin 1995, 278). I have attempted to isolate, define, and classify each of the ways that

Messiaen enters the water that he claims is so prevalent in Debussy’s scores. A close

reading of Messiaen’s text has revealed four distinct but intertwined perspectives on

water, each of which makes unique types of meaning possible. The a priori mode of

interpretation casts a wide net that defines Debussy’s fluid rhythms as water in general,

while the programmatic approach uses the title or scenario to highlight particular

instances of water signification within the ubiquitous stream. The programmatic method

gives way to a topical mode of interpretation as Messiaen’s analyses draw on

conventional types of water signs from within and outside of Debussy’s oeuvre. Lastly,

the metaphoric mode links recurrent rhythmic contrasts with an image of disturbed water

and its network of associations. Messiaen’s manifold perspectives on water imagery

render Debussy’s water not a one-dimensional phenomenon but rather a multitude of

tangled significations that combine to form the rhythm of water.

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Chapter 4:

The Meaning(s) of Rhythmic Contrast

The previous chapter explored the diverse modes of interpretation that underlay

Messiaen’s statements about water imagery in Debussy but stopped short of connecting

these hermeneutic methods to Messiaen’s music. In analyses throughout the Traité,

Messiaen uses interpretive strategies similar to those found in Tome VI to highlight the

presence of water in his own oeuvre.123 He establishes the etymological connections

between water and rhythmic variation near the beginning of Tome I, implying that the a

priori view of durational flow applies to his own work as well (1994, 39). Likewise, he

makes programmatic and topical associations throughout the Traité when he refers to

“drops of water” (e.g., 1995, 282; 1997, 89), “waterfalls” (e.g., 1995, 309; 2000b, 389),

“reflections in the water” (e.g., 2000b, 594), “water sound effects” (e.g., 1995, 337), and

“fountains” (e.g., 1997, 100).

Though a priori, programmatic, and topical modes of interpretation manifest

themselves in Messiaen’s self-reflective notes on water imagery, he invokes the stone in

the water metaphor only once outside of Tome VI in the analysis of Turangalîla-

symphonie from Tome II. Despite the connection between descriptions, he employs the

image for his own music in a way slightly different from the analyses of Debussy.

Referring to Rehearsal 18 of “Chant d’amour 2” from Turangalîla-symphonie, he

describes a descending progression in the piano as precious blue stones falling into

dormant and cold water, signified by the succeeding held notes in the trombones (1995,

123
For more on Messiaen’s use of water imagery, see Harry Halbreich, Olivier Messiaen
(Paris: Fayard/SACEM,1980), 403; John Milsom, “Organ Music I,” in Messiaen Companion, ed.
Peter Hill (London: Faber & Faber, 1994), 38; and Peter Hill, “Piano Music II,” in Messiaen
Companion, ed. Peter Hill (London: Faber & Faber, 1994), 341, 346.
 124

234). Though the piano transforms the sixteenth-note descent into a thirty-second-note

arpeggio at the proposed moment of impact, the highlighted contrast is not successive as

in the analyses of Tome VI but rather vertical: the piano’s activity appears

simultaneously with the held brass and strings. He conceives of the excerpt as a type of

disturbance; however, the rhythmic contrast takes place not as a sequence of events but as

a multi-layered texture. The description is further distinct from the Debussy analyses in

its emphasis on harmonic color: Messiaen construes the stones as gems that glisten.

Whereas the stone in the water is signified by its effect in Tome VI, Messiaen’s stones

(plural) are physically present within a falling contour of coloristic resonance. Concepts

of disruption and contrast are at work in Messiaen’s self-reflective analysis, but they are

entangled with other hermeneutic priorities. This isolated reference does little to present

a coherent rhythmic technique resembling the analytical conception of Debussy.

Despite the lack of direct reference to the stone in the water in Messiaen’s self-

reflective writings, the underlying expressive logic of the metaphor forms the foundation

of various semiotic strategies in his work. In Tome VI, he uses the image to construe

long duration as a still liquid surface featuring a static peace, and the succeeding rapid

values represent a threat to that stillness. The swift interjection troubles the surface and

displaces its stasis with chaotic action. Messiaen’s chain of metaphors bolsters the notion

of sudden activity as shock at the heart of the water image. As Patrick McCreless has

observed, gestures found in distinct contexts with unique associations can evince a

similar rhetoric (2006, 14), and though Messiaen makes a firm connection between

rhythmic contrast and disturbed water in his Debussy analyses, the correlation between

durational opposition and shocking activity features prominently in Messiaen’s oeuvre

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apart from the water image itself. Even without the analytical metaphor, striking

rhythmic contrasts in Messiaen’s work often fulfill semiotic goals that correspond to his

interpretation of the stone in the water. Messiaen wrote extensively about the structure

and meaning of rhythmic techniques that he employed in his own work, and because

these sources offer unique insight into his compositional methods, scholars have taken

the self-reflective commentaries as primary points of departure for studies of his

music.124 While Messiaen’s self-reflective commentary may provide a useful reference

for the ways that he organized duration, his writings about Debussy can shed light on a

rhythmic strategy that he employed but did not name explicitly among his techniques.

Even if Messiaen does not list the stone in the water as a personal rhythmic strategy in

writings about his own music, he employs rapid rhythms to create sudden activity within

still contexts and to conjure shock amid calm, thereby suggesting a common logic

between his Debussy analyses and his own compositional approaches.

124
Idiomatic concepts of added values, non-retrogradable rhythm, and personnages
rythmiques—all of which Messiaen explores to varying degrees in his two major treatises,
program notes, and interviews—have become essential topics in literature on his work.
Messiaen’s self-reflective interpretations provide anchor points for further explorations. For
studies of the theological implications of self-imposed restriction in non-retrogradable rhythms,
see Roberto Fabbi, “Theological Implications of Restrictions in Messiaen’s Compositional
Process,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor &
Francis, 1998), 55-84; and Jean Marie Wu, “Mystical Symbols of Faith: Olivier Messiaen’s
Charm of Impossibilities,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New
York: Taylor & Francis, 1998), 85-120. Rob Schultz transfers the concept of non-
retrogradeability to contour relationships in Messiaen’s birdsongs in “Melodic Contour and
Nonretrogradable Structure in the Birdsong of Olivier Messiaen,” Music Theory Spectrum 30
(2008): 89-137. Robert Sherlaw-Johnson extends the ancient Indian durational formulae that
inspired each of Messiaen’s invented techniques to larger formal levels of symmetry and
proportion in “Rhythmic Technique and Symbolism in the Music of Olivier Messiaen,” in
Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1998),
132-134. Gareth Healey clarifies Messiaen’s words about personnages rythmiques within the
context of his analytical practice, compositional career, and twentieth-century music in “Messiaen
and the Concept of ‘Personnages,’” Tempo 58 (2004): 10-19; while Julian Hook proposes an
algebraic methodology for analyzing the technique’s various manifestations throughout
Turangalîla-symphonie in “Rhythm in the Music of Messiaen: An Algebraic Study and an
Application in the Turangalîla Symphony,” Music Theory Spectrum 20 (1998): 97-120.
 126

This chapter will demonstrate how Messiaen uses the rhythmic strategy associated

with Debussy in two domains fundamental to his musical language: the interjection of

rapid and erratic birdsong within serene environments, and the striking appearance of

divine power amid mundane experience. In both cases, he employs an opposition

between long and short rhythmic values to set the object of signification in relief as a

shockingly active and powerful presence. Though a primary goal of the chapter will be

to recognize conceptual and stylistic similarities as traces of a bond between analytical

interpretation and composition, I also aim to demonstrate how Messiaen adapts these

expressive patterns to the unique contexts of his own works.125 In several instances,

Messiaen uses local manifestations of the stone in the water concept to support larger

formal schemes, exploiting associations with rhythmic contrast to serve wider strategies

beyond the opposition itself. After establishing the stylistic and expressive connections

between rhythmic contrasts in analysis and composition, the chapter will conclude by

exploring the deeper manifestation of the stone in the water concept in Messiaen’s

theology and aesthetics.

I. Birds in Their Environment

a. Similarities and Correlations

Just as Messiaen highlighted striking oppositions between long and short

rhythmic values in Debussy, he often employs elongated durations as foils for his swift

125
In his survey of hermeneutic issues, Lawrence Kramer proposes that we not focus on
the fact of resemblance between works but on “the act of adapting an expressive pattern to suit a
new context.” He goes on to say that “the hermeneutics of resemblance begins when we think of
resemblance not as something we discover in a work but as something one work does with
another—perhaps even unwittingly—in response to its own enterprises and urgencies” (2011,
168).
 127

and disjunct birdsongs, rendering them salient by contrast with surrounding material.126

He often frames the rapid rhythms and angular contours of birdsongs with sustained

chords in homophonic textures (Hill and Simeone 2007, 22).127 Such stark rhythmic and

textural opposition is prevalent throughout Catalogue d’oiseaux, whose second

movement, “Le Loriot,” exemplifies this approach (Example 4-1).128 The piece begins

softly and slowly with sustained articulations of parallel dominant-seventh chords.

Without transition, a string of rapid thirty-second notes appears in a faster tempo, at a

higher dynamic level, and across a much wider range. This gesture—which imitates the

song of the oriole—contrasts sharply with the preceding material, setting the rhythm of

the birdsong apart from the rest of the texture.129 In this example and others from the

Catalogue, Messiaen employs a rhythmic strategy similar to the one he identifies in

126
Heterogeneity is a hallmark feature of Messiaen’s music. His works often employ a
collage principle or mosaic form, and Stefan Keym notes that the contrasts between his formal
sections are particularly potent due to a lack of transitions (2007, 189-191). Boulez once said,
“He does not compose, he juxtaposes” (Boulez 1966, 68), and Stockhausen compared Messiaen’s
forms to “a tapeworm that can be cut into several pieces without damaging the whole” (Keym
2007, 190). Darbyshire uses the concept of a dumb-show to classify Messiaen’s narrative
techniques in “Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux: A Musical Dumbshow?” in Messiaen Studies,
ed. Robert Sholl (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 119-144. For a study of
Messiaen’s interpretation and use of various forms, see Gareth Healey, “Form: Messiaen’s
‘Downfall’?” Twentieth-Century Music 4 (2007): 163-187. See also Roberto Fabbi, “Theological
Implications of Restrictions in Messiaen’s Compositional Process,” in Messiaen’s Language of
Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1998), 69.
127
A study that describes the dichotomy of scene and protagonist most thoroughly is
Peter Hill’s summary of Catalogue d’oiseaux in “Piano Music II,” in Messiaen Companion, ed.
Peter Hill (London: Faber & Faber, 1994), 307-351. Christopher Dingle has noted that in works
like Catalogue d’oiseaux, Messiaen treats the birds and their surroundings “anthropomorphically,
often imbuing them with characteristics and motifs, so that the music conveys not only what they
look and sound like, but the feelings that they induce in the observer” (2007, 149).
128
Theo Hirsbrunner provides a summary of Messiaen’s commentaries for and geography
of the thirteen movements of Catalogue d’oiseaux in “Magic and Enchantment in Olivier
Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed. Siglind Bruhn
(New York: Taylor & Francis, 1998), 195-212.
129
Peter Hill describes the song as “boldly etched” by contrast with the “chorale of
harmonies which, as they develop, represent the sun rising to its zenith at midday” (1994, 331).
 128

Debussy: his birds articulate their abruptly swift songs within the context of sustained

durations.

Example 4-1. “Le Loriot” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3

Messiaen’s interpretation of the stone in the water and his birdsong settings rely

on a similar expressive logic. Recall that Messiaen uses the metaphor for Debussy’s

rapid rhythms to capture their suddenly active and disruptive qualities by contrast with

the preceding calm of longer durations. The same trajectory from stillness to action is

fundamental to Messiaen’s birdsong contexts as well. Throughout Catalogue d’oiseaux,

which depicts birds within their natural environments, Messiaen labels the homophonic

progressions that often frame the birdsongs as parts of the scenery, depicting not only

birds but also what is seen around them (Hill 1994, 327). In most cases, these

environmental ascriptions refer to still and silent objects in the landscape, and their

consistently slow progressions support the sense of inactivity. According to the score,

the eighth-note chords that open “Le Traquet stapazin” in a slow tempo depict vineyards

(Example 4-2), and a similarly plodding progression represents the colors of the sky

above the mountains after sunset later in the piece (Example 4-3). Analogous eighth-note

progressions signify the night in the opening of “L’Alouette lulu” (Example 4-4), the

warmth of the desert in “L’Alouette calandrelle” (Example 4-5), a river in “La

 129

Bouscarle” (Example 4-6), and the rising sun in “La Rousserolle effarvatte” (Example 4-

7). While each progression employs distinct harmonic colors and contours linked to

specific environments for particular birds, they all feature similarly unmarked

homophony that establishes the inertness of the setting in which the rapid and active

birdsong becomes salient. Messiaen’s birdsong settings resemble the Debussy examples

not only in style but also in signification, as he draws a distinction between the sudden

flurry of birdsong and the preceding stillness of its environment. Table 4-1 summarizes

the expressive logic of the birdsong contrasts, which correlates with the trajectory from

stillness to action at the heart of the stone in the water paradigm: the elongated values of

the framing progressions are appropriate to the inactivity of the bird’s surroundings,

supplying a still texture or atmosphere into which the birdsong injects activity, life, and

motion much like a stone that enlivens the placid surface of a pond.
 130

Example 4-2. “Le Traquet stapazin” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-5
 131

Example 4-3. “Le Traquet stapazin” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 258-261

Example 4-4. “L’Alouette lulu” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3

 132

Example 4-5. “L’Alouette calandrelle” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 1-3

Example 4-6. “La Bouscarle” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 46-48

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Example 4-7. “La Rousserolle effarvatte” from Catalogue d’oiseaux, mm. 142-145

Long Durations (Homophony) → Short Durations (Angular Gestures)

Environment → Birds

Stasis → Action

Calm → Shock

Table 4-1. The expressive logic of birdsong contrasts

The correlations between rhythmic associations in Tome VI and the birdsong

works become salient in a comparison of nearly identical rhythmic constructions in

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Messiaen’s analysis of La Mer and his own “Les Étoiles et la gloire” from Éclairs sur

l’au-delà. Both works employ rhythmic contrast as a means of renewed vitality. Recall

that in the analysis of La Mer, Messiaen used language associated with the stone in the

water to describe the sudden appearance of reversed dotted figures amid a composed

decrescendo of diminishing orchestral forces (Example 4-8): “Everything is going to get

quiet, to clear itself, […] as if the music could rediscover the night at the beginning of the

piece. Out of this silence bursts the 3rd theme […] life and motion seem reborn from the

liquid mass” (2001, 187). Messiaen uses birdsong to establish a similar emergence of

activity in “Les Étoiles et la gloire” (Example 4-9). Setting up a strategic moment of

inactivity, trilled chords of contracted resonance vibrate softly in the solo violas and

cellos, undergirded by the shimmer of a pianissimo cymbal roll. Like the decrescendo of

La Mer, the soft hum of these harmonies dissipates into silence. The short-long pattern

of the Oiseau lyre d’Albert’s song resembles the example from La Mer in both rhythm

and textural opposition as it emerges out of the still texture. Just as Debussy’s sea roars

out of a texture tending toward stillness, so does Messiaen’s birdsong revitalize a context

of inactivity.
 135

Example 4-8. "De L'Aube à midi sur la mer" from La Mer, four measures before Rehearsal 9
 136

Example 4-9. “Les Étoiles et la gloire” from Éclairs sur au-delà, three measures after Rehearsal 4
 137

Example 4-9 (Continued). “Les Étoiles et la gloire” from Éclairs sur au-delà, three measures after
Rehearsal 4

Though Messiaen’s birdsong contrasts share with the stone in the water concept

an expressive logic of activity within still environments, we can push the correlation with

the metaphor further by noting that the birdsongs also shatter the preceding calm, as
 138

Table 4-2 suggests.130 When Messiaen describes the interpolation of rhythmic activity

within Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau,” which features a similar framing stillness, he uses

the label of the stone in the water to suggest that the rapid values act not only as catalysts

of motion but of violent disruption. In similar fashion, the birdsong agitates the

tranquility of its environment, destabilizing the frame. Like the interpretation of

Debussy, the relationship between contrasting elements is not only figure and ground, but

also shock amid calm.

