Music 5120- Prof. Trichy Sankaran
Final paper: Messiaen and Indian Rhythm
David Occhipinti
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The French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) exemplifies his study of rhythm in his Technique of my Musical Language and in his seven volume treatise Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d' ornithologie (Treatise of Rhythm, Colour and Birdsong ) where he demonstrates his exploration of Hindu rhythms, Greek rhythms, nonretrogradable rhythms, and augmented and diminished rhythms. Of all the musical elements that comprises his music, Messiaen gives significant importance to rhythm. In his conversations with Claude Samuel, Messiaen states, “I feel that rhythm is the primordial and perhaps essential part of music; I think it most likely existed before melody and harmony, and in fact I have a secret preference for this element. I cherish this preference all the more because I feel it distinguished my entry into contemporary music.” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 67)
Introduction to Indian Rhythm
The one hundred and twenty deçî-tâlas listed in the thirteenth century treatise Sangitaratnakara, by Sarngadeva, provided an important starting point for Messiaen’s introduction into Indian rhythm. As a student at the conservatory, he found this list in the Encyclopédie de la Musique by Albert Lavignac (1924). In Messiaen’s conversations with Claude Samuel, Messiaen revealed that he considered these talas to be “the summit of human rhythmic creation.” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 76) Accordingly, many of these rhythms can be found, exactly or modified, in his music. Two of his most performed compositions today are discussed in this paper, and used rhythms from the deci-talas. These are the Turangalila Symphony [1949 – revised 1990] and the Quartet for the End of Time (1941). In Messiaen's own seven volume music theory treatise Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d' ornithologie (Treatise of Rhythm, Colour and Birdsong ) he displays his knowledge and research of the talas and raga modes that he discovered during his student days at the conservatory. “It was a stroke of luck,” he declared in his conversations with Claude Samuel, “I accidentally came across Sarngadeva’s treatise and the famous list of 120
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deçî-tâlas; that list was a revelation. I immediately sensed that this was an extraordinary find; I studied it, copied it, contemplated and re-approached it from every possible angle, for years, in order to grasp its hidden meaning.” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 77) In Messiaen’s Treatise he lists all one hundred and twenty talas with translations of the Sanskrit into French (Messaien 1994, 271) and sometimes includes their spiritual connection as well. The Sanskrit names of the talas were translated for him by a Hindu friend named Tarun Kumar Ghosal. Messiaen was a devout catholic and certainly acknowledged the weight of the spiritual connection to the talas. Their meanings were not lost on the composer who said, “I have studied at great length the one hundred and twenty deçî-tâlas by Sârngadeva, so much so that I ended up discovering the different rhythmic rules that derive from them, as well as the religious, philosophical, and cosmic symbols they contain. Most of the rhythms based on the numbers five or fifteen are dedicated to Shiva; they’re also dedicated to Parvati: wife, shakti and power of Shiva’s manifestation.” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 77) The number five appears to be significant in relationship to Shiva as they appear in five temples of Shiva [Jambukeswarar Temple, Thiruvanaikaval Srikalahasti temple, Annamalaiyar Temple, Ekambareswarar Temple, Natarajar Temple] which are held to be particularly important in South India, as being manifestations of him in the five elemental substances: fire, water, earth, air, sky. In Messiaen’s Treatise he notates ten pentatonic (five-note) scales and describes them as ‘in the system of Shiva’ and that five is the number of Shiva. (Messaien 1994, 247) The five-limbed figure representing Ardhanarishvara, a composite androgynous form of the Hindu god Shiva and his consort Parvati is another reason the number five could be related to Shiva. Photo: 1 - statue of Ardhanarishvara
Messiaen, in his treatise, notates the seventy-two raga modes of the Mela Karta system by Venkatamaki and classifies
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thirty-six of them as saddha-madhyama – perfect fourth and thirty-six of them as pratimadhyama – augmented fourth (Messaien 1994, 248-9). Messiaen’s Treatise shows he also had extensive knowledge of Carnatak musical theories and listed the thirty-five rhythms of the Saladi Sapta talas with their seven talas and five jatis. Along with their names he included Western music notation of each tala (Messaien 1994, 331). As evidenced in his Technique of my Musical Language, the composer was very interested in non-retrogradeable rhythms, “quite simply a group of durations that read identically from left to right or from right to left,” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 76) and mentioned that this was the case for all the Matsya talas. Over his life, Messiaen produced numerous works incorporating Indian tala rhythms beginning in 1935 in his piece for organ La Nativité du Seigneur and went onto include them in Turangalila Symphony [1949 – revised 1990], The Quartet for the End of Time (1941), Canteyodjaya (1953 - for solo piano), Cinq Rechants (1948), Vingt Regards Sur L’enfant Jesus for solo piano (1947), Livre D’Orgue (1952 ).
