Search Results

This epilogue sums up the key findings about the religious music composition of Olivier Messiaen. It suggests that Messiaen's is far from exemplifying a Christian music of asceticism or contemptus mundi and that it remains deeply affirmative. In this respect, his work is close to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche and his affinities seem closer to the lands of the Mediterranean than to the realm of Teutonic imagination. This chapter contends that the dialectic of abstinence and redemption in the structure of Parsifal is answered in Messiaen by a joyous Yes-saying because his music is ultimately a music of Yes.

With only a few exceptions, organ music since the time of Max Reger had lost its connection to the general development of advanced music. Composers were inspired to use the serial technique to organize musical elements other than pitch by the revolutionary approach to rhythm developed in the 1930s and 1940s by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. Unlike most other avant-garde composers, Messiaen was an organist and thus very interested in the organ and in trying to apply new compositional techniques to his instrument. The chapter also provides information on the Bremen concert in May 1962 that was regarded by the music critics as revolutionary in approach.

This chapter looks at French composer Yves-Marie Pasquet’s Music (2013). This is an undeniably challenging but rewarding vehicle for a soprano and pianist of exceptional ability: three songs of exhilarating virtuosity written in an elegantly disciplined idiom which could be termed ‘sensuous serialism’. Pasquet’s ear for vocal timbre and colour is unerring: he continually exploits the voice at its radiant best and shows a deep understanding of the physical aspect of singing. The pianist also will have a field day with a cornucopia of luscious harmonies, dynamic percussive effects, and exuberant passagework. A bright, pearly vocal quality must be found, in order to weave the highly decorative lines with agility and grace, even in pianissimo. Swinging over wide intervals keeps the voice pliable and relaxed. This means that the lower tessitura of the last song should cause no problems. The singer will be ‘sung in’ but not ‘sung out’, and low notes will still feel comfortably centred.

This introductory chapter explains the coverage and objective of this book, which is to examine the role of French composer Olivier Messiaen on the reinvention of religious music. This book is driven by the conviction that one can aspire to come close to the phenomenon of the musicosacral or the sacromusical only by continuously and persistently positing the demarcation question about the quiddity of distinction of religious music. It suggests that by breaking new ground in religious music composition, Messiaen has invited a confrontation with contemporary theologians and post-secular thinkers including Hans Urs von Balthasar, Jean-Luc Marion, and Jacques Derrida.

This chapter attempts to answer the question about what Olivier Messiaen exactly had in mind with his compositions of religious music. It shows that there was a gradual shift in Messiaen's musical localization of religion. While his earlier works emphasize the sincerity of feelings, his later compositions suggest this subjective dimension has faded into the background. This chapter also examines Messiaen's conception of the relation between music and religion, and concludes that Messiaen was ambivalent both about the idea of pure music and about the idea of pure expression.

This chapter examines the compositional side of the music of dazzlement of Olivier Messiaen's religious music. It analyzes five passages from La Transfiguration and suggests though that there are great mutual differences between them there are also a number of tendencies that they have in common. At the point of spectacle of breakthrough and dazzlement, Messiaen appears to be doing a great deal more than evoking synthetic effects in his music because there are aspects of narrativity and mise-en-scene in play that indicate a step beyond musical content in the direction of form.

This chapter examines the connection and convergence between the religious music composition of Olivier Messiaen and the works and philosophy of Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Messiaen considers von Balthasar a major influence. However, the music of Messiaen appears to fall beyond the theological schemes that it alleges to adhere to, and these theological schemes have the greatest difficulty in maintaining what they actually assert. An analysis of von Balthasar's philosophy indicates that he bases his musical theology on the notations of Gestalt and on the information of the total Idea in the arts, in the form of a flowing rhythm, evolving melody, and theatrical plot of development.

This chapter examines the music of dazzlement in Olivier Messiaen's religious music composition based on the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion. It explains that Marion contrasts everyday experience to two exceptional phenomena that constitute a frame that may help interpret the phenomenon of breakthrough: the idol whose luster is closely related to the thematics of overwhelming in La Transfiguration, and the icon which Marion relates to a different sort of excess than that which can be found in the idol. This chapter analyzes where the phenomenology of idol and icon provide a key for understanding the relation between religion and music, and argues that the position of Messiaen is poised between iconicity and idolatry.