The strategy of shattered calm is especially effective when Messiaen frames

birdsongs with long durations of literal silence. Robert Sherlaw-Johnson describes such

silences as sources of tension as they augment the startling effect of the birdsong

interjection by surrounding it with literal emptiness rather than homophonic

representations of stillness (1998, 135). Sherlaw-Johnson’s reference to tense silence

recalls Messiaen’s analysis of Debussy’s water in Pelléas et Mélisande, where he says

“there is no worse water than the water that sleeps” (2001, 84), as if stillness were a

portent of the startling interjection to come. He creates such a contrast between eerie

silence and birdsong disturbance in his own “La Manne et le pain de vie” from Livre du

Saint Sacrement, for which he indicates a desert setting whose slow chords and prolonged

rests imitate the vacant stillness (Gillock 2010, 270).131 A chordal texture gives way to a

fermata silence in m. 7, which prepares the sudden assertion of the morning chat’s brief

130
Jeremy Thurlow makes this point when he says that “sometimes […] there is
opposition between bird and background, if not downright antagonism.” He offers the example
of Le Traquet stapazin to illustrate how “the wheatear immediately shatters the peace and
harmony of the terrassed vineyards” (2007, 128).
131
Messiaen’s conception of the scenery was likely influenced by his trip to Israel and
Palestine in 1983 (Dingle 2007, 223).
 139

but rapid song (Example 4-10). Though it disappears again into nothingness, its

punctuation of the hollow calm with rapid articulations destabilizes the setting, thereby

revealing the tenuousness of the desert quiet.132 The song renders the subsequent silence

empty and vulnerable by contrast, leaving a void in its absence.133 Messiaen augments

the effect of preparatory silence further in Section VII of Méditations sur le mystère de la

Sainte Trinité, where progressive augmentation imbues the silence with the sense of

completion (Example 4-11). The hushed, slow opening of the movement functions like

an ending: the chord-lengths increase generally through values of 6, 7, 5, 8, 9, 11, and 13

sixteenth notes, moving progressively toward a stillness that follows ultimately in the

form of a fermata silence. By constructing a progression of ever-increasing inactivity,

Messiaen renders the birdsong entrance in m. 3 all the more destabilizing.134 Not only

does it contrast rhythmically and dynamically with the preceding material, but it also

emerges out of an ever-increasing stasis, which makes the familiar trajectory from

stillness to action all the more jolting. In Tome VI, Messiaen describes the progressive

augmentation that concludes Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” as the widening of the waves

toward a still liquid surface (2001, 21); but in his own work, he uses augmentation as a

strategic progress toward inactivity that makes the birdsong entrance more striking—a

quality bolstered by the pregnant silences between statements of the birdsong. In both

132
Gillock describes the emptiness of the setting by saying that the “wisp of the song is a
further reminder that we are alone in this desert except for other elements of nature” (2010, 271).
133
Silence provides a framing device in several works not limited to birdsong including
“Les Ressuscités et la lumière de vie” and “Les Deux Murailles d’eau” from Livre du Saint
Sacrement.
134
In the preface to this movement, Messiaen recounts how he notated the song in Iran as
the sun was setting, and failing to discover the identity of the bird, he named this bird “oiseau de
Persépolis.”
 140

works, the free and active rhythm of birdsong creates a shockingly energetic presence

within the still and literally silent landscape.

Example 4-10. “La Manne et le pain de vie” from Livre du Saint Sacrement, mm. 6-9

Example 4-11. Section VII of Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, mm. 1-9
 141

b. Contrast as a Formal Tool

Thus far we have focused on how Messiaen uses the expressive logic of the stone

in the water on a local level of form—that is, the isolated moments of contrast between

the agility of birdsong and the stillness of its surroundings. In several works, he employs

a string of such contrasts to render the bird a dynamic and freely expressive presence

amid an unchanging landscape. He conjoins phrase-level contrasts within a

developmental scheme of environmental equilibrium and birdsong agency. Whereas the

examples of disruption highlighted in Debussy’s music feature mostly temporary

disruptions, memories of past action, or flickers of material to come, Messiaen constructs

strands of birdsong contrasts in which the framing progressions are mostly invariant

while the bird weaves a continuous set of variations on its tune. This unfolding dialectic

between stasis and perpetual change supports his broader semiotic goal of depicting birds

that “escape from confinement” and sing in their own temporality (Hill and Simeone

2007, 22; Hill 1994, 277).135 To Messiaen, birds are improvisers, and through the

135
In several works, Messiaen employs a more furtive strategy of disruption in which the
bird contributes to the preceding stillness before breaking it. In m. 7 of the Coda to
Chronochromie, the tempo slows, and the fff sixteenth notes of the preceding measure give way
to an ever-softening half note that vanishes into silence. When the Bouscarle du Japon enters in
m. 8, it does not punctuate the calm left by the preceding measure with rapid bursts of energy, but
rather emerges from the silence with prolonged tones in steady crescendo. As the volume
increases, the horns and trumpets layer the texture with sixteenth-note triplets, but the true shock
occurs in m. 10 where an angular thirty-second-note septuplet springs out of the woodwind and
percussion sections. Messiaen draws a distinction within the birdsong between prolonged
harmonic and rhythmic stasis and the disjunct flourish, a bifurcation that he makes more salient
through orchestrational disparity between the phrases. Because the bird asserts its rhythmic
contrast at the conclusion of its call, we can interpret the entrance as an initial contribution to the
surrounding calm, melding with it via elongated tones before it transforms into a disruptive
presence. This strategy is apparent in other works as well. At the conclusion of the call of the
unnamed bird that introduces “Communion (Les Oiseaux et les sources)” from Messe de la
Pentecôte, the lengthiest values explode into a sixty-fourth note septuplet before disappearing
into silence. The song of the Uguisu that begins “Les Oiseaux de Karauizawa” from Sept Haïkaï
features a held chord pianissimo that crescendos into a concluding set of fortissimo thirty-second
notes before reaching silence again. The framing technique of figure and ground between
 142

accretion of contrasts between birdsong and setting, local strategies of durational

opposition serve the depictions of creative freedom.

In several works, Messiaen constructs the framing progressions as unchanging

refrains that feature the same harmonies occupying a set amount of time. This technique

yields the effect of a perpetual call and answer between dynamic improvisation and stable

ritornello. For example, in “L’Alouette calandrelle” (see Example 4-5 above), the

framing progression of parallel harmonies—G-sharp major with added fourth and F-sharp

major—recurs unchanged throughout the opening of the piece, signifying the warmth and

isolation of the desert climate. The bird interjects its song between appearances of the

progression, but unlike the chordal progression that precedes it, the bird’s melody varies

from one occurrence to the next as if in a continual state of thematic invention. Not only

do the stark rhythmic changes set the bird apart from its surroundings as an active

presence, but taken together, they also form the foundation of a broader emergence of the

bird’s expressive freedom. Continuous variations in contour, pitch content, phrase

length, and gesture conflict with an unchanging backdrop,136 foregrounding the bird’s

process of becoming as a flurry of improvised activity within a still environment.

In other works, Messiaen uses a more nuanced version of accumulated contrast

that grants the bird freedom to enter the music at irregular points in time. Because pieces

birdsong and habitat is largely absent in Oiseaux exotiques because almost the entire texture is
comprised of birdsongs, but the contrast between rhythmic stasis and disruption is embedded
within several of the birdcalls, including the song of the Prairie Chicken (Rehearsal 8), which
features two rhythmically and timbrally diverse sections. For a study of the accuracy of
Messiaen’s transcriptions, see Robert Fallon, “The Record of Realism in Messiaen’s Bird Style,”
in Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, eds. Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone
(Burlington: Ashgate, 2007), 115-136.
136
Peter Hill notes that “each phrase [of the song] departs from its predecessor, creating a
tiny musical form, on the lines of ‘statement-development-coda’” (1994, 329).
 143

like “L’Alouette calandrelle” and “Le Loriot” feature framing progressions of exact

length, they imply that the bird performs its song at regular time intervals. The

preparatory homophony acts as a type of cue for its entrance like an actor being signaled

to the stage. However, adding nuance to his view of birds as free improvisers, Messiaen

adopts a formal strategy in other works that grants the birds autonomy from the length of

their introductory material. Rather than situating the continuously varied birdsongs in

relation to a progression of set duration, he surrounds the melody with homophonic

progressions of varying lengths whose content is mostly invariant. Table 4-2 summarizes

the three progressions labeled très lent found in “I. Le Rouge Gorge” from Petites

Esquisses d’oiseaux.137 As in the other birdsong settings, Messiaen uses the strategy of

rhythmic contrast between very slow chords and rapid birdsong in this work to render the

robin a startlingly active presence within a still environment, and its song is in a perpetual

state of variation. In this case, each framing progression contains an indeterminate

number of chords. The varying progression lengths suggest that the bird enters at

different time intervals, i.e., whenever it pleases, expanding the notion of the birds as

freely expressive. Despite changes in the number of chords, the content of the

progression is mostly the same from iteration to iteration as each one features a set order

of harmonies composed of chords of transposed inversions, Mode 3 harmonies, and

chords of the total chromatic. This invariance suggests that the environment is

unchanging, but that the listener can observe more or less of it depending on the duration

of the bird’s absence.

137
Messiaen composed Petites Esquisses d’oiseaux for Yvonne Loriod in 1985, featuring
her favorite bird, the robin, prominently (Dingle 2007, 225). In this work, Messiaen employs the
framing technique regularly, but does not indicate environmental images in the score.
 144

m. 1 m. 7 mm. 34-5

CTI(1B) CTI(1B) CTI(1B)

Mode 3(3) Mode 3(3) Mode 3(3)

CTI(11B) CTI(11B)

Mode 3(3) Mode 3(3)

CTC(2) CTC(1)

Table 4-2. Summary of très lent progressions in “I. Le Rouge Gorge” from Petites Esquisses d’oiseaux

***

The examples above reveal that Messiaen adopts a conception of rhythmic

contrast for his birdsong works that parallels his interpretation of Debussy, and that the

localized technique contributes to broader formal and semiotic strategies. In both

analysis and composition, he correlates the opposition between very long and very short

durations with that of a calm setting and dynamic interjection. Messiaen builds on the

same conceptual foundation as the stone in the water to set the bird apart from its

environment, posing rhythmic vitality against the surrounding calm of slow homophony

and held notes. Furthermore, he draws on these associations with rhythmic contrast to

fashion a continuously unfolding dialectic between the bird as a free improviser and its

unchanging surroundings. Sudden durational contrasts that resemble the stone in the

water are essential components of his birdsong strategy on both local and broader formal

levels.
 145

II. Divine Power

Messiaen’s stark rhythmic contrasts are not limited to the birdsong works but also

appear in pieces that explore the theme of divine power entering human time. Abrupt

rhythmic oppositions that resemble the stone in the water contrasts occur throughout

Messiaen’s work in programmatic contexts that refer to the power of God on earth. The

contexts imbue rhythmic contrast with a logic of difference as disruption similar to the

stone in the water concept.

a. Similarities and Correlations

One such contrast occurs repeatedly throughout “Regard de l’étoile” from Vingt

Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. The loud and swift flourish that opens the movement

conflicts saliently with the stately pulse that concludes the previous movement at a ppp

dynamic level (Example 4-12). The rapid tones emerge abruptly out of a hushed and

deliberate context. When the gesture—which Reverdy likens to a “flashing rocket”

(1978, 36)—returns in m. 17, Messiaen uses a whole-note pause in rhythmic momentum

to set the flourish into relief yet again. As in the examples of the stone in the water,

Messiaen prepares the appearance of rapid values with the foil of long durations.

Example 4-12. “Regard de l’étoile” from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, mm. 1-4
 146

As in the birdsong works, Messiaen’s commentary within the score of “Regard de

l’étoile” indicates a correlation between the stone in the water concept and the meaning

of his own rhythmic contrast. The movement meditates on the Star of Bethlehem as a

symbol of divine power breaking into human existence. Messiaen’s subtitle for the work

reads: “Shock of grace…the star glistens naively, surmounted by a cross…” In this

account, a jolting influx of grace marks the appearance of the star, which is itself a

portent of Christ’s eventual death. The star emerges in the heavens as a cosmic

disruption, a shock. Though he does not name the shock explicitly in the score, we can

infer from other labels that the rapid flourish plays this role within the opening phrases.138

Messiaen refers to a string of accented chords in the phrase that follows the gesture as

bell chimes, and the consequent monophony as the theme of the star and the cross. By

referring to a star-cross theme, he makes a direct connection between the score and the

program suggested by the movement’s subtitle. Not only does this annotation link the

theme with the naively shining star, but it also implies that the “shock of grace” precedes

it. Both the rapid flourish and the bell chimes are disruptive and startling: one creates a

jolting rhythmic contrast, the other fashions a striking dynamic opposition. In tandem

with the chimes, the stark rhythmic contrast forms a key component of Messiaen’s

narrative strategy.

Adopting an interpretation of long and short rhythmic values familiar from his

analyses of Debussy, Messiaen employs rhythmic contrast as a type of shock in which

markedly rapid durations displace the previous calm with powerful, almost violent,

138
Siglind Bruhn offers an alternative reading of the shock from the subtitle as the
combination of linear processes (e.g., increasing chord density and progressively slowing
durations) and contrasting elements of rhythm, contour, dynamics, and pitch content. She
suggests that these combined factors contribute to the human incomprehensibility of the event,
and thus the shock of God become man (2007, 154).
 147

action. Table 4-3 summarizes the expressive logic of Messiaen’s semiotic approach to

divine breakthrough in the Nativity, which rests on the same conceptual foundation as the

stone in the water metaphor and birdsong signification. Long durations establish a calm

setting, and the shocking breakthrough of divine power animates the previously static

context with markedly short durations.

Long Durations → Short Durations

Mundane Experience → Divine Power

Stasis → Action

Calm → Shock

Table 4-3. The expressive logic of divine power contrasts

Messiaen does not limit this rhythmic strategy to depictions of the Nativity, but

draws a similar correlation between contrast and divine shock in “Resurrection,” a song

that describes Christ’s emergence from death to life at the end of Chants de terre et de

ciel. At the climax of the song, the text features fragmentary outbursts of words that

monumentalize the supernatural event: “Fragrance, gate, pearl, unleavened bread of

Truth.”139 Just before each word, Messiaen notates lengthy chords that set high-ranging

arabesques into stark relief (Example 4-13). The fortissimo harmonies are forceful in

themselves, and they provide durational foils for the blur of rhythmic energy that follows.

Messiaen once compared the resurrection to an atomic explosion (Fallon 2009, 180), and

using similar language, he describes the sudden outbursts from “Resurrection” in

Technique de mon langage musical as “blow[s] of instantaneous light” (1966, 59),

139
Translation in Siglind Bruhn, Messiaen’s Explorations of Love and Death: Musico-
Poetic Signification in the ‘Tristan Trilogy’ and Three Related Song Cycles (Hillsdale: Pendragon
Press, 2008), 98.
 148

suggesting that rhythmic contrast contributes to a strategy of shock once again.140 In this

context, the rhythmic jolt serves the larger theme of Christ’s resurrection. Just as

Messiaen describes rhythmic contrast in Debussy as “life and motion reborn from the

liquid mass,” so does he use similar techniques to signify the divine power of Christ’s

awakening.

Example 4-13. “Resurrection” from Chants de terre et de ciel, m. 20

Messiaen does not differentiate between the natural and the supernatural in his

theology, and he often uses the rhythmic contrast of birdsong to signal the presence of

divine power. He views birds as a mediating presence between heaven and earth (Bruhn

2007, 175), i.e., a reflection of God’s presence among humanity. In his music, birdsong

140
Messiaen refers to this flourish as being in a “bird style,” but as Griffiths notes, “it can
equally be understood as a shimmer of upper harmonics” (1985, 85). A similar coordination of
rhythmic contrast with resonance appears in the opening of La Ville d’en-haut, in which the slow
orchestral progression concludes with a bitonal sonority typical of Messiaen’s chord of the total
chromatic (a B major triad with added-sixth and B-flat minor with added ninth). The orchestra
holds this chord as the percussion enters with the final four pitches of the aggregate in rapid
oscillations. Messiaen coordinates the moment of pitch-class saturation with motion amid
stillness.
 149

often plays a dual symbolic role, acting as both a sign of nature and of heavenly presence.

Several works use the rhythmic interjection of birdsong as a marker of divinity, troping

two techniques of rhythmic contrast into a single event. This combined semiotic strategy

is apparent in the opening movement of Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine in

which a female chorus sings a prayer to the “God present within us.” The vocalists

articulate a desire for divine presence among and within humanity, and Messiaen sets this

prayer in slow, chordal homophony with the strings undergirding the voices (Example 4-

14). To create the opposition between heaven and earth familiar from other works

depicting divine breakthrough, he constructs a dialectical phrase structure in which rapid

birdsongs elide the final note of each vocal phrase. The antecedent homophony sets the

consequent birdsong in relief, actualizing the spiritual presence requested by the text:

antiphony renders the birdsong an answer to the human prayer, combining the rhythmic

signification of breakthrough with a parallel construction of birds within an environment.

By drawing a correlation between the immanence of God and birdsong via hallmark

rhythmic contrasts, Messiaen makes the equivalence of the two expressive logics

apparent.
 150

Example 4-14. “Antienne de la conversation intérieure” from Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine,
mm. 1-3

b. Contrast as a Formal Tool

Just as Messiaen uses the expressive logic of momentary contrasts for larger

purposes of development and improvisation in the birdsong works, so does he employ

such contrasts at strategic moments in the form of works devoted to divine power, again

employing the strategy familiar from his interpretation of Debussy to serve larger

expressive schemes. The first way of drawing isolated contrasts into a broader design

appears in the example from “Resurrection,” where rhythmic opposition augments the
 151

effect of a climactic moment. Messiaen uses the shocking contrast to serve the larger

message of the song, heightening its celebratory conclusion via intensification of its

rhythmic activity and imagery. The breakthrough moment is not isolated from the larger

context, but instead appears as the strategic conclusion of a lengthy meditation.