Quartet for the End of Time (Track #1 on CD) Messiaen composed much of Quartet For the End of Time while he was a prisoner of war in a German camp in 1940. According to Alex Ross in the Rest is Noise, the officers of Stalag VIIIA were not truly devoted to Adolph Hitler’s regime and advised the prisoners not to escape because they would be safer there than in Vichy France (Ross 2007, 390). A guard named Karl-Albert Brull supplied Messiaen with pencils and manuscript paper and even placed him in an empty barracks so he could compose in peace. The title centers around a biblical quotation from the seventh chapter of the Apocolypse: “And the angel which I saw stand by him that liveth for ever and ever….that there shall be time no longer…” The premiere performance took place in the prisoner of war camp, Stalag VIIIA, on January 15, 1941 “in a dreadful cold” with Olivier Messiaen at the piano along with cellist Etienne Pasquier, the violinist Jean Le Boulaire and the clarinetist Henri Akoka. Messiaen described the experience of performing for five thousand prisoners from
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different walks of life in such a bleak situation, “never before have I been listened to with such attention and understanding.” (Rischin 2003, 5) Three of the talas from the one hundred and twenty deci-talas that Messaien explores in his Quartet for the End of Time for the 1st movement I. Liturgie de Cristal, are ragavardhana [no.93], candrakala [no. 105] and lakskmica [no.88]. He uses the three talas in succession and repeats them in the same order in the piano part throughout the first movement. The combination of these three talas as used by Messiaen creates a cycle of seventeen quarter notes [rågavardhana – 19/16, candrakalå – 4/4 and lakskmica – 17/16]. rd
The metre is 3/4 throughout the movement and he begins this cycle on the 3 beat of the st
1 bar. The cycle is thus displaced one quarter note forward every four bars [4 bars of 3/4 + 1 quarter note = 17 beats]. As a contrast he superimposes in the cello part a non1
retrogradable rhythm of eighteen values using only five notes.
He uses the same three talas in succession in his Turangalila Symphony [movements #4, 5, 7 and 10] and Cinq Rechant which also are discussed below.
Turangalila Symphony
The title Turangalila comes from tala #33 of the one hundred and twenty deci-talas. Messiaen defines the term as a combination of “life-force, life-energy” and ‘lila’ which means “divine-play.” Because of the density of this work it would be difficult to distinguish the talas described below from a casual listening or glance at the score. 1
Score attached as Appendix A
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In movement I (Track #2) the tala Ragavardhana (#93) is used in the 2 violins and violas at rehearsal #12. The time signature is 2/4 but the tala figure of 19/16 is displaced in the bar every time it is repeated. The tala Dhenkhi (#58) is used as a pivot point to create a new rhythm in the cymbal part during the same section. In Movement II (Chant d’amour - Track #3) the talas Gajajhampa (#77) and Vijaya(#51) th
are employed for the wood block part at rehearsal #25 starting on the second 16 note of the 3rd bar. The exact same succession of talas mentioned in Quartet for the End of Time, th
ragavardhana [no.93], candrakala [no. 105] and lakskmica [no.88], happens in the 4
movement (Chant d’amour 2) of the Turangalila Symphony. This time it occurs in the woodblock part. Again the meter is 3/4, but the woodblock does not enter until measure five on beat two. The rhythms occur until rehearsal #2 and re-occurs at rehearsal #14.2 In movement V ( Joie du sang des etoiles - Track #4) the succession of the three talas nd
occurs in the cymbal part beginning in the 2 bar at rehearsal #22 and re-occurs at #32. In movement VII ( Turangalila 2 - Track #5 at 2:22) at rehearsal #7 in the piano part we hear the succession of the three talas as a canon with the left-hand beginning one beat later.
