Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time, Part 1

Dynamic Instrumentation

In a previous post we looked at the difference between dynamic and static elements in music.  Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (1941), written in eight movements, is dynamic in terms of instrumentation. The first, sixth, and seventh movements are written for the full quartet consisting of violin, clarinet in B-flat, cello, and piano. In contrast, the second movement begins and ends with sections written for the full quartet while containing a middle section written for violin and cello with piano accompaniment. The third movement of Quatuor is written for unaccompanied clarinet while the fifth movement is a cello solo with piano accompaniment and the eighth movement is a violin solo with piano accompaniment. Thus, instrumentation is a dynamic element in that it experiences some variation over the course of Quatuor.

The First Movement - Panisorhythm

An analysis of each movement illuminates the variety of elements within Quatuor that compose a dynamic yet unified whole. The first movement, “Liturgie de cristal,” begins in simple-triple meter. Musicologists have labeled the presence of isorhythm in multiple instruments of this polyphonic movement as “panisorhythm.”1 One example of isorhythm may be found in the piano, a repeating pattern of seventeen rhythmic values shown here: 2

Series of seventeen repeating rhythmic values in the piano part of Movement I

 

To this series of repeating rhythmic values, Messiaen applies a repeating series of twenty-nine chords.

In a similar manner, the cello of the first movement combines isorhythm with a repeating series of five ordered pitches in a high register, taken from a whole-tone scale.3 This process generates new amalgamations (cool big word) of harmonies and rhythmic values over time and therefore constitutes a dynamic element. However, the unchanging, mechanistic nature of this process may be perceived by the listener as a static element. If permitted to continue indefinitely, this process would eventually return to the initial combination of chords and rhythmic values and thus cease to create new material. Therefore, with the cessation of continuing change given sufficient time, this process could be considered a static element. or Mode 1 of Messiaen’s modes of limited transposition.4

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Endnotes

1 Carla Huston Bell, Olivier Messiaen (Boston: Twayne, 1984): 13.
2 Olivier Messiaen, “Prèface,” Quartuor pour la fin du Temps (Paris: Duran, 1942): IV.

3 Allen Forte, “Messiaen’s Chords,” Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, Christopher Dingle and Nigel Simeone, eds. (Burlington: Ashgate, 2007): 99.
4 Clara Huston Bell, Olivier Messiaen, 75.

How to Write Music, Part 2

In the previous How to Write Music post we discused the two main approaches to writing music, the Outside-In approach, working from the outside or the big picture (structure, instrumentation, duration, etc.) and the Inside-Out approach, developing a motif, hook, riff, etc. Regardless of which starting point you choose, some point you will need to decide between static and dymanic for any given musical element. What do I mean?

Static describes any element that remains constant or changes very little over the course of the piece. A vocal solo for soprano with piano accompaniment remains static in terms of instrumentation if both produce sound throughout a song. Dynamic, of course, means change. Change may be applied to rhythmic patterns, harmonic progressions, tempo, dynamics, and more. Static and dynamic are opposite poles of a continuum such that we must speak in relative terms. The texture of a minimalist composition from say, Philip Glass, is more static than the storm and stress of a Beethoven symphony.

To improve your music listening skills, as you listen, try to identify what musical elements are dynamic and which are more static. Is there a particular rhythmic patter that defines the piece? Is there an element of ear candy used throughout? Does it change during the bridge?  

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