The second and more common formal function of such rhythmic contrast is to

initiate a new spiritual plane. Not just a technique of climactic ending, the contrasts

provide transformative beginnings. Whereas in the Debussy examples and birdsong

works the rapid durations tend to return to the longer durations, at least momentarily,

Messiaen often places striking contrast at the beginning of works on divine power as a

catalytic introduction to a meditation. “Regard de l’étoile” provides one example in

which durational contrast marks the opening of the movement by way of introduction to

the star-cross theme, which is the main event. Messiaen restarts the meditation in the

middle of the piece via the same contrast. A similar strategy appears over longer

stretches of time in “Première Communion de la Vierge” from Vingt Regards, which

meditates on the intimate connection between Mary and the Messiah within her womb.141

Throughout the opening ten measures, high-ranging arabesques142 fragment the

141
Messiaen’s musical meditations on Christ’s incarnation in Vingt Regards were
influenced heavily by Dom Columba Marmion (Le Christ dans ses mystères) and Maurice Toesca
(Les Douze Regards). The original plan for Vingt Regards was a collaboration between Toesca,
who would provide a text, and Messiaen, who would compose music, for a Christmas radio
concert in 1944. Eventually, they abandoned the partnership, and Messiaen published his piano
work separately from Toesca’s prose. Where there are differences in emphasis between Toesca
and Marmion’s published texts, Messiaen appears to have favored Marmion’s more mystical
bent. For a complete history of the work, see Edward Forman, “‘L’Harmonie de l’Univers’:
Maurice Toesca and the Genesis of Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus,” in Olivier Messiaen:
Music, Art and Literature, eds. Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone (Burlington: Ashgate,
2007).
142
Messiaen describes the rapid sixty-fourth-note gestures as “soft twirls, in stalactites”
in the preface to the score and as a pattern of stalactites from the “oraclienne grottes” in the
analysis of Tome II (1995, 471). Bruhn notes that the arabesque is based on Messiaen’s Mode
 152

mysterious calm of the Theme of God, a homophonic progression of legato chords that

serves as a leitmotiv throughout the work (Example 4-15). The left and right hands

create a dichotomy of still reverence and shimmering activity (Reverdy 1978, 46)

familiar from other works on divine power and the stone in the water in general. The

rhythmic energy dissipates in m. 11 as the texture becomes less and less polarized with

the last vestige of striking contrast appearing softly in m. 17. A fermata rest marks the

end of this opening section, which gives way to more specific ruminations on the

Annunciation in the form of a quotation from Messiaen’s organ work “La Vierge et

l’enfant” from La Nativité du Seigneur, a Magnificat, and a section composed of iconic

heartbeats in pedal point. These score labels suggest that the opening rhythmic

polarization establishes a context for the subsequent narrative of Mary’s reflection. Read

intertextually through the works highlighted above, the rhythmic oppositions supply

jolting interpolations of supernatural power that introduce the following sequence of

theological images. This creates a context of divine breakthrough for the meditation as a

whole. As a source of both climax and jolting introduction, the expressive logic of

rhythmic contrast is bound up with larger formal strategies.

4(2), a pitch collection that she argues is associated with “the Child of Bethlehem” and “the Word
Incarnate” throughout his oeuvre (2007, 181; 1997, 252).
 153

Example 4-15. “Première Communion de la Vierge” from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, mm. 1-2

***

Messiaen draws on a closely related dialectic of stasis and disruption to depict

divine power on earth. Just as he uses rhythmic contrast to render his birds saliently

active within their still surroundings, he adopts an expressive logic of opposing durations

to mark the shock of heavenly activity on earth at strategic moments within the form of

his music. At times, the birdsong technique becomes a component of this strategy as

Messiaen coordinates his expressive associations with rhythmic contrast from distinct

semiotic domains.

III. A Broader Context

In our discussion of the stone in the water in Chapter Three, we observed how

Messiaen maps his interpretation of rhythmic contrast onto analogous disruptions from

other domains, namely the setting and plot of Pelléas et Mélisande. We saw how he uses

the image of disturbed water to coordinate patterns found in the music with conflicts in

the drama, expanding the reach of the metaphor’s signification beyond rhythm itself.
 154

Likewise, in Messiaen’s own music the expressive logic of the stone in the water is not

limited to rhythmic depictions of birds and divine power, but also permeates his approach

to musical experience in general. Though the interpretive strategy of the metaphor from

Tome VI manifests itself in the sudden activity of Messiaen’s rhythms, an analogous

trajectory from stasis to shock is fundamental to more abstract conceptions of aesthetics

and theology as well.

On several occasions, Messiaen referred to shock as a desirable effect of listening

to his music, which he frames in a way familiar from the stone in the water metaphor.

When asked how a listener might comprehend the elaborate construction of his rhythms,

he maintained that ignorance of musical structure—recalling the virgin’s eye—is an asset

that makes a jolting encounter with beauty and charm possible:

It’s not essential for listeners to be able to detect precisely all the rhythmic procedures
of the music they hear, just as they don’t need to figure out all the chords of classical
music. That’s reserved for harmony professors and professional composers—The
moment that they receive a shock, realize that it’s beautiful, that the music touches
them, the goal is achieved! (Samuel 1994, 83)

When Messiaen says elsewhere that the ideal listener comes to a performance without

prior beliefs so as to receive a shock,143 he implies that this startling aesthetic experience

charts the same trajectory from stasis to action or calm to disturbance associated with

rhythmic contrast. As in his interpretation of durational opposition, Messiaen establishes

an ideal conception of performance in which the audience makes itself passive and

vulnerable to an outside presence, which marks cognition and resonates within memory

143
See Claude Samuel, Entretien avec Olivier Messiaen, 11-13 October 1961, published
with a recording of Turangalîla-symphonie (Vega 30 BVG 1363). Cited in Robert Sholl, “Olivier
Messiaen and the Avant-Garde Poetics of the Messe de la Pentecôte,” in Messiaen the
Theologian, ed. Andrew Shenton (Burlington: Ashgate, 2010), 206.
 155

(Messiaen 1994, 10). He construes his music not as easily palatable, but as a mysterious

and satisfying intrusion into the blank context of the listener’s mind.

Expanding the notion beyond musical innovation in itself, Messiaen adopts this

aesthetic of shock for his conception of spiritual presence within music as well. Just as

novel structures overwhelm the naïve audience member, heavenly presence is a force that

shatters human rationality. In Messiaen’s Aquinian view, God is the ultimate reality and

his truth exceeds comprehension (Benitez 2010, 121). Thus the appearance of his power

on earth creates a disjunction between the banality of everyday experience and the

unpredictable potency of spiritual action. Following an abstract pattern familiar from

Messiaen’s interpretation of the stone in the water, the marvelous displaces the stasis of

ordinary experience with supernatural activity.144 In music designed to depict or create

human encounters with spiritual forces, Messiaen often employs strategic methods that

reflect the potency of the event within a mundane context, imbuing his music with the

theology of shock. Contrast is his favored tool for setting the moment of transcendence

apart from previous material, and this signifies what Christopher Dingle calls “celestial

incursion into the terrestrial domain” (Dingle 2007, 213). For example, when an angel

knocks at the door in Scene 4 of St. François d’Assise, Messiaen exaggerates the volume

and articulation of the stroke because this is no mere human action but rather an

“irruption of grace,” as he describes it in the score. Instead of entering the dramatic scene

quietly, divine presence disrupts the familiar. The durational contrasts highlighted above

144
For more on the surrealist concept of the “marvelous” and its place in Messiaen’s
aesthetics, see Robert Sholl, “Love, Mad Love and the ‘point sublime’: The Surrealist Poetics of
Messiaen’s Harawi,” in Messiaen Studies, ed. Robert Sholl (New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2007).
 156

are only token rhythmic expressions of Messiaen’s broad conception of divine presence

as an overwhelming force that challenges human comprehension.145

The correlation between contrast and the experience of transcendent power is

especially apparent in Messiaen’s approach to the concept of éblouissement or

“dazzlement.” He refers to moments of spiritual intensity in which an overwhelming

flood of vibrant color points the beholder toward truth as “breakthrough toward the

beyond, toward the invisible and unspeakable” (Maas 2009, 34).146 He locates the site of

this breakthrough in stained-glass windows of the great cathedrals, where rich color

combinations overwhelm the senses (Maas 2007, 81). Summarizing the musical

equivalent, he says:

Coloured music does that which the stained-glass windows and rose-windows of the
Middle Ages did: they give us dazzlement. Touching at once our noblest senses:
hearing and vision, it shakes our sensibilities into motion, pushes us to go beyond
concepts, to approach that which is higher than reason and intuition, that is, FAITH
(Rößler 1986, 65).

In this quote, Messiaen implies that musical dazzlement is a jolting experience of truth, a

sudden change from the stasis of rational thought to an overpowering, almost violent,

confrontation with glory.147 Contrasting ordinary experience with the shock of spiritual

145
Robert Sholl describes Messiaen’s aesthetics of shock as a coordination of avant-
garde, modernist discourse with the priorities of an explicitly Catholic musician. He finds in
Messiaen’s writings “a critique or call to action” that “provides a challenge and even a
provocation to reimagine the way in which the sacred can be evoked through art” (2010, 206,
216).
146
See also Christian Asplund’s Deleuzian interpretation of Messiaen’s dazzlement in “A
Body without Organs: Three Approaches—Cage, Bach, and Messiaen,” Perspectives of New
Music 35 (1997): 171-187.
147
Topics of evil, hell, sin, and suffering are largely missing from Messiaen’s programs
and titles. Some scholars have suggested that Messiaen subscribed to a “Theology of Glory” with
themes of “joy and light, salvation and glory” rather than Luther’s “Theology of the Cross,”
which focuses on Christ’s sufferings (Shenton 2008, 27-28).
 157

encounter, Messiaen’s metaphors of breakthrough, overwhelming intensity, and shaken

sensibilities bear a conceptual similarity with the trajectory from stasis to shocking action

at the heart of the stone in the water metaphor (Compare Table 3-1 with Table 4-4).

Though breakthrough moments in Messiaen’s works differ considerably in style and

structure from the rhythmic paradigm, they often rely on sudden change to set the

moment of transcendence apart from surrounding material. Sander van Maas describes

the musical fabric of dazzlement as “a framed opening to a plane that differs strongly

from the surrounding context.” These windows of musical time are composed of sudden

distinctions in orchestration, texture, tempo, rhythm, and articulation (Maas 2009, 58).148

Thus, Messiaen articulates and constructs his notion of dazzlement in a way similar to his

interpretation of Debussy: he describes an interpolation of sudden power and energy (as

manifested in various types of change) that destabilizes the rational setting.149

Stasis → Shock

Ordinary Experience → Dazzlement

Rational Thought → Breakthrough/Shaken Sensibilities

Table 4-4. The expressive logic of dazzlement

148
One example of éblouissement from La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-
Christ features striking changes in tempo, orchestration, and texture. Immediately following the
words “Et ecce vox de nube, dicens: His est Filius meus dilectus” (And behold the cloud, saying:
This is my beloved Son) from the Gospel of Matthew 17:5, unaccompanied vocal monophony
gives way to trilled clusters in the strings, triangle, and chimes, which fill out Messiaen’s
idiomatic “turning” chords. The second violins subdivide a suddenly slow pulse that leads the
ensemble through a continuous crescendo.
149
There may be a connection to make between the shock of dazzlement and works that
employ rhythmic contrast within a context depicting the colors of heaven. See the opening of La
Ville d’en-haut where the rhythmic contrast completes the resonance of the chord of the total
chromatic.
 158

IV. Conclusion: Accounting for Points of Contact

The correlations between Messiaen’s music and his interpretations of the stone in

the water are manifold, connecting on stylistic, expressive, theological, and aesthetic

levels at once. Messiaen’s oeuvre contains frequent rhythmic contrasts that resemble

those highlighted within the Debussy analyses as the stone in the water, but along with

stylistic similarities, his contrasts share with the metaphor an expressive emphasis on

shock and sudden action. Messiaen’s interpretation of Debussy employs imagery distinct

from his birdsong and Gospel-centered works, yet the qualities that he ascribes to

Debussy’s rhythms in Tome VI are essential components of his own rhythmic strategies.

Specific instances of jolting activity manifest a deeper aesthetic of shock, which

undergirds Messiaen’s general view of the musical-spiritual experience.

It would be tempting to account for the points of contact between analysis and

composition via a linear model of influence, construing Messiaen’s use of rhythmic

contrast as an appropriation of Debussy’s technique for his own programmatic purposes.

However, to interpret the exchange as linear is to overlook how Messiaen’s analyses and

works each involve acts of interpretation. The stone in the water is not an objective

classification of Debussy’s rhythms, but rather Messiaen’s way of conceptualizing them.

Likewise, he imbues his own rhythmic contrasts with personal assumptions about nature

and divine breakthrough, which run deeper than rhythmic contrast itself through his view

of musical experience. Of greatest interest is not how the concept of shocking rhythmic

contrast originated, but rather how Messiaen articulates diverse types of meaning through

the same hermeneutic perspective. The contrasts of Messiaen’s musical language and

those that he finds in Debussy are bound together by a common point of view that
 159

emerges in unique ways through musical creation and musical description of rhythmic

change. The comparisons cited above demonstrate that Messiaen views his predecessor’s

works through some of the same lenses that apply to his own compositional approach.
 160

Chapter Five:

Poetic Intertextuality as Interpretation

Thus far, we have examined the interpretations that Messiaen makes in the form

of propositions about structure and meaning in Debussy’s music. This final chapter

explores the hermeneutic role that excerpts from poetry play throughout Tome VI.

Though Messiaen does not always flesh out the implications of the poems for the music,

they form modes of interpretation nonetheless, bringing a literary perspective to bear on

the music that stimulates the reader’s imagination of Debussy’s music via intertextual

association. The functions of these interpolated verses vary as they elevate the general

profundity of the music, make associations between musical works and preexisting poetic

narratives, and point implicitly toward features of the score. The role of poetry within

Tome VI may offer a model for how to interpret Messiaen’s music through the lens of

scripture quotations that often precede his works. In both his analyses and his scores,

Messiaen’s intertexts establish sets of images through which to explore the music at hand.

I. The Poems and Their Hermeneutic Functions

Literary references feature prominently within the Traité; and as Gareth Healey

argues, they are not tangential to musical details but rather essential components of the

treatise’s content (2007a, 163). Throughout the seven volumes, Messiaen interpolates

references to authors as diverse as Aloysius Bertrand, Rainer Maria Rilke, Victor Hugo,

and Fyodor Dostoyevsky within analytical and theoretical texts.150 These intertextual

150
Gareth Healey charts references to fiction within the Traité in “Messiaen –
Bibliophile,” in Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, eds. Christopher Dingle and Nigel
Simeone (Burlington: Ashgate, 2007), 160-161. However, Healey’s diagram does not properly
catalogue the poems within Tome VI, omitting all but two references. For a discussion of
 161

references reflect his pedagogical approach, which often involved juxtaposing technical

description of music with digressions on poetry, art, and other non-musical sources of

knowledge.151

Tome VI adopts a similarly literary emphasis, though Messiaen chooses his

intertextual references based on Debussian criteria. As Table 5-1 demonstrates, he calls

frequently on excerpts from symbolist poetry familiar to Debussy. These quotations form

a biographical link between Debussy’s music and his aesthetics. Baudelaire, Mallarmé,

Verlaine, and Maeterlinck surround many analyses, recreating Debussy’s literary world,

and making an implicit link between his evocative musical style and that of

contemporaneous writing.152 In several examples, Messiaen supplies the symbolist

poems from which Debussy garnered the titles of his works. For example, a lengthy

excerpt from Baudelaire’s “Harmonie du soir” precedes the analysis of “Les Sons et les

parfums tournent dans l'air du soir,” linking the title to its original context (2001, 139).

Other excerpts connect Debussy with symbolist aesthetics in a more general way.

theological works cited in the Traité, see Yves Balmer, “Religious Literature in Messiaen’s
Personal Library,” in Messiaen the Theologian, ed. Andrew Shenton (Burlington: Ashgate, 2010),
15-27.
151
Jean Boivin notes that “his technical and metaphorical description of the musical text
was enriched by an unending and passionate series of digressions” (2007, 156). Former student
Alexander Goehr recalls that “there were often very surprising leaps from general observations
about natural phenomena, described quite impressionistically, to purely musical ideas” (1998,
46).
152
Comparisons between Debussy’s music and contemporary art and literature are
common. See Paul Roberts, Images: The Piano Music of Claude Debussy (Portland: Amadeus
Press, 1996); Siglind Bruhn, Images and Ideas in Modern French Piano Music: The Extra-
Musical Subtext in Piano Works by Ravel, Debussy, and Messiaen (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press,
1997); Stefan Jarociński, Debussy: Impressionism and Symbolism, trans. Rollo Myers (London:
Eulenberg Books, 1976); and Roy Howat, The Art of French Piano Music: Debussy, Ravel,
Fauré, Chabrier (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).
 162

The poems that fall outside of Debussy’s immediate poetic circle still capitalize

on the imagery of his suggestive titles. Several poems within the volume come from

surrealist poets such as Reverdy, Valéry, and Éluard with whom Messiaen had a special

affinity.153 Though many of these poems postdate Debussy and reflect Messiaen’s own

artistic predilections, he links their evocative nature imagery with the subject matter of

Debussy’s works. For example, he uses poetic images of reflection in nature to introduce

“Reflets dans l’eau” and references to the sea to contextualize La Mer. Other citations

open up a wider literary context for the direct references of Debussy’s works. Messiaen

summarizes various manifestations of the Tristan myth as a way of situating Pelléas et

Mélisande in a heritage of similar narratives. Each poem in Tome VI makes contact with

either Debussy’s aesthetic world or the implicit imagery of his music.

