Home >> Lessons >> Beyond Theory >> Lesson 05 - Messiaen – Canteyodjaya [1949] - Page 1 | 2

Another moment of importance and what essentially acts as a 3rd element within the work deals with what Messiaen calls, “Mode de Durees, de Hauters, et d’Intensites” - essentially this translates into: Modes of Duration, Pitch and Intensity. The reason this is important is it looks forward to a future work of Messiaen’s: Mode de Valeurs et d’Intensites – from the Four Rhythmic Studies - which were completed shortly after Canteyodjaya.

That work deals with a quasi-form of total serialization, essentially meaning that every aspect of the work: rhythm, dynamics, and pitches are organized and applied through dodecaphonic compositional techniques – though in the case of Messiaen, actual dodecaphonic techniques were of no importance when composing (Look at Pierre Boulez’s Structures Ia for a truly serial work that has been “totally serialized). These sections appear to create a change in atmosphere and texture within the work, and essentially further diversify the thematic material of the piece.

This 3rd element appears three times, and is labeled as following:

• Mode de Durees, de Hauters et d’Intensites
• Gamme Chromatique des Durees, Droite et Retrograde - which happens twice, though the second time the material is truncated.)

Let me attempt to decipher this for you, so that we have a method of how Messiaen might have put together a section like this. In doing so, you could apply the same approach, or better yet, a similar approach in your own work.  Lets break down the first entrance labeled Gamme Chromatique des Durees, Droite et Retrograde:

The top staff (treble through out these measures) takes the retrograded rhythmic figure, what essentially amounts to the bottom staff (bass clef) figure backwards. Notice both top and bottom clefs have 23 durations. If you were to analyze these durations you would notice that they are actually the same - one going from 1-23, the other starting on 23 and going down to 1.

Notice that while the top clef is slowing down as this section progresses, the bottom clef is actually speeding up. Essentially, both passages are handling the same rhythmic material in the same way, though one is the exact opposite of the other – the top line is essentially going through a process of adding durations, where as the bottom line is having its values slowly subtracted. In short, the retrograde starts with one 32nd and adds another 32nd every time. Awhile the bottom line starts with slowest permutation (half+8th+16th+32nd) – and subtracts one 32nd every time.

Let’s look at the top line, and how Messiaen dealt with pitch:

Essentially, Messiaen is dealing with a simply 7 note figure, which contains only 5 notes. This figure gets repeated 3 times in full, and it gets truncated while in the 4th repeat. Messiaen though, like stated above, never keeps the rhythmic figure the same – the additive rhythmic process means that the 7 note sequence takes longer and longer each time it is repeated.

In Integer Notation (which means to label pitches as numbers, from 0-11 – 0 being C natural) the 7 note figure is the following: [3,2,1,3,0,1,7] Looking at the bottom clef, you will notice Messiaen manipulates all other notes that remain to complete the chromatic scale. In turn, this entire section is really these processes being applied to the chromatic scale itself.

A perfect segue from this retrogradable rhythm we just looked at in the Gamme Chromatique, in which Messiaen created a section where one rhythmic figure is retrograded against itself, is to look at the Hindu Rhythmic pattern labeled Sedia (which is part of the 3rd Couplet). This falls under what Messiaen calls Non-Retrogradable rhythms - simply put - they are palindromes: rhythms that are the same forwards or backwards – essentially the musical equivalent of the word RACECAR. This bar is what amounts to a 19/16 bar that cannot be retrograded, whether you play it forwards or backwards, the bar will sound rhythmically identical.

Another moment of interests occurs within the 3rd couplet, here Messiaen sets up a small 6-part canon on a falling 6-note gesture, marked Staccato Marcato. Notice that the charm of the canon is its ambiguous quality, lines appear out of nowhere – one is never sure where the next line will spring from. Messiaen displaces the canon so the entrances are not obvious to the listener, you simply cannot guess where in the canon you are whilst hearing it.

Take a look at how Messiaen closes the work, another interesting passage that deals with parallelism and symmetry. Messiaen takes this fast gesture that both climbs and falls at the same time, the line will reach the depths of the keyboard as well as its upper most range. Messiaen ends the work on the note A natural - 7 octaves apart:

If you consider all the material presented in this piece, you will come to realize how rich Messiaen’s language truly is: Hindu rhythms, retrogradable rhythms against themselves at different interval levels, non-retrogradable rhythms (palindromes), canons, etc. To think that this doesn’t even cover a small part of his output’s influences: religion, bird song, color (Messiaen labeled almost all of his harmony via colors), and modes of limited transposition… amongst other things.

Oliver Messiaen (1908-1992)

Messiaen is arguably the most important composer to come out of the second half of the XXth century, having influenced just about every composer that came after him. He was actually the teacher (at the Paris Conservatory) of some of the most influential composers of the later parts of the XXth century: Stockhausen, Xenakis, Boulez amongst them. He was also a prolific writer and theorist, having put together very important treaties on his music, and the techniques that influenced his works. Look for his treatises:

• Traite de Rythme, de Couleur, et d’Ornithologie 
  (8 volumes)
• Technique de mon Language Musical

I hope you enjoyed the material covered here. This is maybe the most technical column so far - if you have any questions or further insights yourself, feel free to post at the Guitar Messenger Forum. I hope the material here will inspire you to attempt to branch out of your comfort zone while composing, and realize that anything can influence your music. You can open yourself up to totally fresh ideas if you start to encompass totally new influences into your writing. If you want to further look into Messiaen’s music, take a look at some of the following works:

• Turangalila Symphony
• Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus
• Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortourum
• Chronochromie
•  Poeme pour Mi
• Catalogue d’Oiseaux 
• La Tranfiguration De Notre Seigneur

Roberto is currently listening to: Almeida Prado – Cartas Celestes n.01

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