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Occurring just before rehearsal #1 in the final movement, movement X (Final - Track #6), we have again the succession of the three talas, ragavardhana [no.93], candrakala [no. 105] and lakskmica [no.88], in the woodblock part.
Cinq Rechants In his piece for twelve voices Messaien employs the talas Micra Varna (#26), 4
Simhavikrama (#8) and Laya in the first Rechant.
Throughout most of the work he uses spoken syllables emphasising the letters T and K. While the use of this is easy to distinguish from Solkattu, one cannot escape the possible reference of Solkattu and the ‘ta-ka’ sound being an influence on the sound he used (track #7 on the CD at 2:52 exemplifies the TK sound). 2
Score attached as Appendix B – Track #3 on CD Score attached as Appendix C Track #5 on CD (Rehearsal #7 begins at 2:22) 4 p.5 in the score 3
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He uses the three talas that he also used in Quartet for the End of Time in his 2 Rechant nd
during his 2 couplet. The tenors have the talas while the bass part has the rhythm in retrograde and the contralto is used in free counterpoint. Messaien employs four talas in his fifth Rechant (Track #8), Gajajhampa [#77], Simhavikrama [#8], candrakala [no. 105], and ragavardhana [no.93].
The Act of Giving
In his conversations with Claude Samuel, Messiaen regretfully mentions, “I would have liked to have known India.” He praises the “admirable acts” (Messaien and Samuel 1986, 107) of Mother Teresa in Calcutta, and how he would have given up all his musical works to have been as giving with the poor and the sick as she was. As a composer, Olivier Messiaen not only contributed his musical works, but also gave us a glimpse into his musical mind and his insight into Indian rhythm through The Technique of my Musical Language and his seven volume Treatise of Rhythm, Colour and Birdsong . The pages he left behind in these books provide a wealth of information on Indian rhythm, many aspects of his compositional process, and are a generous gift to the world of music.
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Bibliography
1. Messiaen, Olivier. 1994. Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d' ornithologie (Treatise of Rhythm, Colour and Birdsong in 7 volumes). Paris: ALPHONSE LEDUC, volumes I and II
2. Messiaen. 1944. Technique of my Musical Language Paris: ALPHONSE LEDUC. 914
3. Messiaen, Olivier, and Samuel, Claude. 1986/1994. Music and Color – Messiaen in conversations with Claude Samuel. Translated by E. Thomas Glasow. Amadeus Press
Rischin, Rebecca. 2003. For the End of Time. Cornell: Cornell University Press.
Ross, Alex. 2007. The Rest is Noise. New York: Picador.
Sherlaw-Johnson, Robert. 1998. “Rhythmic Technique and Symbolism” – Messiaen’s Language of mystical love. Edited by Siglid Bruhn. Garland Publishing –
Sankaran, Trichy. 2010. The Art of Konnakkol (Solkattu). Toronto: Lalith Publishers
Web Reference
Photo of statue of Ardhanarishvara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardhanari.png
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SCORE Excerpts:
Appendix A st
Quartet for the End of Time; 1 movement I. Liturgie de Cristal. (Audio Track 1 on CD). Messiaen, Olivier. 1941. Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps. Paris: Editions Durand. 1-6
Appendix B Turangalila Symphony – IV Chant d’amour 2 Excerpt (Audio Track 3 on CD) Messiaen, Olivier. 1953. Turangalila Symphony. Paris: Editions Durand. 111-114.
Appendix C Turangalila Symphony – VII Chant d’amour 2 Excerpt (Audio Track 5 on CD – 2:22) Messiaen, Olivier. 1953. Turangalila Symphony. Paris: Editions Durand. 272-276.
Track listing on accompanying CD:
1. Quatuor pour la fin du Temps: 1. Liturgie de Cristal 2. Turangalila Symphony Excerpts: II. Chant d’amour 1 3. IV. Chant d’amour 2 4. V. Hoie du sang des etoiles 5. VII. Turangalila 2 6. X. Final 7. Cinq Rechants: I 8. Cinq Rechants: V
All compositions by Olivier Messiaen
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