Analysis Poem Page Number

Preface to Ch. 2 Tristan L'Hermite, "Promenoir des deux amants” 15

“Reflets dans l’eau” Stéphane Mallarmé, "Soupir" 16
Cyrano de Bergerac, "Lettre diverse VII" 16
Maurice Maeterlinck, Pelléas et Mélisande 18, 21
Pierre Reverdy, "Ronde nocturne" 21
La Mer Pierre Reverdy, "Verso” 23
Léon-Paul Fargue, Poëmes 24, 183
Paul Valéry, "La Irrémédiable" 24, 190
Pierre Reverdy, La Balle au bond 25, 183, 189, 190
Stéphane Mallarmé, "Brise marine" 25, 190
Paul Éluard, "Baigneuse du clair au sombre" 25, 190, 197
Pierre Reverdy, "Les Jockeys mécaniques” 27

Table 5-1. Literature quoted within Tome VI

153
For further study of Messiaen’s surrealist predilections, see Larry W. Peterson,
“Messiaen and Surrealism: A Study of His Poetry,” in Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, ed.
Siglind Bruhn (New York: Taylor & Francis, 1998); and Robert Sholl, “Love, Mad Love and the
‘Point sublime’: The Surrealist Poetics of Messiaen’s Harawi,” in Messiaen Studies, ed. Robert
Sholl (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
 163

Prélude à l'après-
midi d'dun faune Stéphane Mallarmé, "L'Après-midi d'un faune" 28-40
Robert Louis Stevenson, Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 35
“La Danse de Puck” William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream 41-45
William Shakespeare, The Tempest 41-42
Chanson de geste 41

“La Terrasse des

audiences du clair
de lune” Paul Verlaine, "Clair de lune" 46-47
Tsing Pana Yang, "La Terrasse des désespoirs" 48
Pelléas et
Mélisande Maurice Maeterlinck, Pelléas et Mélisande 53-93
Luigi Pirandello, "Chacun sa vérité" 53
Joseph Bédier, “Tristan fou” 53
Charles Perrault, "Belle au bois dormant" 57
Maurice Maeterlinck, Alladine et Palomida 91
Chansons de Bilitis “Cortège de Pan” and “La Terreur panique” 100
Douze Études Maurice Maeterlinck, Pelléas et Mélisande 106
“Hommage à
Rameau” Maurice Maeterlinck, Pelléas et Mélisande 107
“Jardins sous la
pluie” Theodore de Banville, “Nous n’irons plus aux bois” 132-133
“Les Sons et les
parfums tournent
dans l'air du soir”154 Charles Baudelaire, "Correspondances" 139
Charles Baudelaire, "Harmonie du soir" 139
Charles Baudelaire, "Les Paradis artificiels" 139
“La Fille aux Robert Burns, “Lassie with the Lint-White Locks”
cheveux de lin” (Leconte de Lisle, French translation) 150
“Feuilles mortes” Stéphane Mallarmé, "Soupir" 158
“Les Fées sont
d'exquises
danseuses” Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream 166
Chanson de geste 166
“Feux d'artifice” Charles Baudelaire, "Recueillement" 175

Table 5-1 (Continued). Literature quoted within Tome VI

Messiaen positions the poems in two different ways. Many of the excerpts appear

as introductions to individual analyses, remaining separate from the analysis proper.

Though it is no surprise that a majority of these epigraphic quotations appear in Chapter

154
A scientific quote from Leonardo da Vinci on correspondences between sound, light,
and water also appears in the analysis of “Les Sons et les parfums tournent dans l'air du soir”
(139).
 164

Five, which features unfinished analyses culled from Messiaen’s score notes, we find

them in the polished sections of Tome VI as well. For example, quotations from

Mallarmé and de Bergerac precede the more technical analysis of “Reflets dans l’eau”

(2001, 16), and Messiaen ruminates on Verlaine’s “Clair de lune” as a possible source of

the title “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” before launching into a description

of the work’s form (46). He does not limit the poems to introductory material, however.

He also interpolates them within several analyses, linking literary references to musical

moments and analytical insights. Excerpts from the libretto of Pelléas et Mélisande

accompany observations about the score (e.g., 71, 91-92); Tsing Pana Yang’s poetic

description of reflected moonlight parallels a discussion of contrary motion in “La

Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” (48); and various poetic elaborations on the sea

attend an analysis of “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” (24-25).

The poems are not neutral features of the text, but rather hermeneutic devices that

fulfill interpretive functions. In one excerpt, Messiaen asserts that the poems “expand the

horizon” of the analysis (2001, 25). This Gadamerian phrase suggests that literature

plays a role in making unique meanings possible for the music under consideration. We

can isolate three ways in which the poems expand the hermeneutic potential of individual

works: they heighten the perception of the music’s importance, ground musical details

within parallel storylines, and provide imagery that assists in the interpretation of musical

construction.
 165

a. Elevating Musical Discourse

The most general function of the poems in Tome VI is to elevate the significance

of musical moments. In his history of nineteenth-century music, Carl Dahlhaus argues

that when Liszt assigned poetic titles to the movements of Années de pèlerinage, S. 160,

161, and 163, he did not necessarily create programmatic meaning but rather raised his

oeuvre to the level of art by association (1989, 149-150). The same elevating function is

at work in Messiaen’s juxtapositions of poetic discourse and musical analysis: by

wrapping technical detail in poetic verse, Messiaen monumentalizes the music under

consideration as poetically significant.

Messiaen creates one such heightened moment in his analysis of “La Terrasse des

audiences du clair de lune,” where he describes suddenly slow and hushed counterpoint

as “an intimate and penetrating expression of unspeakable poetry” (2001, 48). Having

isolated two rhythmically identical melodies in mirror inversion (Example 5-1), he lists

numerous dialectical metaphors in an attempt to describe the contrapuntal relationship

properly: “the yes and the no, consolation and desolation, the moon and its reflection in

the water” (2001, 48). Though these metaphors add interpretive layers to the melodic

relationship, Messiaen concludes his analysis of the passage with a quote from the

Chinese poet Tsing Pana Yang: “But here it is that the moon inscribes itself doubly in

the pond of the lotus.”155 While the poetry connects with the subject matter of the work

in general (both the poem’s name, “La Terrasse des désespoirs,” and the excerpt’s

reference to moonlight make points of contact with Debussy’s title),156 it also shifts the

155
“Mais voici que la lune s’inscrit double dans l’étang aux lotus.”
156
Debussy’s title may have come from one of two contemporary sources: Pierre Loti’s
L’Inde sans les Anglais (1903), which refers to “des terrasses pour tenir conseil au clair de lune,”
 166

discourse from technical detail and metaphoric ascriptions to poetic expression. The

Tsing quotation validates Messiaen’s description of the passage as a poetic interjection in

the flow of the music, pausing for literary reflection before continuing with the analysis.

Example 5-1. “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune” from Préludes, Book 2, mm. 13-14

Whereas poetry elevates the significance of a single moment in “La Terrasse des

audiences du clair de lune,” it monumentalizes moments within the form of “Dialogue du

vent et de la mer” from La Mer. At the beginning of the analysis, Messiaen establishes

the structural role of the second theme. After dividing the movement into nine sections

(Table 5-2), he describes the form as a hybrid of several classical models, and his

interpretations hinge on the theme as the primary melody of the movement. Stating that

it is the primary melody of the movement, he notes its rondo-like qualities: it appears

three times above the same tonic with contrasting material between each statement.

Because the melody is in a constant state of transformation itself, Messiaen also suggests

a theme and variations procedure. Lastly, he posits a pseudo-sonata form in which the

pairs of introduction/second theme and second theme/third theme comprise a “false

and René Puaux’s “Lettres des Indes” printed in the newspaper Le Temps, which in the December
1912 issue contains the sentence: “La salle de la victoire, la salle du plaisir, les jardins des
sultanes, la terrasse des audiences au clair de lune” (Bruhn 1997, 49).
 167

exposition” and “false recapitulation” respectively (2001, 22).157 In this overlap of

Classical models, Messiaen implies the anchoring role of the second theme for the form:

it is a point of structural stability on a local level (rondo) and for the piece as a whole

(sonata), but is nonetheless in constant flux, like the surrounding material (theme and

variations).

I. Introduction and First Theme – II. Bridge Theme – III. Second Theme – IV. First Development – V.

Second Theme in variation – VI. Second Development – VII. Second Theme in Variation –VIII. Third

Theme – IX. Coda

Table 5-2. Messiaen’s list of formal sections in “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer

While the introduction to this analysis establishes the importance of the second

theme from the outset, selective quotations from poetry mark its appearances within the

analysis, elevating its salience within the form. While Messiaen offers varied

extramusical insights throughout the analysis, he reserves poetic references for statements

of the second theme (Rehearsals 46 and 54), save for the poems that open and close the

analysis with images of arrival and conclusion respectively (2001, 23, 27). The excerpts

from Valéry, Fargue, Reverdy, Mallarmé, and Éluard create marked shifts in discourse

from analytical observation to poetic description, and like the quote from Tsing Pana

Yang in the analysis of “La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune,” the verses heighten

157
Each of Messiaen’s formal interpretations has echoes in Debussy scholarship. Roy
Howat has argued for a sonata form (Howat 1983, 94), but Simon Trezise counters that Howat’s
proposed development section is tonally stable while the recapitulation is tonally unstable, the
opposite of a typical sonata form (1994, 68-69). Marie Rolf cites a five-part rondo with
introduction and coda (1976, 197-198; cited in Hart 2001, 193). Recognizing the viability of
rondo, Trezise argues that it is best to focus on the “continuity and variety of the evolutionary
process” in the work without becoming set on a single formal paradigm (1994, 68-69).
 168

the second theme as an instance of musical poetry. The poems not only monumentalize

the theme in isolation, but also reinforce Messiaen’s conception of its formal

significance. The shift to poetic discourse makes the theme’s structural role salient,

monumentalizing it within the form.

By recognizing the elevating function of poetry within Tome VI, we acknowledge

a unique effect created by juxtaposing technical description with verse. The shift to

poetic discourse creates a punctuation within the analysis that sets musical moments apart

as momentous in isolation and within larger conceptions of form.

b. Grounding Music within Preexisting Narratives

In certain excerpts, Messiaen presumes a narrative connection between Debussy’s

music and a preexisting poem. In such cases, poetic references act as narrative anchor

points that ground musical meaning within a given story. Messiaen uses the quotations to

map out Debussy’s musical ekphrasis, that is, the ways that he narrates a story told first

by another artist in a different medium.158 Whereas the poems serve an elevating

function when they increase the perceived profundity and salience of particular excerpts,

they also fulfill an orientation function as they link musical insights to a storyline that

exists prior to and outside of the music.

The orientation function is most apparent in Messiaen’s analysis of Prélude à

l’après-midi d’un faune, in which he uses Mallarmé’s poem “L’Après-midi d’un faune”

as a frequent point of reference. Setting up the relationship between the poem and the

music in his introduction, he says that Debussy’s work contributes enchantment— “the

158
For a comprehensive study of musical ekphrasis, see Siglind Bruhn, Musical
Ekphrasis: Composers Responding to Poetry and Painting (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2000).
 169

enchantment of nature, enchantment of love, enchantment of memory, enchantment of

death”—to the poem’s complicated syntax and erotic, mythological theme (2001, 28). In

making this claim, he presents the music as not only inspired by Mallarmé, but also as a

manifestation of the poem’s story elements in an enhanced musical format.159

Throughout the analysis, he quotes short phrases from the poem to demonstrate ways in

which the music embodies or comments on aspects of it, never wandering far from the

parent poem itself (Healey 2007, 164).160 The references to Mallarmé ground musical

insights within Messiaen’s interpretation of the poem’s story.

Messiaen uses the poem primarily as an anchor for descriptions of the famous

flute theme, which he correlates with variations in the faun’s identity. Throughout the

analysis, he chooses excerpts from the poem that refer to one of two aspects of his

personality: his mythological side, which is pure and timeless, and his mischievous side,

which is held captive by desire. When he observes variations of the theme, Messiaen

uses the chosen excerpts to ground his interpretation of the faun’s dual nature. For

example, when the theme appears in both augmentation (the elongated opening note) and

diminution (the rapid conclusion in thirty-second notes) in Rehearsal 3 (Example 5-2),

Messiaen interpolates a phrase from Mallarmé within his text to bolster the image of a

newly ornery faun: “the dreamy flutist has made room for a fabulous being, hairy,

horned, supplied with the feet of a goat, vulnerable to carnal temptations (‘too much

159
For another close reading of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in relation to the parent
poem, see David Code, “Hearing Debussy reading Mallarmé: Music après Wagner in the Prélude
àl'après-midi d'un faune,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 54 (2001): 493-554.
160
This reflects Messiaen’s classroom analyses of the work, in which he would sit at the
piano, analyzing different manifestations of the theme and pointing out links with the poem
(Boivin 1998, 7).
 170

hymen desired by who seeks for la.’), whose face digs itself and grimaces in a scary grin”

(2001, 32).161 Though subtle, the poetic reference validates Messiaen’s interpretation of

thematic change, and gives the impression that the music embodies a narrative

component of the preexistent poem.

Example 5-2. Theme from Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 3

For more drastic interpretations of thematic transformation, Messiaen makes

lengthier references to the poem, cementing the connection between a prior story and

musical manifestation. He isolates Rehearsals 8 and 9 as the locus of the opposition

between “the demi-god Faun, symbol of Nature and of the rustic life, noble, and proud of

his purity—and the Faun filled with obscure temptations, sarcastic, almost wicked,

disfigured by a base laugh” (2001, 35).162 After rehearsing the faun’s split identity with

161
“le flûtiste rêveur a fait place à un être fabuleux, velu, cornu, pourvu de pieds de
chèvre, vulnérable aux tentations charnelles (‘trop d’hymen souhaité de qui cherche le la.’), dont
le visage se creuse et grimace en un rictus inquiétant.” Translation of Mallarmé by C. F.
MacIntyre (1957, 49).
162
“le Faune demi-dieu, symbole de la Nature et de la vie agreste, noble, et fier de sa
pureté—et le Faune rempli de tentations obscures, sarcastique, presque méchant, défiguré par un
mauvais rire.”
 171

the support of an intertext from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

whose main character wrestles with a dissociated self, Messiaen explores the opposing

statements of the theme at Rehearsal 8 in light of the poem’s story (Example 5-3). The

theme appears first in augmentation, and serenity permeates the passage: soft harp

arpeggios sit atop held notes in the strings, supporting the elongated theme floating

above. According to Messiaen, the augmented theme with serene accompaniment

invokes the purity of the faun, for which he appropriates a poetic phrase that emphasizes

his timeless mythology: “then I’ll awaken to the primal fervor, erect and alone, under the

antique flood of light, O lilies! and the one among you all for artlessness” (Mallarmé

1957, 49). The end of the theme features a jolting rhythmic and orchestrational change

without transition: the more nasal oboe takes up the melody in rapid diminution with

ornamenting trills, grace notes, and staccato articulations.163 The boundary between

sections is further marked by a faster tempo, a sudden change of key, and a new

accompaniment composed of vacillating horns, clarinets, and bassoons. Messiaen refers

to this dramatic shift as the “demoniac laugh” of the faun (2001, 35), for which he

chooses a quote that emphasizes the faun’s lustfulness: “and by idolatrous paintings to

lift again cinctures from their shadows” (Mallarmé 1957, 51). Each reference to

Mallarmé validates Messiaen’s interpretation of stark thematic contrast as the primary

narrative element of the work, mapping the poetic evocation of two fauns onto the

thematic evolution.

163
Parks refers to the piece as a series of eight free variations with the third and fourth as
the most abstract (1989, 224).
 172

Example 5-3. Prélude á l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 8

 173

Example 5-3 (Continued). Prélude á l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 8

 174

Example 5-3 (Continued). Prélude á l’après-midi d’un faune, Rehearsal 8

Though Messiaen uses excerpts from a parent poem to ground the meaning of

musical details in a given narrative, the poetic references are selective and demonstrate a

particular view of the poem itself. He offers a dialectical reading of the poem’s subject

matter that is convincing but is an interpretation nonetheless. His reading of the poem

becomes a way of reading the music as he interprets analytical insights in light of his

understanding of the story. The orientation function grounds interpretation within

interpretation.
 175

c. Imagining Musical Details in Tandem with Poetic Imagery

While poems that serve an orientation function are rare within Tome VI, a

majority of the literary quotations fulfill an imagery function in which poetic references

form a web of associations around technical details, thereby bringing out aspects of the

passage under consideration with references to expressive states and actions. These

poems do not ground the music in a prior context, but create a provisional context for the

work in question, shading and augmenting analytical observations through poetic

verse.164 The poems help Messiaen to construct the object of interpretation through their

imagery165 as well as to and shape the reader’s perception of events within the analysis.

The most conspicuous example of the imagery function appears in his analysis of

“Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, in which varied poems amplify Messiaen’s

interpretation of form, texture, rhythm, and orchestration. Though the title does not refer

to a preexisting poem through which to ground extramusical commentary, Messiaen

supplements the notion of exchange between the wind and the sea with an eclectic set of

164
Various musicologists have used literature to bring out qualities of musical works in
studies over the last three decades. Generally, these studies focus on similarities in the way a
certain poem and work unfold syntactically. Kramer argues that qualities shared between poetry
and music can provide “an interpretive framework for the explicit dimensions of both works”
(Kramer 1984, 10), and that, despite their distinct means of signification, music and literature can
converge on deep structural levels (1989, 161). See also Roland Jordan and Emma Kafalenos,
“The Double Trajectory: Ambiguity in Brahms and Henry James,” 19th-Century Music 13 (1989):
129-144. For comments on the limitation of comparative studies, see Steven Paul Scher,
“Literature and Music,” in Interrelations of Literature, eds. Jean-Pierre Barricelli and Joseph
Gibaldi (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1982), 226; and Jean-Pierre
Barricelli, Melopoiesis: Approaches to the Study of Literature and Music (New York: New York
University Press, 1988), 1-10. Though Messiaen’s poetic intertexts bring his analyses into the
realm of melopoiesis, Healey notes that his “references [to fiction] focus on an isolated event or
image, without concern for plot or structure” (Healey 2007, 164). Thus, my study of the
interpretive role of poetry swerves away from previous tandem readings by focusing on the
semantic realm conjured by Messiaen’s interpolations.
165
Lawrence Kramer describes a type of “constructive description” that is “less a
representation than an invention, not a description at all in the ordinary sense of the term but a
construction from which meaning is extended to the object addressed” (2003, 128).
 176

poems that tease out aspects of the music through images of the sea.166 Whereas poetic

references in the analysis of Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune served an orientation

function by linking analysis to a parent poem, the poems within the analysis of “Dialogue

du vent et de la mer” are ad hoc, tailored to the analysis and its interpretive goals.

