Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Part 8

Messiaen, Confusing Our Perception of Time

In “Intermède,” the fourth movement of Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps, Messiaen uses a conventional simple duple meter, barlines, and dynamic elements (things that change, not expression) to confuse the listener’s perception of time. The playful, clear rhythmic pulse disguises Messiaen’s technique, making the whole movement sound rather... conventional... or perhaps straight forward, yet it is not.  

How Does He Do It? Stretching!

Messiaen achieves confusion of our accurate perception of time, despite using a clear rhythmic pulse throughout much of the movement, by progressively stretching musical phrases. The phrases of the A section, extending from Reh. A (“rehearsal marker A”) to Reh. B, begin with brief gestures one beat in duration that consist of two sixteenth notes followed by an eighth note (♬ + ♪). In the second measure, Messiaen extends phrase duration to fill the whole measure with six sixteenth notes preceding the eighth note marking the end of the phrase, which creates a moment of relative repose. Messiaen stretches this phrase to cover the next two measures, followed by an even greater phrase-stretch spanning four measures and coming to rest on the quarter note in the measure preceding Reh. B. 

Quantifying Phrases by Beats

The stretched phrases may be quantified by the number of beats involved, resulting in the series: 1, 1, 2, 4, and 8.  Thus, the dynamic nature of phrase durations eliminates the possibility of perceptible hypermeter (another cool, big word that should be added to the Jargon glossary), which depends on the regularity of hypermetric beat duration. (Note: Hypermeter is so much fun). Messiaen also momentarily suspends time at Reh. C with a quotation of birdsong in the clarinet lacking a clear rhythmic pulse, that spans two measures, shown in the example below.

Example: Birdsong in clarinet at Reh. C of Movement IV first used in Movement II at Reh A+1

Bridging Connections to Other Movements

Helping to connect this movement to other movements of Quatuor includes the use of Messiaen's "Mode 2" in the melody, quotations of birdsong, and the foreshadowing of the melody in Movement VI at Reh. F of Movement IV.  

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