Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences

Robert Fallon, Christopher Dingle, Christopher Dingle

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317097174
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Media & Performing Arts
• Categoria: Music History & Criticism

Focusing on Messiaen's relation to history - both his own and the history he engendered - the Messiaen Perspectives volumes convey the growing understanding of his deep and varied interconnections with his cultural milieux. Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences examines the genesis, sources and cultural pressures that shaped Messiaen's music. Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception analyses Messiaen's compositional approach and the repercussions of his music. While each book offers a coherent collection in itself, together these complementary volumes elucidate how powerfully Messiaen was embedded in his time and place, and how his music resonates ever more today. Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences presents many new primary sources, including discussion of Messiaen's birdsong cahiers, sketch and archival materials for his Prix de Rome entries and war-time Portique, along with performance practice insights and theological inspiration in works as diverse as Visions de l'Amen, Harawi, Timbres-durées and the organ Méditations. The volume places the composer within a broader historical and cultural framework than has previously been attempted, ranging from specific influences to more general contexts. As a centrepiece, the book includes an examination of the impact of one of the greatest influences upon Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod.

PART I
Sources

Perspectives on Sources

Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon

Every scholar in music handles sources of one kind or another. Students learn early on about the difference between primary and secondary sources and, hopefully, that such status is not necessarily inherent to the source in question, but can depend upon the nature of the research. A newspaper review may be a secondary source for those studying a particular composer or performer, but a primary source for a specialist in music criticism. A facsimile copy of a composer’s handwritten score or sketch, either as hardcopy or a pdf file, may be a primary source for someone looking at the musical materials of a work, where only the original, physical manuscript itself would count for a scholar trying to date it through the study of paper and ink types. Similarly, the CD transfer of Yvonne Loriod’s 1946 recording of ‘Regard de l’Esprit de joie’ would count as a primary source for anyone analysing the performance on the recording,¹ where the captured sound is what matters, but for someone carrying out detailed discographical work, this is a secondary source and they would wish not just to hear, but to see (if possible) the original release, including the cover, the label on the disc itself and even the information etched onto the shellac.²

As important to note as the difference between primary and secondary sources is the disparate nature of sources that might be encountered. Alongside books, articles, scores, manuscripts, recordings and other artefacts, there are the more ephemeral sources such as non-recorded performances (arguably, aspects of those that are recorded) and, especially, the oral testimony of those directly involved with the subject of the research. Even when this material comes directly from the subject of the investigation – usually Messiaen in these volumes – it cannot necessarily be regarded as accurate and certainly not the only or whole truth. If talking about the impetus behind his works, the meaning behind passages or how he put them together, Messiaen is clearly the most authoritative source. Nonetheless, there are things left unsaid, because he did not wish or think or remember to say them, or because he was trying to put matters into terms that could generally be understood. When it comes to events, then (wilfully or not) Messiaen was as liable to misremember or partially recall as anyone else. Nonetheless, Messiaen’s statements on anything to do with himself and his music demand to be taken seriously, even if experience has shown that some of his anecdotes should be taken with a large pinch of salt. The same could be said for those who were directly involved in events in his life, who acted as witnesses or who worked with or were taught by him. However, in terms of reliability, and attendant challenges for scholars, there is a spectrum ranging from Messiaen’s utterances, via Yvonne Loriod, numerous friends, colleagues, students, performers and independent witnesses to accounts such as Zdzisław Nardelli’s Otchłan ptaków [Abyss of the Birds].³ Nardelli was in Stalag VIIIA with Messiaen, and his book relates to their time there, but it is openly and clearly not a factual account, with the composer treated as a fictional entity, so nothing can be treated with certainty, and yet it is directly informed and shaped by life in the camp making it hard to dismiss entirely.

Whether they are historical fiction or a newly discovered manuscript, sources provide evidence for the scholar’s argument. They may be credible or discredited, trivial or seminal, but sources are the stuff of understanding. With the many new sources presented and put to use in these pages, our understanding of Messiaen and his music grows handsomely.