In his interpretation of the second theme, for example, Messiaen uses a poem by

Léon-Paul Fargue to amplify his interpretation of the vastness of the high sea:

“A moan came from abroad. A star transfixed the evening…” says Léon-Paul Fargue.
And this second theme gives us properly the feeling of anguish and infinity of the high
sea (2001, 24).167

If the second theme played by the flute, English horn, and bassoon manifests the

expansiveness of the high sea, the reference to Fargue fleshes out the notion of sublime

nature with a complementary image of the open night sky. However, Fargue’s imagery

not only fills in the details of Messiaen’s extramusical interpretation but also provides

insight into stylistic qualities of the theme, augmenting the notion of anguish and

intensity. Fargue’s reference to moaning correlates with a repeated sigh figure in the

theme, composed of stepwise vacillations (Example 5-4). The intensity of this pianto

increases two measures into the theme as the accented neighbor-tone A rises to A-

sharp.168 Though Messiaen does not explain his description of anguish in explicit

musical terms, the Fargue reference offers a window into a topical manifestation of
166
In analyses of first two movements, Messiaen quotes all the same poems used in
reference to “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” (2001, 183, 190). Unlike the analysis of “Dialogue
du vent et de la mer,” which includes poetry within the text, the quotations serve as epigraphs to
the analyses at the end of the volume. It is difficult to say whether Messiaen would have inserted
the quotations into particular sections had he lived to edit the analyses further.
167
“‘Une plainte arriva du large. Une étoile fixa le soir…’ dit Léon-Paul Fargue. Et ce
second thème nous donne bien le sentiment d’angoisse et d’infini de la haute mer.” Translation
of Fargue by Peter S. Thompson (2003, 34-35).
168
Trezise refers also to the “yearning quality” of the theme’s woodwind timbres and
phrase structure (1994, 70).
 177

groaning in the music. The poem supplies a hermeneutic reference point for a

noteworthy melodic detail within the context of Messiaen’s broader interpretation.

Example 5-4. “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, Rehearsal 46

When Messiaen claims that the reappearance of the theme features “infinite calm,

infinite gentleness,” he refers to several poems that ornament his interpretation with

complementary images of the sea at night, each of which opens up aspects of the score

for interpretation:

2nd Theme or Principal Theme in D-flat major, new presentation forming Variation
and Refrain. Infinite calm, infinite gentleness. This is the most beautiful moment in
the entire work! Some literary citations will expand the horizon again. “the waves
without growing tired winnow from the bags of stars. And the dust of water dances
with its reflections.” (Pierre Reverdy, La Balle au bond) “O to escape—to get away!
Birds look as though they’re drunk for unknown spray and skies!” (Stéphane
 178

Mallarmé, Brise marine). “The night. The sea no longer has light and, as in ancient
times, you could sleep in the sea.” (Paul Éluard, Baigneuse du clair au sombre) (2001,
25).169

The subtle interaction between the light in the sky and its reflection in the sea is a theme

of the Reverdy poem, which “expands the horizon” of other observations in the analysis.

Because this poetic image appears saliently at the beginning of the analytical excerpt, it

colors Messiaen’s later description of texture as a “most total pianissimo, encircled by

lower pedals (contrabass, horn), and upper pedal (the violin harmonic tone), with a

murmur of harps” (2001, 25) (Example 5-5).170 The poetic image helps Messiaen conjure

a still and shimmering sea, free of momentum.171 It defines a set of associations between

the murmur of harp arpeggios and the delicate twinkling of light reflected in the sea.

This extramusical image extends the reach of Messiaen’s interpretation. Another theme

of the poems in this passage is that of a dream-state, which correlates his description of

tempo with static temporality. Messiaen describes the tempo as “indecisive, mobile,

changing,” and he notes that each time the tempo achieves stasis, it gives way to

increasing rhythmic momentum and activity (2001, 25-26). The poems surround the

169
“2e Thème ou Thème principal en ré bémol majeur, présentation nouvelle formant
Variation et Refrain. Calme infini, douceur infinie. C’est le plus beau moment de toute l’oeuvre!
Quelques citations littéraires en agrandiront encore l’horizon. ‘Les flots sans se lasser vannent
des sacs d’étoiles. Et la poussière d’eau danse avec leurs reflets.’ (Pierre Reverdy, la balle au
bond). ‘Fuir! Là-bas fuir! Je sens que des oiseaux sont ivres – D’être parmi l’écume inconnue et
les cieux!’ (Stéphane Mallarmé, brise marine). ‘Le soir. La mer n’a plus de lumière et, comme
aux temps anciens, tu pourrais dormir dans la mer.’ (Paul Éluard, baigneuse du clair au sombre).”
Emphasis in original. Translation of Mallarmé by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore (2006, 25).
170
“le pianissimo le plus total, entouré de pédales inférieure (contrebasses, cor), et
supérieure (son harmonique des violions), avec un murmure de harpes.”
171
Gaston Carraud’s La Liberté review of the La Mer premiere parallels the themes of
Messiaen’s quotations: “The three symphonic pieces [do not] express the essential characteristics
of the sea, but rather those ever-delightful frolics in which she exhausts her divine energy, and the
lively interplay of water and light that so bewitches us: the magic spell of foam and wave and
spray, swirling mists and splashes of sunlight” (cited in Trezise 1994, 25).
 179

interpretation of static tempo with images of tiredness, sleep, intoxication, and ancient

time, thereby inspiring a reading of the slow tempo, hushed dynamics, and unchanging

tremolo described by Messiaen as the elements of temporal pause. References to a static

dream-world help make the music’s atemporality salient, directing the reader’s attention

toward the stalled momentum. The ideality of the poems’ dream-state becomes apparent

when a gradual acceleration, thematic diminution in the oboe, and chromatic wandering

in the clarinet and second violin all work to destabilize the sense of stasis (Trezise 1994,

72). The poems in this excerpt offer images of reflection and stillness that complement

Messiaen’s interpretation and make components of texture and temporality salient.

Example 5-5. “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, seven measures after Rehearsal 54
 180

Example 5-5 (Continued). “Dialogue du vent et de la mer” from La Mer, seven measures after Rehearsal 54

Because the poems appear in reference to particular excerpts from “Dialogue du

vent et de la mer,” their imagery appears directed toward particular qualities of the music

rather than toward a general storyline; but in several analyses, Messiaen positions literary

references at the beginning instead of interpolating them within the analysis proper. In

these excerpts, it can be difficult to distinguish between the elevating function of the

poems, as they build a poetic aura around the work, and more specific ways in which the

epigraphic imagery can map onto remote analytical details. In order for these poems to

fulfill the imagery function, they require imaginative correlations on the part of the reader

between the memory of the poetic context at the beginning of the analysis and the
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subsequent encounter with technical details. While Messiaen does not aim his poetic

quotations at particular components of the music, they still create a conceptual world for

the analysis; and just as with the examples above, we can read their imagery and

expressive qualities into analytical points as they arise.

The quotations that precede “Reflets dans l’eau” elaborate on the imagery of the

title, but they remain distant from analytical insight:

to cite a text by Cyrano de Bergerac (1620-1655), which does not have the gilded
splendor and the dream beyond dreams of our magician of sounds and durations, but
which can all the same introduce the “Reflets dans l’eau”… “One hundred poplars
hasten in the wave to one hundred other poplars, and these aquatics were so frightened
from their fall that they tremble again everyday from the wind that does not touch
them… But what will I say of this fluid mirror, of this little inverted world which puts
the oaks below the moss and the sky lower than the oaks?... Now we can lower our
eyes to the sky… The nightingale which from above on a branch views itself believing
to be fallen in the river—but when it dissipated its fear, its picture no longer appearing
to be a rival for combat, he chirps, he bursts, he cries, and this other nightingale,
without breaking the silence, cries in appearance like him and deceives the soul with
so much charm that one imagines that he hardly sings in order to make himself audible
[ouïr] to our eyes…” Second citation, closer to the Debussian colors, and that can also
apply to “Feuilles mortes” from our author: “Toward October’s pitying Blue, pale and
true, which mirrors in broad pools its endless lethargy and on dead water where a
fulvid agony of leaves drifts windtossed and ploughs a chill furrow, may let the yellow
sun trail in a long lingering ray.” (“Soupir,” Stéphane Mallarmé) (2001, 16)172

172
“citer un texte de Cyrano de Bergerac (1620-1655), qui n’a pas la splendeur dorée et le
rêve au delà des rêves de notre magicien des sons et durées, mais qui peut tout de même
introduire les ‘Reflets dans l’eau’… ‘Cent peupliers précipitent dans l’onde cent autres peupliers,
et ces aquatiques ont été tellement épouvantés de leur chute qu’ils tremblent encore tous les jours
du vent qui ne les touche pas… Mais que dirai-je de ce miroir fluide, de ce petit monde renversé
qui place les chênes au-dessous de la mousse et le Ciel plus bas que les chênes?... Maintenant
nous pouvons baisser les yeux au Ciel… Le rossignol qui du haut d’une branche se regarde
dedans croit être tombé dans la rivière – mais lorsqu’il a dissipé sa frayeur, son portrait ne lui
paraissant plus qu’un rival à combattre, il gazouille, il éclate, il s’égosille, et cet autre rossignol,
sans rompre le silence, s’égosille en apparence comme lui et trompe l’âme avec tant de charmes
qu’on se figure qu’il ne chante que pour se faire ouïr de nos yeux…’ Deuxième citation, plus
proche des couleurs Debussystes, et qui peut s’appliquer aussi aux ‘Feuilles mortes’ de notre
auteur: ‘Vers l’Azur attendri d’Octobre pâle et pur – Qui mire aux grands bassins sa langueur
infinie – Et laisse, sur l’eau morte où la fauve agonie – Des feuilles erre au vent et creuse un froid
sillon, – Se traîner le soleil jaune d’un long rayon.’ (‘Soupir’, Stéphane Mallarmé).” Emphasis in
original. Translation of Mallarmé by E. H. and A. M. Blackmore (2006, 25).
 182

Rather than punctuating the analysis with salient moments of poetic reflection, these

quotations introduce the work to the reader, who must tuck their imagery away in

memory.

At several points in the analysis, the remembered imagery provides the reader

with an expanded field of hermeneutic reference, no matter how speculative the

correlations may be. In the opening paragraph, Messiaen notes how Debussy constructs a

large arch through the replication in different registers of three-note units, whose

underlying D-flat major harmony is “warm” and “golden,” according to the analyst’s

personal associations between harmony and color (2001, 17) (Example 5-6). Recalling

de Bergerac’s literary ruminations on trees duplicated in their reflections, the reader

might be inclined to hear the motivic duplications as icons of reflection at the beginning

of the work. Just as de Bergerac’s trees replicate themselves above and below the water,

the mini-arches highlighted by the analysis proliferate in various positions. The reference

to sound color also connects with the prefatory literature as Mallarmé’s description of a

yellow sun hovering above still water stamps its memory onto the golden harmonies.

The elaborate poetic context that precedes the analysis creates a world of images through

which to read the analysis.

Example 5-6. “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 1-3
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While the analysis of the arching contour follows directly from the literary

references, more remote analytical insights can be gained within the world of poetic

imagery from the preface as well. Later in the analysis, Messiaen notes a cyclical

harmonic progression in Debussy’s score (Example 5-7), explaining its derivation from

what he calls a “Wagnerian” progression: each group of three harmonies features two

voices moving in contrary motion by semitone as the other two voices remain invariant

(Example 5-7).173 Debussy places only segments of this progression in the score, but

Messiaen interprets Debussy’s chords within a context of indefinite continuation

nonetheless (Example 5-8) (Messiaen 2001, 19).174 Beyond the technical details of the

harmony, the de Bergerac reference from the preface can help the reader associate

Messiaen’s explicit reference to cyclicity with an implicit poetic image of disorientation.

De Bergerac describes a world in which the mirror of water contrasts trees above with

trees below, thereby creating a word-picture analogous to Claude Monet’s double world

in Poplars on the Bank of the Epte River (1891) (Roberts 1996, 25). Like the inverted

trees and the confused nightingale, the cyclical progression lacks an orientation point: it

deprives the listener of a harmonic anchor from which to assess the progression’s goals.

Through analogies and correlations made possible by the intertext of de Bergerac’s

173
Messiaen’s term may refer not only to the linear voice-leading but also its string of
“Tristan” chords. See David Lewin, Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 238-239.
174
Debussy’s progression connects with the unending chain described by Messiaen in
two ways. First, mm. 20-21 feature a series of half-diminished seventh chords whose roots move
upward by minor-third (F, G-sharp, B, and D), correlating with the four segments of Messiaen’s
cyclic progression without the intervening chords. Second, Debussy employs the first four chords
of Messiaen’s diagram in mm. 22-23 but without continuation. Thus Messiaen infers a
connection between Debussy’s two progressions, and extends their harmonic logic in his diagram.
For a general discussion of juxtaposing the actual with the possible, see David Lidov, Is
Language a Music? Writings on Musical Form and Signification (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 2005), 195-196.
 184

imagery, Messiaen’s technical analysis acquires further meaning, accessible through

creative inference.

Example 5-7. “Reflets dans l’eau” from Images, Book 1, mm. 22-23

Example 5-8. Messiaen’s extrapolation of the cyclical progression

Whether the poems appear in juxtaposition with individual excerpts or as

epigraphs to entire analyses, they fulfill an imagery function in which their content

shapes and focuses the perception of musical details. The more remote the poem appears

from technical insights, the more imagination becomes essential to making the

connection within Messiaen’s text. Nevertheless, whether a small or large amount of

speculation is required, the poems always supply a web of potential associations that

render Messiaen’s text a site of creative interpretation for both the author and the reader.
 185

The poems provide a conceptual space that opens up possible meanings within the score

and its extramusical frame of reference.

II. Interpreting Messiaen’s Scripture Quotations

We have observed that Messiaen’s quoted poems serve three interpretive roles

within the analyses of Tome VI: (1) They elevate the perceived importance of musical

moments by pairing them with poetic discourse; (2) when a work is based on a

preexisting poem, they anchor musical events within qualities of and events from the

parallel story; and (3) they provide intertextual imagery that creates a conceptual world

through which to interpret aspects of the music. By fulfilling these three functions,

poems enrich the analytical text by making unique types of meaning possible for the

reader.

Just as the poems of Tome VI act as hermeneutic tools, the biblical references that

precede many of Messiaen’s own works serve to open conceptual space for

interpretation.175 This creates possible associations between textual references and

musical structure. As with the poems in the Debussy analyses, Messiaen does not always

map the scriptural quotations directly onto the music, but often positions them prior to the

music so that the performer or analyst enters the work through the imagery of the

intertext. These quotations serve not to fix a direct link between particular structural

components and theological meaning, but to elevate the importance of the music via

Christian meditation and to provide a set of spiritual images through which to engage

175
Examples of instrumental works with scripture references linked to specific
movements include L’Ascension, Les Corps glorieux, La Nativité du Seigneur, Quatuor pour la
fin du temps, Visions de l’amen, Livre d’orgue, Livre du Saint Sacrement, Vingt Regards sur
l’Énfant-Jésus, Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, La Banquet céleste, Et Exspecto
resurrectionem mortuorum, Éclairs sur l’au-delà…, and Messe de la Pentecôte.
 186

with musical details. Thus we can understand Messiaen’s scripture quotations as

interpretive tools that fulfill a function similar to that of symbolist and surrealist literature

incorporated in Tome VI.

In the Debussy analyses, quoted poetry renders the music momentous, increasing

its importance through the elaboration of a poetic context that transcends the music itself.

Messiaen’s quotations from scripture have a similar effect on the listener and analyst.

While the titles of Messiaen’s works often invoke a particular subject, the scripture

references found in subheadings elaborate the topic and its theological context. For

example, the second movement of Livre d’orgue, entitled “Pièce en trio,” features a quote

from I Corinthians 13:12 just below the title: “Now, we see but a poor reflection in a

mirror” (NIV). The subheading situates the movement within a sphere of eschatological

associations—namely, waiting for divine mysteries to be revealed. A more general

function of this quote is to surround the music with ancient and supernatural authority,

elevating the musical significance to a transcendent level. Paul Griffiths has argued that

Messiaen’s use of theological commentaries and references to scripture lead ironically to

the marginalization of music itself (1985, 242), and he asserts that Messiaen’s oeuvre is

just as meaningful without the metaphysical baggage (70). Though Griffiths is right not

to let secondary discourse determine all aspects of Messiaen’s music,176 his resistance to

Messiaen’s intertextuality reduces it to filigree, overshadowing the elevating function that

scripture fulfills for the music in general. Regardless of one’s belief system, Holy

Scripture transfers momentous connotations to the music by prominent association.