This chapter examines the conflict between Olivier Messiaen's testimony on the hyperreligious qualities and the technicity in his music. It proposes a concept of technics that may be used for analyzing the singularity of breakthrough together with both structural possibility and empirical cases of the repetitions of it. This chapter asserts that the technical is a constitutive part of what Messiaen calls breakthrough and that that singularity of religious experience is always contaminated with the artificiality and repeatability of technics.

This chapter examines an aspect of breakthrough in Olivier Messiaen's religious music composition concerning listening “here” and listening in the “beyond”. It analyzes the Judeo-Christian tradition relevant to music hearing and listening. These are the circumcision of the ear and the notion derived from the patristic tradition of the spiritual ear. This chapter suggests that the breakthrough toward the beyond, which Messiaen considers a musical possibility, situates the listener at once inside and outside faith.

This chapter explores a contemporary work for contralto by William Mathias. The piece runs in a continuous span, but contains many contrasting sections within it. Although conceived for a rich, low voice, it also requires the lightness and agility to articulate swift staccato passages with aplomb. The highest pitches are at a loud dynamic. Otherwise, the contralto’s strong chest register is exploited rewardingly. A good deal of stamina is required to sustain and conserve energy through a welter of varied gestures and moods, which are enhanced by a striking piano part. The musical language is ‘advanced traditional’. It should prove an excellent vehicle for an enterprising duo able to give an authoritative interpretation. The inspiring text is an additional asset.

This chapter takes a look at some examples of James Primosch’s sacred music. It shows how the solo song cycle Three Sacred Songs exemplifies his consistency, integrity, and technical skill. Here, assured craftsmanship is welded to sincere spiritual conviction—a winning combination, which communicates strongly and directly. Three widely contrasting movements form a satisfyingly balanced whole. The vocal writing is modal and mellifluous, and eminently practical, avoiding extreme demands of range or technical virtuosity. Sopranos, tenors, light mezzos, and even high baritones can take it on board. The piano parts supply a wealth of translucent, well-balanced textures, which are entirely idiomatic and lie comfortably under the hands. The general tone is radiant and joyful—a welcome antidote to the more melancholy aspects of religious music. The piece is ideal for a church recital, and a resonant acoustic will add bloom to its sonic beauty.

This chapter presents a song cycle by Malcolm Williamson, entitled Celebration of Divine Love. Williamson was a devout Catholic, and the influence of Olivier Messiaen (1908–92) is unmistakeable, especially in additive rhythms as well as sensuous harmonies. The soprano writing is rewardingly spectacular and the pianist too will be able to project driving rhythms and luscious colours. The musical language is highly accessible, with a strong harmonic sense, and pitch cues are frequently to be found in the piano part. The piece runs in one whole span, divided into subsections, which change markedly in pace and character. The broad sweep of the phrases should prove useful for consolidating vocal strength and control.

When the 67-year-old composer of organ, piano, voice, and orchestral music, Olivier Messiaen, accepted his first opera commission, he seized the opportunity both to renovate what he saw as a moribund form and to ensconce his deep Catholic faith in the opera house. By the time the frequently postponed Saint François d’Assise was premiered 8 years later in 1983, Messiaen had been taxed creatively, physically, psychologically, and emotionally. This first and last monumental opera was to be his final testimony to his religious faith and his musical innovations (in rhythm, harmony, and melody): once briefly a “super-serialist,” Messiaen had developed his own idiosyncratic modernist style, based on a complex transformation of birdsong. The opera’s sheer scale and its musical complexity match its religious aim: to make its audience experience, through the music, nothing less than transcendence—a sensual, emotional dazzlement (“éblouissement”). The opera completed, Messiaen felt “finished” as a composer, but for this deeply Catholic man, who had dedicated his life and his work to expressing the truths of the faith, not to write music again constituted a significant threat to his very sense of himself.

This chapter unpacks the hypothesis that early video was used by artist-composers to bring together the separate but related histories of music and art. Starting in the early modern era, it identifies an emerging audiovisual culture that ran through visual music, audible art, audio-visual instruments, colour-sound synaesthesia and experimental film. With reference to the theories of Gotthold Lessing, Daniel Albright, Richard Leppert, Theodor Adorno and Nicholas Cook, musicians ranging from Wagner, Lachenmann, Nancarrow, Skryabin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Messiaen to Elvis and Britney Spears are used to explore the the physicality of music performance and the possibilities for spatialising sound: the work of artists Boccioni, Klee, Klimt and Kandinsky provide examples of temporal and synaesthetic visual work. Lastly, the experimental films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren and the Whitney Brothers provide a technological link from earlier experimentation to the birth of video art-music.