These are exciting times for Messiaen scholars because a profusion of new sources has appeared in recent years, which, in itself, gives some indication of what more is to come in the course of time, once various logistical and bureaucratic barriers are overcome with regard to Messiaen’s estate.⁴ The posthumous publication of the composer’s own Traité has had profound significance for our understanding of Messiaen’s music and thought, as, of course, has the appearance of the scores for works from his final years, and some earlier ones, too. These were to be expected, as were one or two discoveries. What could not be anticipated was the extent to which Yvonne Loriod opened up her home and herself to scholars, resulting, notably, in Hill and Simeone’s Messiaen. There is still some way to go before the Fonds Messiaen is properly archived and made accessible, and there has inevitably been something of a hiatus following Loriod’s death in 2010, but information contained within Messiaen’s appointment diaries, in letters and numerous other documents has profoundly transformed the understanding of the man and his music. Perhaps the richest resource of all is the vast number of cahiers containing Messiaen’s birdsong notations, along with much other information, including preliminary sketches for some works. As is clear from Peter Hill’s chapter, charting the developing relationship with birdsong material in an exploration of the cahiers from the 1950s, these will occupy scholars for years to come. As Hill outlines, the rationale underpinning the cataloguing of the cahiers is far from clear at first glance. As a consequence, his chapter includes an appendix indicating the broad date and contents of each cahier; an invaluable resource that should save future scholars much time and bemusement.

There is still much that has not been seen. Most valuable will be the scores for various works that are known to have been written, but have never been published. For a long time, the title Chœurs pour un Jeanne d’Arc was little more than a puzzling entry in Messiaen’s catalogue of works at the end of Technique de mon langage musical. The mystery was partially dispelled by Hill and Simeone, but, thanks to some excellent detective work, Lucie Kayas and Christopher Brent Murray provide a rich account of Messiaen’s choral contributions to the Joan of Arc spectacle Portique pour une fille de France. The remaining ‘missing’ scores are generally very early works, and some, no doubt, have not survived. It is to be hoped, though, that the scores of pieces such as L’Ensorceleuse (Messiaen’s Prix de Rome cantata), and Le Banquet eucharistique (the orchestral piece from which Le Banquet céleste was extracted) have not only survived, but will see the light of day before too long.

Alongside scores, sketches and other materials relating to the genesis of works are invaluable. Relatively few sketches appear to have survived from before the late 1950s, so Yves Balmer’s careful investigation of sketch materials for Visions de l’Amen showing the evolution of significant themes for the work provides a fascinating snapshot of the creative process. Another such glimpse is afforded in Christopher Brent Murray’s chapter, which outlines in detail Messiaen’s only foray into the world of musique concrète with the composition of Timbres-durées.

The next major resource after the scores and sketches is the collection of recordings Messiaen made of his improvisations during Mass at the Trinité. Some of these appeared briefly on a two CD set, though, frustratingly given that this is music with a precise and specific source of inspiration in the texts of the day’s celebration, no information was given at all about the dates or occasions for each improvisation. There are also the recordings of birdsong that Loriod made while Messiaen was taking notation in the field.

At the same time as material from Messiaen’s personal archive has started to become available, archives of the Paris Conservatoire and other institutions with which Messiaen had contact during his long career have also begun to be consulted. Thanks to foraging in such places, Laura Hamer and Christopher Brent Murray chart Messiaen’s participation in the Prix de Rome competition, examining both the process and the choruses that he wrote in the preliminary stages. Building on the excellent groundwork of Edward Forman,⁵ Lucie Kayas examines the implications of new documents to provide further detail on the story of the genesis of the Vingt Regards. Similarly, Anne Keeley draws on the text of the sermon by Mgr Charles that inspired the Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité and, as a consequence, repositions its theological focus. It is not surprising that such resources only started to be explored after Messiaen’s death; why search among such things while the ultimate primary source is still available for consultation? Nonetheless, while grasping any excuse to visit Paris is understandable, there is much to be explored in the numerous places to which he travelled.

So these are exciting times for Messiaen scholars as there are still major discoveries to be made. However, it should also be recognized that it is also a critical period. This is in part because decisions are still be made about the estate that could have a profound impact on scholarship and broader knowledge of the composer. Even more crucial, though, is that the direct eye- and ear-witnesses will not be with us forever. There is an imperative to capture as much of these ephemeral sources as possible. Such testimonies may be problematic and partial, but evidence can only be assessed if it is gathered. The Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) is to be applauded for recording a 6-hour-24-minute interview with Yvonne Loriod in 2002, a remarkable oral document made while she was still in full health. Similarly, Sigune von Osten, who worked very closely with Messiaen on performing Harawi, had the foresight to record her rehearsals with the composer and Yvonne Loriod. As is apparent in her chapter, there emerged an often radically different approach to performing the song cycle fro...