176
See also Andrew Shenton, Olivier Messiaen’s System of Signs: Notes Towards
Understanding His Music (Burlington: Ashgate, 2008), 67. As he constructs his own
hermeneutic approach to Messiaen’s music, Andrew Shenton acknowledges the danger of getting
stuck in secondary discourse.
 187

Whereas the scripture references serve an elevating function for Messiaen’s music

by imbuing it with supernatural authority, they also fulfill the imagery function by

supplying concepts through which the listener-analyst can encounter and interpret details

of musical structure and meaning. If the elevating function involves fashioning an aura

of significance around the music, the imagery function supplies concepts that the analyst

can use to assess the specifics of the work. As is the case with the poems in Tome VI,

which do not highlight the immanent meaning of Debussy’s work but rather open up

possible interpretations within the realm of a particular topic (e.g., the sea), we can read

Messiaen’s scripture quotations as an expanded context of images that can tease out

expressive and structural qualities of the music in creative ways. On several occasions,

Messiaen referred to the inseparability of his works from the appended scripture

references and theological commentaries. In claiming to have translated theological

content into musical sound, he implied that meaning is enciphered within the score itself

(Rößler 1986, 28, 51).177 However, the interpretive role of the scripture quotations goes

beyond uncovering Gnostic meanings embedded within the text, as they provide stimuli

for imaginative engagement with musical structure and expression. They offer concepts,

images, and metaphors from a particular theological realm that encourage imaginative

interpretations. This way of approaching Messiaen’s texts marks a swerve away from the

Romantic brand of hermeneutics that permeates Messiaen studies today with notions of

hidden meaning and intentional messages.178 If the scripture references are interpretive

177
Despite this, Messiaen rejected the term “program” for his music (Goléa 1984, 107).
178
Following the philosophy of Schleiermacher and Dilthey, Romantic hermeneutics
seeks to transport the interpreter into the mind of the author and to reproduce the mental
constructs surrounding the creation of the object (Bontekoe 1996, 42). Recent scholarship has
treated Messiaen’s texts as keys to decoding the intended meaning of score details. Siglind Bruhn
 188

devices, they need not be limited by explicit intentions; rather, they open up conceptual

worlds around the subject matter that enhance the analytical search for meaning. The

interpretive value of the scripture references is not based on what is inside or outside the

work, but rather the potential for meaning that they create in juxtaposition with the

music—that is, the way they “expand the horizon” of the work (Messiaen 2001, 25).

The example from Livre d’orgue will illustrate the role that the scriptural imagery

can play in analytical interpretation. One of the key concepts in the scripture quote is the

notion of an elusive truth reflected in a mirror toward the beholder. Whether or not

Messiaen intended musical structure as an analogy for the textual imagery, the concept of

reflection can help the analyst filter and organize a series of interrelated musical

phenomena, particularly the prevalence of contour, gesture, and pitch-class inversion in

mm. 3-5. Beginning in m. 3, opposing contours of unidirectional leaps alternate between

the upper parts of the organ (Example 5-9). The middle voice initiates the dialectical

interplay in m. 3 with upward leaps of perfect fifth and diminished fifth, which the top

voice overlaps with descents of minor sixth and augmented fourth. After the top voice

has written a trilogy of books on the meaning of Messiaen’s music: Messiaen’s Contemplations
of Covenant and Incarnation: Musical Symbols of Faith in the Two Great Piano Cycles of the
1940s (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2007); Messiaen’s Explorations of Love and Death: Musico-
Poetic Signification in the ‘Tristan Trilogy’ and Three Related Song Cycles (Hillsdale: Pendragon
Press, 2008); and Messiaen’s Interpretations of Holiness and Trinity: Echoes of Medieval
Theology in the Oratorio, Organ Meditations, and Opera (Hillsdale: Pendragon Press, 2008).
She treats his music as a text with hidden messages ready for translation (2007, 10); and situating
components of Messiaen’s music among his espoused aesthetics, theological beliefs, program
notes, and descriptions of technique, she aims to decipher the “‘miraculously’ ordered universe”
within the music fabric (2007, 15). Andrew Shenton takes a similarly message-oriented approach
in Olivier Messiaen’s System of Signs: Notes Towards Understanding His Music (Burlington:
Ashgate, 2008). He asserts that Messiaen’s programs and intertexts serve a pedagogical function,
articulating intentions and enabling the music to communicate its embedded message (47, 164).
Borrowing Umberto Eco’s dichotomy of open and closed works (Eco 1979, 8-9), Shenton argues
that the specificity of Messiaen’s texts are attempts to close aspects of the music’s meaning
(2008, 47). In each of these studies, the texts that introduce Messiaen’s works function as “agents
of exegesis” (Milsom 1994, 52) that transport the listener into his “perfumed and rainbow-
coloured world” (Weir 1994, 388).
 189

introduces a new gestural pattern of grace notes leading to a held note in m. 4, the middle

voice appropriates the novel pattern for the continuation of the leaping contour. The

absence of the pedal at the beginning of the measure renders the antiphonal opposition

especially salient. Though the inverted echo breaks down after the pedal reenters, the

opposing contours continue into m. 5, now in the form of three successive leaps with the

top voice falling and the middle voice rising. By focusing on the concept of mirroring,

we are able to see the prevalence of contour inversion across multiple changes in

rhythmic and gestural patterns within the phrase. The concept can also bind the

immediate level of contour inversion to pitch-class inversion in m. 4. While the

mirroring antiphony is already salient because of the absent pedal, the two trichords

comprise forms of set-class 026, the first in prime form (B-flat, C, E), and the answering

gesture in inverted form (E-flat, G, A). Though Messiaen employed terms other than set

theory to define his pitch structures, the notion of reflection supplied by the scriptural text

extends into unsanctioned but certainly relevant domains, thereby demonstrating the

coordination of mirrored inversion in contour, gesture, and pitch-class relationships

within an isolated moment.

Example 5-9. “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, mm. 3-5
 190

Whereas the reference to mirroring focuses our attention on contour and pitch-

class inversions, it can shed light on contrapuntal relationships as well, rendering the

separate voices as subtle reflections of one another. In the second half of m. 1, the top

voice plays all twelve chromatic pitches in a swift string of undifferentiated sixteenth

notes, while the middle and pedal voices articulate just four notes each within this span

(Example 5-10). However, by searching for reflective qualities of the other voices in

relation to the aggregate, we realize that three of the middle-voice notes repeat pitches

from the top line right after they appear: B-flat, A-flat, and D follow directly from their

counterparts in the chromatic melody, as if to give the content of the primary voice back

to itself. At the same time, the pedal articulation of A and B occurs just before the same

notes in the top voice. Whereas isolated pitches drawn from a flurry of sixteenth notes

resound in the middle voice below, the aggregate provides a subtle reflection of the pedal.

Thus the voices are in a constant state of mirroring as they point to one another, and

enrich Messiaen’s poietic claim that the movement is a meditation on the Holy Trinity

(Gillock 2010, 167).

Example 5-10. “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, m. 1

Though the notion of mirroring provides a rich concept for a close reading of

musical details, the scripture points out that the image within the mirror is obscured and
 191

incoherent, thereby suggesting a tension between the desire and the inability to see

clearly. This dialectic of clarity and obscurity179 can help us categorize rare moments of

simplicity within the opaque texture that pervades the piece. The prevalent counterpoint,

unceasing motion, and lack of metric coordination all contribute to a complex musical

surface that correlates well with the notion of obscurity. Unlike the first movement of

Livre d’orgue, which exemplifies personnages rythmiques through a monophonic string

of ancient Indian rhythms, or the third movement, which features chords held over long

stretches of time, the texture of this movement is an entangled web of chromatic lines.

Except for m. 1, where the voices enter in turn, and m. 4, where the bottom voices rest to

initiate the gestural imitation described above, all voices sound continuously in three

distinct melodies that are made to conflict rhythmically through the pervasive rhythmic

disunity of triplets, quintuplets, tied notes, and added values. Though the ubiquitously

arcane texture supports an interpretation of obscurity, fleeting shifts to rhythmic and

textural stasis create moments of clarity that punctuate the welter of complexity. The

most salient examples appear in mm. 1 and 4, where the bottom voices are silent

momentarily so that the top voices can be heard in isolation, offering rare moments of

rest in a work in perpetual motion. Another moment of textural clarity occurs in mm. 8

and 9 where the bottom two voices suddenly acquire supporting roles as prolonged tones

undergirding the more active top voice (Example 5-11). The surrounding atonal and

ametrical counterpoint transforms into evanescent pedal-point. This pause in momentum

is marked by opposition with the surrounding texture to create a rare moment of textural

simplicity that correlates with the notion of fleeting insight. Similarly brief examples of

179
A similar dichotomy is suggested by the subtitle of II. “Offertoire: Les Choses visibles
et invisibles” from Messe de la Pentecôte.
 192

clarity in the form of pedal point occur in mm. 11, 13, and 18. The conceptual world

supplied by the scriptural intertext offers a narrative lens through which to interpret the

textural changes as a dialectical unfolding of momentary clarity amid pervasive

obfuscation.

Example 5-11. “II. Pièce en trio” from Livre d’orgue, mm. 6-9

From these examples, we can see how Messiaen’s interpretive use of poetry in the

analyses of Tome VI can be a model for how to analyze his own works in light of the

added scriptural quotations. Whether or not Messiaen manifested the themes of each

reference in the musical fabric of his works directly, each scriptural quote enriches

musical and extramusical interpretation by creating an aura of authority around the music

and by providing imagery that casts unique lights on particular structural and expressive
 193

components of the work. Messiaen’s scripture references serve interpretive functions

similar to those of the poetic intertexts of Tome VI.

III. Ellipses

In comments on Debussy’s Préludes from an interview with Almut Rößler,

Messiaen makes an inadvertent misreading of the score. Whereas Debussy precedes the

title that concludes each piece with an enigmatic ellipsis, Messiaen recalls the order of

ellipsis and title in reverse: “Here the titles aren’t written above, but rather below the

pieces; once the piece is at an end, one can let the title have its effect on one; at the end of

the title, there are three dots: everything is left open, one can think this or something

different” (Rößler 1986, 136).

By imagining the ellipsis as a gesture into the hermeneutic space created by the

juxtaposition of title and work, Messiaen’s comments reflect his interpretive use of

poetry in Tome VI. The addition of poetic insights opens a world of possibilities for

musical understanding beyond the confines of the score. Creating shifts in analytical

discourse, the poems elevate the meaning of works, orient them within presumed

narratives, and turn images and concepts into structural and expressive insights. Like

Messiaen’s misplaced ellipsis, the added poems involve open interpretation that depends

on imaginative correlations between musical and poetic meaning. This same creative

approach to hermeneutics could help us push beyond the immanent meanings of

Messiaen’s own music toward a world of associations initiated by his supplied intertexts.
 194

Epilogue

A picture of Messiaen as an interpreter has emerged over the course of this

dissertation. Offering an alternative to a search for influence, my hermeneutic approach

yields a fuller picture of Messiaen’s engagement with his predecessor’s music, which

often takes place through lenses associated with his own music. This study foregrounds

the interpretive power of analytical language, demonstrating how Messiaen’s technical

terms, metaphors, and poetic intertexts provide access to and create meaning in

Debussy’s scores.

My approach to Tome VI sets a precedent for further critical readings of

Messiaen’s words within and outside of the Traité as traces of an interpretive practice.

As he does with the Debussy analyses, Messiaen approaches the music of Stravinsky,

Beethoven, Ravel, Mozart, and others through distinct modes of interpretation that

become apparent in analytical language; and reading these essays intertextually with the

rest of the Traité may reveal further commonalities between analysis and composition.

The present study offers a way of understanding even non-analytical statements about

predecessors found in interviews and lectures as articulations of identity and interpretive

perspective.

Just as Messiaen’s compositional theories of structure and meaning provide ways

of conceptualizing music in Tome VI, the theories themselves are permeated by diverse

modes of understanding. A hermeneutic investigation of Messiaen’s self-reflective

commentaries can thus enrich our concept of his eclectic worldview presented in the

Traité. For example, a more robust understanding of Messiaen’s rhythmic ideas might

emerge from contextualizing his use of embodied metaphors within broader theological
 195

or philosophical conceptions of the human body. A more detailed map of the relationship

between aesthetics and structure could emerge from exploring the types of meaning that

the notion of embodiment brings to bear on non-retrogradable rhythm, augmentation and

diminution techniques, and personnages rythmiques. By examining Tome VI as the trace

of a hermeneutic practice, we have opened the door to new readings of Messiaen’s Traité

and the interpretations that form its content.

Just as the analyses of Tome VI are bound up with the larger conceptual world of

Messiaen’s compositional approach, so are the ways that Messiaen articulates his

understanding of self and other connected with cultural means of expression and

conceptions of the world. Summarizing the cultural anthropology of Clifford Geertz,

Gary Tomlinson notes that “meanings arise from the connections of one sign to others in

its context; without such a cultural context there is no meaning, no communication”

(1984, 351). In a future study, it would be worth considering the ways in which

Messiaen’s cultural web enabled his idiosyncratic musical insights to communicate

effectively with the postwar generation of composers and audiences. Though he intended

his class as a forum for inventive musical analysis—what he called “super-

composition”—it took place within the symbolic order of postwar Europe. Many of

Messiaen’s analytical points about Debussy and his own music may be striking for their

unconventionality, but they exemplify sets of values that exist outside of Messiaen

himself. Messiaen scholarship could benefit from the addition of this cultural layer to the

hermeneutic model propounded here by exploring the way his subjective engagement

with music is suffused with the perspective of his time and place.
 196

Appendix 1:

Translation of “Claude Debussy or the Rhythms of Water”180

[pp. 15-16 of Tome VI]

Claude Debussy remained a great lover of nature for his entire life. For him, there was

only joy in the dream, and illusion was superior to reality. Likewise he loved all that

ravishes the eye or the eyes in nature, all that lulls [berce], shimmers, changes and

disappears: clouds and wind, water and reflections in the water, echo and shadow, light

on young leaves, flakes of snow and fog, waves of grass under the caress of the wind, the

supple and terrifying motion of the sea’s waves. It appears as if the liquid element was

always his preference: more than anything else it is mobile, exquisite, treacherous,

illusory—more than anything else it is rhythm and the suggestion of rhythms (we do not

forget that the word Rhythm derives from the Indo-European root SREU, to flow, and

fastens itself to concepts of irregular periodicity and of perpetual variation of which the

waves of the ocean provide us with a magnificent example). Water is everywhere in

Debussy. Certain titles leave no doubt of its presence: “Reflets dans l’eau,” “Sirènes,”

“Ondine,” “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest,” and the three movements of the symphony on the

sea: “De L’Aube à midi sur la mer,” “Jeux de vagues,” “Dialogue du vent et de la mer.”

It is not at all by coincidence that he chose Baudelaire’s “Le Jet d’eau,” and that one of

the most poetic sections of his marvelous “Chansons de Bilitis” would be “Le Chant des

grenouilles vertes qui commencent avec la nuit” (the ‘alyte’ toad sings under the stones,

180
Translation and musical examples have been reprinted by kind permission of Éditions
Musicales Alphonse Leduc © 2001.
 197

but the green frog croaks at the water’s edge of ponds and little pools). It is in a melody

on water that he used his most characteristic rhythm permanently—in the background

theme and with ravishing harmonies—short appoggiatura on the beat, in the manner of

clavecinists, written every time as with two ascending tones. (This call is

found again in “l’Après-midi d’un faune”: with a dynamic marking

that increases the effect. See also the trumpet “au sortir des souterrains” from Pelléas:

). The text of this melody on water deserves to be cited: it is taken

from “Promenoir des deux amants” by Tristan l’Hermite (an exquisite poet, dramaturge,

and novelist from the early 17th century, unjustly forgotten). Here are the stanzas of

which some terms have a rather Debussian resonance: “Near this dark grotto—Where

one breathes such sweet air—The waves struggle with the pebbles—And the light with

the shadow—These currents, weary of the exertion—They have made beneath the

gravel—Rest in this stream—Where long ago Narcissus died. The shadow of that

vermillion flower—And that of the hanging jonquils—Seem to be there within—The

dreams of the sleeping water.”181

181
Tristan l’Hermite (1601-1655), “La Grotte,” translated in Barbara Meister, Nineteenth-
Century French Song: Fauré, Chausson, Duparc, and Debussy (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1980), 373-374.
 198

Appendix 2:

Translation of Two Analyses of Pelléas et Mélisande, Act I, Scene 3182

I. 1980

[p. 64]

The first two measures of the example above boil down to a dominant-tonic progression

in E major. For the dominant (1st measure), 4 sonorities: dominant ninth (9/7/+)—minor

ninth with the tonic (E) replacing the leading-tone [à la place de la sensible] and added

major sixth (G-sharp)—dominant ninth—minor ninth with added major sixth. For the

182
Translation and musical examples have been reprinted by kind permission of Éditions
Musicales Alphonse Leduc © 2001.
 199

tonic (2nd measure): chord in second inversion (6/4) with added sixth (C-sharp) and

augmented fourth appoggiatura (A-sharp). 3rd measure: sequence

[p. 65] of chords in third inversion. 4th measure: Dorian mode (transposed into C-sharp

minor with A-sharp). Charming orchestration: the harmonic background [created by] the

flutes in the medium low register, the bass by the cellos and horn. The 1st violins, 2nd

violins, and violas (muted) groan two by two, placed within eighth-note triplets (these are

triplets in relation to the 4/4 meter of the theme). The theme stands out very clearly amid

this resonant atmosphere; it is entrusted to the delicately expressive timbre of the solo

oboe.

Immediately afterwards, the horns—repeating the slow, lower appoggiatura characteristic

of Debussy—transform the C-sharp delightfully into C-natural and bring the theme of the

scene and the raising of the curtain. The scenery theme (2 measures before 36)

represents the gardens beside the sea in a bluish color from the end of the day.

It is a C major dominant-ninth chord with the tonic (C) replacing the leading-tone. As in

the middle of L’Après-midi d’un faune, groups of three eighth notes are accented in

groups of two eighth notes, the accentuation being indicated by slurs in the flutes, and
 200

underscored by quarter notes in the clarinets: division of the measure’s 12 eighth notes

into 6 groups of 2 eighth notes. This effect is contradicted by the cellos, which create a

charming melodic motion in pizzicato over open-string double-stops, dividing 12 eighth

notes into 4 groups of 3, and adding the complication of the eighth-note quadruplet (4 in

the place of 6). Unobtrusive bass made by the contrabasses. The held-note entrusted to

the horn is a middle-register C (the tonic). One cannot admire too much the gentleness of

these flutes in thirds in the medium low register, of these clarinets in seconds, whose

inner emphasis, the hidden pulse, encompasses the pale grey of the flutes with blue and

mauve. In the 2nd measure after 36, the whole-tone sonority—made ambiguous by a

ninth on an added sixth over B-flat in the bass—causes a change of color, enhanced by

the nasal thirds of the oboes, the brassy piano horns, some most important pizzicato, and

Mélisande’s theme in the violins.

From the raising of the curtain to 38, we have seen Mélisande—in the company of

Geneviève—contemplating the forest, the gardens, and the last light of day on the distant

sea. The scenery theme and Mélisande’s theme have sufficed. Starting at 38, Pelléas is

perceived—then entering the scene—whose theme we will hear without end. At the

exact moment that he enters (rehearsal 40), the flute gives us an interesting rhythmic

variation

[p. 66]

on the Pelléas theme:

 201

First the theme itself in diminution. Then the theme augmented by irrational values

(duplets), by elongation of the penultimate note (the eighth note from a duplet tied to a

quarter note) and of the final note (dotted quarter note). Finally, the descending-fourth

fall that ends the theme is repeated alone like an echo always in augmentation.

According to the text, Pelléas climbs from a lower path or from a staircase toward the

light of the sea—that is to say toward the surreal and infinite light of Mélisande. His

head, then his shoulders, then his entire body emerge slowly from the blue shadow. At

the end of the scene, Pelléas and Mélisande will descend together toward the dark road,

and their two silhouettes will sink progressively into the mystery of love and dreams, into

this enchanted land where no one will be able to follow them… At the Opéra-Comique in

Paris, these two motions are carried out on a staircase placed to the left of the scene. In a

performance of Pelléas et Mélisande (the text by Maeterlinck alone, without music)

given for a long time at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, the staircase—invisible—was at

the back of the scene: Pelléas appeared to emerge from the sky and sea; then the two

lovers reentered little by little into the great beyond, absorbed by the blue, wrapped up in

an enchanted fog, mingled with the sea, mingled with the sky!...

A sinister root-position chord of G-sharp minor reiterated three times depicts for us the

calm and yet menacing sea. Treacherous like the wave! “It is so calm now…”, Pelléas

says to us; and the theme of Golaud is heard immediately in the horns:
 202

Placed amid the root-position G-sharp minor chord, the horn’s 2 notes—F and G

(actually E-sharp and F-double-sharp) which are given rhythms like this—truly produce

the feeling of notes with no outcome in the passage—a feeling strengthened by the 2nd

anacrusis, which leads to nothing: indeed, immediately after this rhythm, a C-sharp

minor chord, immaterial and suddenly piano, abruptly changes the worrying face into an

impassive mask. We have there an example of very short values (eighth note, dotted

sixteenth note, and thirty-second note) inserted within very long values (dotted whole

note and dotted half note of the background). And it is Golaud who will be the tragedy’s

instrument, of which Pelléas has the premonition: “One boarded without knowledge and

would no longer return.” The awe-inspiring calls of sailors backstage add to the agony

that grips us… 3rd measure after 42. Measure in 6/4. The first three beats: parallel

ninth-chords. Above the cello pizzicati, the flutes stand out in groaning thirds (further

on, the oboes in contrary motion with the flutes).

[p. 67] Three last beats: at the culmination of the orchestra’s ascending motion, a longer

ninth chord. At the very top, the muted trumpet holds a C (later a C-sharp), the 1st violins

a tremolo D (later a D-sharp). There is an altogether extraordinary rhythm of dynamics

there. One knows that a held-note can divide itself into several small durations if it is

affected by dynamic changes, the listener hearing not the long written duration but the

different instances of crescendo and decrescendo or the different instances of strength and
 203

weakness. Here, the trumpet plays a half note tied to an eighth note and the violins a

dotted half note; they attack together:

Dynamic indication for the trumpet:

Dynamic indication for the violins:

The two together:

 204

The listener hears this approximately:

At the center of the orchestra, the horns add the rhythm of Golaud:

Dynamic indication for the horns:

The 1st anacrusis in crescendo, the 1st strong accent; 2nd anacrusis and 2nd accent in

decrescendo, echoing the preceding music.

 205

[p. 68] Let us superimpose the horns, trumpet, and violins:

The rhythm of dynamics will be more or less:

Summary of dynamics:
 206

I return to the first 3 beats. If we disregard a secondary pattern in the violas, the cello

pizzicati are heard principally: and the flutes:

The harmonies change with each quarter note.

Still the 3rd measure after 42, rhythm of harmonies, rhythm of durations, rhythm of

dynamics, rhythm of timbres. Rhythm of chords (the harmonic order):

(the final ninth chord with an added sixth).

Rhythm of durations (the quantitative order):

Rhythm of dynamics (the dynamic order):

[p. 69] Rhythm of timbres (the phonetic order):

 207

And all of these so different rhythms are the product of the same music: the music of the

3rd measure after rehearsal 42!

4 measures before 43, a sensational orchestral effect! It is a root-position D major chord,

followed by an F-sharp half-diminished seventh chord (2nd inversion), the whole resulting

from the dominant ninth divided into 2 groups, and forming a transposed Mixolydian

mode. In the piano-vocal score, it is an actual feature of the piano (broken octaves),

which was necessary to orchestrate at all costs (it is known that the piano-vocal score for

Pelléas is a first version rather than a reduction). Here is how Debussy proceeded: held-

note chords in the woodwinds, 1st chord crescendo, 2nd chord grace-note, sforzando,

decrescendo. The important thing was the repeated F-sharp, the repetition being achieved

by the meeting between the two hands over the same key on the piano. The flutes repeat

the F-sharp in sixteenth notes (double articulation); the violins repeat it in triplets within

sixteenth notes (skipped). The whole life of the passage vibrates with the violas and

cellos, perpetually playing the same notes: F-sharp, A—some in arco, legato eighth

notes, others in sixteenth notes and in syncopated pizzicato. Debussy had already used

this internal scratching of pizzicato [coup d’ongle intérieur], which repeats the arco

articulations, in “Nuages” for orchestra.

At rehearsal 43, Mélisande’s theme in the oboes and the flute. There is talk of the boat

that led Mélisande to the kingdom of Allemonde, to the old castle. “The boat retreats with

full sails. It is hardly visible any longer. Perhaps it will wreck!” It is Mélisande’s first

life that disappears: Pelléas is there; a second life begins. Night falls. Chorus backstage
 208

with closed mouths, pianissimo, very distant, barely audible. Imperceptible tremolo in

the violins. With the night, the death that lurks behind love, and the Golaud theme in the

low-register flutes, then by the higher-pitched horns (although they play the same notes),

in echo of the flutes.

[p. 70] Harmonically, the ‘harmonic litany’ procedure. The same notes are repeated with

a different harmonization. The flutes harmonize F and G with naturals (D-natural, E-

natural); the horns harmonize F and G with flats (D-flat, E-flat). First harmonization

(that of the flutes): diminished-seventh chord, 3rd inversion (+2)—then E and G added

(or ornamentation without resolution), making the harmony ambiguous with the major

third and minor third together within the first-inversion triad.

Second harmonization (that of the horns): dominant-seventh chord, 2nd inversion or the

leading-tone at the sixth (+6), E-flat and G-natural added, or as decoration—or better: a

D-flat ninth chord (from the bass note) with G-natural (added augmented fourth)—that is

to say all the notes of resonance:

 209

Compare it with this other example of a ‘harmonic litany’ from “L’Hommage à Rameau”

for piano by the same composer:

I return to my example from Pelléas. We have looked at the timbres, the harmony, the

symbolism—let us analyze the rhythm.

It is the same rhythm two times in a row. The accent and inflexion [désinence] are

longer the second time. The first time (flutes): hastened anacrusis—the accent is worth 3

eighth notes—the ending is composed of an eighth note and a quarter note. The ending is

interrupted; it is missing the final note of Golaud’s theme. It traces the empty silence

[silence vide] of 6 eighth-note rests. This silence can neither pass for the prolongation of

the first phrase, nor for the preparation of the second phrase: it is therefore an empty

silence. The pianissimo sul tasto tremolo in the violins, which continues during the 6

eighth-note rests, neither impedes nor stops the music and the rhythm, nor the empty

silence. Second time (the horns): hastened anacrusis—the accent is worth 5 eighth

notes—the ending includes a dotted quarter note and a quarter note. The ending is again

interrupted by the return of the

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[p. 71]

scenery theme in the flutes and clarinets. Let us compare the 2 phrases: 1st and 2nd

phrases, the anacruses are alike. 1st phrase: the accent is worth 3 eighth notes—2nd

phrase: the accent is longer, worth 5 eighth notes. 1st phrase: the ending includes an

eighth note and a quarter note—2nd phrase: the ending is longer; it is elongated by the

augmentation of the penultimate note (dotted quarter note replacing the eighth note)—the

final duration stays a quarter note. In the 1st phrase, the ending, which remains in

suspense, already gave the rhythm an incomplete, hesitant, and unusual character. In the

2nd phrase, the longer accent and the longer ending—far from increasing the significance

of the rhythm—dilutes it, drowns it: it is like an echo, a resonance from the preceding

durations…

In the 2nd measure after 45, we rediscover the scenery theme. With a shallow excuse,

Geneviève departs, leaving Pelléas and Mélisande alone with the garden, the sea, the

night, and their still unconfessed love. Mélisande’s theme, which we will hear till the end

of the act: it is Mélisande’s love that directs and justifies everything from this moment

onward. Pelléas’s love will reveal itself to be more passionate, bolder, more lyrical, in

the hair scene from Act III. For the most poetic, affecting, and magical moment of love,

for budding love, the beginning of love, Maeterlinck and Debussy, who are men, have

chosen the female; they have chosen Mélisande. If the authors had been women, perhaps

they would have done the opposite… The words bear everything:

Pelléas: Nothing can be seen anymore on the sea…

Mélisande: I see other lights. (She sees Pelléas)

 211

Pelléas: Will you give me your hand?

Mélisande: See, I have hands full of flowers. (These are the bonds that join her to

Golaud).

At this moment, a variation on Mélisande’s theme, without the final note:

Rehearsal 47: an exquisite tonic pedal in F-sharp major (the final key of Act I), over

which Mélisande’s theme descends slowly, first in the flute, then the oboe, still more

expressively. The final rejoinder:

Pelléas: I will leave tomorrow perhaps… (During the entire work, he announces his

delayed departure repeatedly. He will actually leave in Act IV, and it will be to his

death). Mélisande only sees, only understands the physical departure of Pelléas. All the

light, the entire sky, all of love would leave with him! She receives a shock. An

imperceptible shock rendered by a pianissimo major-seventh chord in third inversion.

Mélisande: Oh!... why do you leave?—This exquisite declaration of insinuated love is

marked by vocal chromaticism: the G-natural of the shock from the minor second

transforms itself into G-sharp, a ninth added to the root-position F-sharp major chord.
 212

[p. 72]

Conclusion:

1st measure: Mélisande’s theme in the flutes without the final note above the very gentle

background of the muted string quartet: short note tied to a long note, the decorative

group of notes remains in suspense. 2nd measure: A-sharp dominant-ninth chord; in the

horn, Golaud’s theme reduces to 3 notes (very short values inserted into very long

values); it is a recollection, a vague memory, Golaud is erased in this exceptional

moment… the horn provides an added sixth (G, that is to say F-double-sharp). 3rd

measure: Mélisande’s theme in the flutes, always without the final note; the short note is

no longer tied to the long note. 4th measure: submediant chord. Mélisande’s theme in a

process of elimination: the flute plays the first note—G-sharp; the pizzicato 2nd violins

make the two decorative notes audible simultaneously: A-sharp, C-sharp. The final two

measures: root-position F-sharp major with an added ninth and sixth. This sonority has

been employed frequently ever since, but it has never rediscovered the unique poetry of

this miraculous moment. The horns hold the pianissimo harmony like a caress and play
 213

the added sixth. The pizzicato contrabasses try to specify an elusive bass. The flutes

play a single note: G-sharp—the added ninth—the first note and new termination of

Mélisande’s theme.

As in half-sleep where objects around us seem lighter, reduced to minor details, so does

Mélisande’s theme become blurred little by little. They also—the silhouettes of Pelléas

and Mélisande—have melted into the night. The music ceases in its turn. It would seem

that all is finished. But Pelléas and Mélisande will always gaze at each other, and their

love, which lives around us, is always there, and the magical memory of the vanishing

sonorities continues to prolong in our hearts the fragrance of the ineffable thing…

II. 1991/92

[p. 79]

* This is the last analysis written by Olivier Messiaen. It was written throughout the

winter of 1991-92, several weeks before his death.

Each year, Olivier Messiaen analyzed this work for his students, playing it at the piano,

singing it, each time adding some new commentary. He knew Pelléas et Mélisande so

well that he analyzed it from memory.

Between the written analysis of this same scene (see the preceding chapter) and this final

version, there were about 12 years. Certain excerpts are developed or clarified

differently, and publishing these two versions was essential.

 214

He had to love this scene in particular for its purity, its light, the evocation of nature: the

gardens, the forests, the flowers, the sea.

The ship that retreats from the harbor—a symbol of Time that retreats from us to go

toward the Great Beyond… toward the marvelous discovery of the love between Pelléas

and Mélisande—and likewise toward the misery of this 1st goodbye: Oh!...Why do you

leave?

[end of the editor’s introduction]

[p. 81]

I could have chosen some more theatrical and dramatic scenes from Pelléas such as the

underground scene, or the awful scene where Golaud spies on his wife through his son, or

some more stirring scenes such as the last scene from Act IV or the death of Mélisande at

the end of the work. I have preferred this 3rd scene from Act I because of the beauty of

its harmonies and orchestration, and especially because of the scenery that suited

Debussy perfectly. Indeed, this scene takes place “in front of the castle,” in a garden,

with a staircase, from which Pelléas is going to emerge, with the large forest around the

palace, and on the horizon: the sea. It is known that Debussy loved the water, and the

sea. It is enough to recall the titles of a few of his works in order to be convinced of that:

“Reflets dans l’eau,” “Sirénes,” “Ce qu’a vu le vent l’ouest,” “De L’Aube à midi sur la

mer,” “Jeux de vagues,” “Dialogue du vent et de la mer.”

 215

Led discreetly by the harmonies of the whole tone scale in the flutes and horn, the solo

oboe’s F-sharp hangs on well, and it is the solo oboe that is going to open the scene by

stating Mélisande’s theme in its entirety for the first time (orchestral rehearsal 35—page

46):

[p. 82]

Mélisande’s theme is composed essentially of one decorated note (a flower-embroidery),

then a conjunct, rising and falling motion, and a return to the flower-embroidery. Here, it

is in E major played by the solo oboe, accompanied by little groans (two by two within

triplets) in the muted strings. The 1st chord is a dominant ninth, the 2nd chord is a major

ninth with a diminished fifth (a chord beloved by Debussy) over B (dominant) in the

bass—3rd chord: return to the 1st chord.

 216

Second measure of the theme: E major triad in second inversion, but the A-sharp in the

violin gives it a Lydian color (transposed to E). Third measure of the theme: the D-

natural supplies a sequence of third-inversion chords and of Mixolydian (transposed).

Fourth measure of the theme: C-sharp minor, Dorian color (transposed). Transition in

the two horns by sliding from C-sharp to C-natural, which leads to the “scenery theme”

established on a dominant-ninth chord in C major with the tonic in place of the leading-

tone.

The scenery theme adopts a rhythm found already in the theme from the middle of

Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune: some triplet eighth notes marked two by two.
 217

This rhythm is entrusted to the clarinets and to the mellow timbre of the low flutes. A

held-note in the horn and the contrabasses supplements the harmony. The pizzicato of

the cellos in an eighth-note quadruplet and open-string double-stops provides a melodic

motion that arpeggiates the chord with fifth and fourth: D and G rising, A and D

descending (Pelléas will sing this same melodic motion a little later on the words: “and

one would no longer return to it”).

Second chord of the “scenery theme”: it is a chord from the whole-tone scale with a G-

natural embellishment, which does not belong to the whole-tone scale, and is going to

enable

[p. 83]

the overlay of Mélisande’s theme on the scenery theme (2nd measure after 36).

On these words from Geneviève—“There are some places where one never sees the

sun”—a ninth chord with diminished-fifth (one of the chords typical of Debussy). The

diminished-fifth (D-flat) is set in relief by the horns (which play each note crescendo-

decrescendo) and the pizzicato in the cellos. The chord—already dark in itself—acquires

a color here: red, blue, and black; and the D-flats are a blackish, nearly cavernous grey

that foreshadows the underground scene.

 218

At rehearsal 37 of the orchestral score, the strings remove their mutes; the flutes, then the

horns, play Mélisande’s theme, and the scenery theme undulates in the woodwinds (not

forgetting the presence of water). This passage is in F-sharp minor with a D-sharp

(transposed Dorian), which is made ambiguous with a dominant ninth (procedure used

frequently by Debussy). One measure before 38, the luminous chord of F-sharp major

with the A-sharp major third highlighted by the oboe and the 1st violins. The cello

pizzicati alternate with the horns in syncopation. “You will have the brightness of the

sea.” In fact, at rehearsal 38, the light does come because Pelléas is going to emerge

little by little from a staircase that climbs into the scene. It is the light for Mélisande…

The Pelléas theme, characterized by a repeated falling fourth:

The progression from darkness to light is almost Mode 2…

 219

[p. 84] Noting the text. Geneviève says to Mélisande, speaking of Pelléas: “He seems

tired of you once more having waited so long…” These entirely simple words symbolize

the predestination of love.

At rehearsal 39, the Pelléas theme gets excited, still in Mode 2, and the woodwind chords

grow out of the underlay of horns, alternating pizzicato, and anxious calls from the 1st

violins. At rehearsal 40, Pelléas appears. Immediately, one notices a change in the vocal

parts. While all the other characters from the work express themselves in a discrete,

nearly spoken melodic recitative, Pelléas sings with arpeggios and disjunct motion.

While he is singing, the solo flute plays his theme with rhythmic variations: 2 against 3,

short note tied to long note.

The horn and the held-note of the high-pitched violins place the dominant-ninth chord

with added sixth, typical of Debussy. Third and fourth measures after rehearsal 40: C

major with an F-sharp (transposed Lydian), G major with an F-natural (Mixolydian).

Fifth measure after 40: a G-sharp minor chord that represents the blackness of the sea.

One hears it three times in a row, always orchestrated differently. The words are

symbolic: “We will have a storm tonight, and yet it (the sea) is so calm now!” Already

the envy of Golaud, which will bring about the final murder, is watching. There is no

worse water than the water that sleeps. Above the theme in very long values in the

strings (a dotted whole note): Golaud’s theme in very short values (dotted sixteenth note,

thirty-second note) with some added notes that seem to not belong to the chord.
 220

This irruption of liveliness into the slowness, of agitation within calm, this stone in the

water: this is one of the characteristics of Debussian rhythm. See “Reflets dans l’eau”

for piano (measures 17, 18, and 19). See the English horn theme (2 measures before 1)

in “Nuages” for orchestra; note the extraordinary diminution-augmentation of the theme

in “Brouillards,” the 1st piece from the second book of Préludes for piano:
 221

[p. 85]

Above some ninth-chords descending by whole tones, Pelléas sings these prophetic

words—with the formula of arpeggiating the chord with fifth and fourth already

highlighted (G-sharp and C-sharp ascending, D-sharp and G-sharp descending): “One

boarded without knowledge and would no longer return.” He will play “like a child

around something that he does not suspect,” and will leave for good into the great

beyond…

Second measure after 41. Here, Debussy, who cut so many things from Maeterlinck’s

text, makes an addition. It is actually an orchestrational effect. As the boat that brought

Mélisande leaves the port and recedes on the sea, Debussy makes a small chorus
 222

(contraltos, tenors, basses) sing backstage who say: “Ho! Heave ho!” These sailor’s

cries would be ridiculous if one listened to the words: fortunately they are not hearable;

rather they are sound effects. Moreover, up to 42, we have—well before musique

concrète and electronic music—five measures of sound effects.

The sea is restless. Above a low tremolo of augmented fourths in the cellos and

contrabasses, the timpani roll on two timpanis likewise in augmented fourths and this

rhythm from the bassoons:

[p. 86]

Duplet and triplet, with a tied value at the end of the duplet and at the end of the triplet.

If we account for the silences, the last connection provides a short note tied to a long

note: eighth note tied to 6 eighth notes (a duration of 7 eighth notes). At 42, parallel

root-position chords in the low register played by the three bassoons, the violas and

contrabasses in tremolo, and some cello pizzicato in syncopation. The melodic motion D,

F, G (ascending) has furnished via its permutations the horn call from L’Aprés-midi d’un

faune and the Pelléas theme:

The 4th and 5th chords link A major to C minor. This progression of root-position A

major and C minor chords—and the opposite: C minor-A major—is often heard in

Debussy. It is descended from Mode 2.

 223

The 3rd measure after 42 is particularly remarkable. See the 3rd measure after 42, page 57

of the orchestral score:

[p. 87]

[p. 88] It will be repeated 4 times: 2 times with flats, 2 times with sharps.

There are four parallel dominant ninths, played by the 3rd horn, the 2nd violins, and the

contrabass pizzicati. An arpeggiated counterpoint of the violas and some pizzicato sixths

in the cellos complement them. What is immediately striking are the flute thirds in

descending groans. Over the fourth ninth chord, the 3 horns make the Golaud theme
 224

audible: a hasty anacrusis (dotted sixteenth note, thirty-second note) that results in a

triple decoration of the chord, providing a major ninth with an added sixth, a typical

chord for Debussy. And here is the most extraordinary part. In the second half of the

measure, there is a rhythm that is heard but not written with durational values: it is a

rhythm of dynamics. The muted trumpet stresses the C (ninth) through a brief

crescendo and decrescendo. The violins in turn highlight the D (third) through a

crescendo-decrescendo in tremolo. The trumpet crescendo-decrescendo has its climax

over the second sixteenth note. The violin crescendo-decrescendo in tremolo has its

climax over the sixth sixteenth note. Which gives the following more or less:

That is, a value of 4 sixteenth notes, then a value of 7 sixteenth notes. That is to say, in

6/4, a little isolated rhythm of 11 sixteenth notes [grouped] as 4 plus 7. The same motive

in sharps (5th measure after 42) conveys a variation of the orchestration that is heard

extensively. To the flute thirds with descending groan the oboes (most incisive) oppose

their climbing thirds (contrary motion).

In the 7th measure after 42, a finely worked and shimmering orchestra. Pelléas and

Mélisande see (or believe that they see) light from lighthouses above the fog that comes

out of the sea. They are the lights of a love still indistinct and undecided. The harmony

is first in D major with a C-natural (transposed Mixolydian), then in F major with an E-

flat (transposed Mixolydian). The woodwinds play the first chord in crescendo, then the

2nd chord with a grace note and an instantly diminishing sforzando. For the strings:
 225

alternation between the 1st and 2nd violins of triplet sixteenth notes in skips. There is

friction between the cellos and the violas: the cellos play a legato ascending third; the

violas play the same ascending third in pizzicato and syncopation. To all this is added a

little staccato flute motive, which provides in duplets what the 1st violins play in triplets.

2 measures before 43 in the piccolo: descending arpeggio on two notes (C, A, C, A)

which repeats the notes of the skipped triplets from the violins in duplets.

Rehearsal 43. From here to the end of the act, Mélisande’s theme is heard principally. It

is the nascent love of Mélisande that propels the scene.

Underneath a high-pitched, pianissimo held-note in the violins, the undulations from the

theme of the scene begin again

[p. 89]

(the sea is still present). The harmony of the scenery theme is changed. It is a decorated

dominant-ninth chord. The triple decoration is alternated between the 3 horns and the

strings, which blend ‘separato’—little arching bow strokes—pizzicato and tremolos over

the fingerboard. The triple decoration of the dominant ninth is perhaps originally from

the celebrated 3rd etude for piano by Chopin, opus 10?

 226

One hears the complete phrase of Mélisande’s theme in the flute and oboe doubling each

other in unison. 3rd and 4th measure after 43: progression of a B-flat dominant-seventh

and a root-position D minor triad. This very classic progression is presented in a novel

way: the B-flat dominant seventh becomes a minor ninth (C-flat) chord with an added

major sixth (G-natural), providing purple with a slightly yellow tint (complementary

colors)—the root-position D minor triad becomes a minor-seventh chord (C added to the

trumpet and to the high-pitched harmonic of the violin), providing white with a slightly

greenish tint (extremely cold colors, sad like the moon above the sea). Distant sound

effects of the cellos and contrabasses in tremolo. “Night falls very quickly;” death also.

Way backstage, the final call of the chorus results in a pianissimo diminished fifth,

strange, pale, and lunar.

And here is the most beautiful passage of this 3rd scene. It is necessary for the scenery

theme to return and to allow Geneviève to leave so that Pelléas and Mélisande can remain

alone. This is only a transition, but what a transition! It takes place one measure before

45 and in the 1st measure after 45. It is indeed a ‘harmonic litany,’ that is to say the notes

repeated with different harmonies. ‘Harmonic litanies’ are often found in Debussy. Here

is a very striking example, drawn from “L’Hommage à Rameau,” Images for piano, 1st

set:
 227

[p. 90]

The notes G-sharp and F-sharp are first harmonized with naturals, through the scale:

which blends Mixolydian (upper tetrachord) and Lydian (lower tetrachord).

They are harmonized afterwards with sharps:

by a dominant-ninth chord with an added sixth (E-sharp). This provides a big change of

color, accentuated by the motive in the left hand, which passes from D-natural to G-

sharp.

In the 3rd scene of Pelléas et Mélisande, one measure before 45 and the 1st measure after

45: these are the notes—F and G—that are first harmonized by naturals, then afterwards

by flats.

The third from the accompaniment (A-flat, B-natural) is very soft: they are from the

muted violins in tremolo played on the fingerboard. The harmonization in naturals is

 228

provided by the mellowness of the flutes in the low register—the harmonization in flats is

provided by the rounder and warmer horns. The harmonization in naturals is a decorated

diminished-seventh chord with the ornamentation remaining suspended with a dead-leaf

color that belongs to Mode 2(2). The harmonization in flats comes from the major-ninth

chord with an added augmented fourth (the chord of natural resonance). The first

harmonization was the color of a dead leaf (bright red with a little yellow); the second

harmonization is darker: purple with even a little yellow (complementary colors). The

return of the scenery theme (2nd measure after 45) will be white, tinted slightly by mauve.

One measure before 45 and the 1st measure after 45: the rhythm. It borrows from the

Golaud theme, but it is less active, more blurry, transient, indecisive. One measure

before 45, the final duration prolonging itself with the silence that follows it, provides a

short note tied to a long note. At 45, the 2nd value is 5 sixteenth notes (in place of 3

sixteenth notes in the preceding measure). The penultimate value is 3 eighth notes (in

place of 1 eighth note in the preceding measure); the final value is only 2 eighth notes.

[p. 91]

Three measures before 46, we rediscover the Mélisande theme superimposed with the

scenery theme. In the second measure after 46, a novel special effect. Over a conjunct

motion of four ascending notes that fall again by an augmented fourth, a descent of

parallel second-inversion chords, some rhythmic horn calls in reference to Golaud, and
 229

the music sinks into the sand at the bottom of the sea… A little ascent in the strings over

the Mélisande theme in equal values.

Pelléas: “Will you give me your hand?”

Mélisande: “See, I have hands full of flowers.”

It is a symbolic action. Unfortunately, Mélisande is going to marry Golaud… The

symbolic action is now altogether outdated. Maeterlinck used it a lot. One of the most

immense is one from a splendid piece: Alladine et Palomida. The two heroes of the work

are on a bridge; Alladine holds a lamb in his arms; the lamb darts toward Palomida, falls

into the pit filled totally with water, and drowns. That means that love and death have

arrived. By contrast in Pelléas et Mélisande, there is a particularly potent symbolic

action. At the end of Scene 3 from Act II, after the marvelous glistening of the blue

shadows, one catches sight of three poor old people, who have fallen asleep against a

rocky area, unconscious of the danger because the sea can climb suddenly and penetrate

the cave where they believe themselves to be safe. The three poor old people are

evidently Pelléas, Mélisande, and Golaud, who do not yet know what horrible tragedy

they are going to live through—a tragedy that will end in the death of Pelléas, then the

death of Mélisande, and perhaps much later the death of Golaud… Debussy understood

the symbol very well; he has clarified it through a very bare music: a sad song in the

oboe, sustained by a groan in the flute, which makes us think of the Innocent from

Mussorgsky’s ‘Boris Godounov’…

Rehearsal 47. We arrive at the end of the act, entirely in F-sharp major, dominated

entirely by the Mélisande theme whose budding love propels the scene. Mélisande has
 230

only known, in her childhood and past, a mysterious violence and mysterious murders, of

which we will never know the details. Having escaped and gone missing, she has made

somewhat of a marriage of convenience with Golaud. She discovers love all of a sudden,

seeing before her this young, beautiful, and enigmatic prince, “who says always that he is

leaving,” the only one truly worthy of this young princess with long hair, “whose tears

keep her from seeing the sky.” Over the tonic pedal of F-sharp major, a held-note in the

contrabasses, the Mélisande theme in the solo flute (the entire phrase). The theme’s

flower-embroidery is colored by a harmony analogous to the opening of scene 3: minor-

ninth chord with added major sixth, the leading-tone being voiced, the bass being the

tonic and not the dominant.

[p. 92]

The oboe continues the flute’s phrase. Accompanied by some parallel thirds in the muted

violas (an effect that had to be revived by Maurice Ravel in “Petit poucet” from Ma Mère

l’oye), it descends towards a B minor chord with C-natural (transposed Phrygian).

Pelléas: “I will leave perhaps tomorrow.”

 231

Mélisande: “Oh!... why do you leave?”

Major-seventh chord in third inversion. Without accounting for it, Mélisande receives a

slight shock. And it is her declaration of love, which Pelléas does not understand, and

which she perhaps does not even understand herself: ‘Why do you leave?” Excellently,

the opera singer’s G-natural, in place of the descent to F-sharp, climbs to G-sharp, giving

all of its questioning to the melody, and establishing the root-position major chord with

an added sixth and added ninth, a chord that must have been imitated so often

subsequently that it became a cliché: here, we hear it in all of its freshness—like the love

of Mélisande, it is a ‘first time:’

At 48, the wonderful final measures:

First the supreme calm of the chords. Root-position F-sharp major, A-sharp dominant-

ninth chord (with added sixth), and return to the root-position F-sharp
 232

[p. 93]

major, all underscored by the blended chromaticism in the violins. In the second measure

after 48, the hasty anacrusis of the Golaud theme: new irruption of liveliness into the

slowness, of excitement into calm: dotted sixteenth note and thirty-second note in the

solo horn against the half notes and whole notes in the muted strings. But this distant

aggressiveness would not be able to trouble the dormant water of Mélisande’s dream,

which takes place up high on another planet. I say “dream” because Mélisande’s theme,

handled by elimination, seems truly to fall asleep. It is heard first in the flute with its

flower-embroidery decelerated greatly and without culmination (short note tied to a long

note). A second time with a solo flute. A third time over the submediant chord: 1st note

in the flute; then the successive notes become concurrent; and the two notes—A-sharp

and C-sharp of the flower-embroidery—are played together through a light pizzicato of

second violins. Fourth time: it remains no longer except for the 1st note—G-sharp—in

the flute, providing the added ninth over the second-inversion triad with added sixth from

the pianissimo horns. And necessitating a little sacrifice of our spatio-temporal habits,

the F-sharp pizzicato in the contrabasses voices the root-position chord with added sixth

and ninth at last, so that the dreamlike happiness and otherworldliness vanishes and the

curtain falls…
 233

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CURRICULUM VITAE – TIMOTHY B. COCHRAN

Education

 Ph.D. Musicology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, 2012

 M.M. Music Theory, Temple University, 2007
 B.M. Music Theory & Composition, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, 2004

Teaching Experience

 Rider University, Westminster Choir College, Adjunct Instructor, 2010 – Present

 Temple University, Adjunct Instructor, 2010
 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Instructor, 2010
 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Teaching Assistant, 2009-2010
 Temple University, Teaching Assistant, 2005-2007

Publications

 Review of Debussy’s Late Style, by Marianne Wheeldon. Twentieth-Century Music

(forthcoming).
 Review of Unmasking Ravel: New Perspectives on the Music, edited by Peter Kaminsky.
Notes (forthcoming, December 2012).
 “The Rhythm of Water: Modes of Interpretation in Messiaen’s Analyses of Debussy’s
Music.” Proceedings of the 11th International Congress on Musical Signification
(forthcoming).

Paper Presentations

 “The Composer’s Eye: Interpretive Lenses in Messiaen’s Analyses of Debussy.”

“Claude Debussy’s Legacy: Du Rêve for Future Generations,” Montreal, Canada, 2012.
 “‘The Stone in the Water’: Debussy, Messiaen, and the Meaning of Rhythmic Contrast.”
Annual Meeting of the American Musicological Society, San Francisco, CA, 2011.
 “The Rhythm of Water: Modes of Interpretation in Messiaen’s Analyses of Debussy’s
Music.” 11th International Congress on Musical Signification, Krakow, Poland, 2010.
 “Temporality in the Music of John Adams.” 1st International Conference on Music and
Minimalism, Bangor, Wales, 2007.