Symbols of faith in metaliturgical discourse The Case of Messiaen The title of this paper points out two main

n propositions. The first one is that music is capable for symbolizing diverse things and states. Secondly, we are referring to a distinct type of artistic practice which I denote here as metaliturgical discourse. I found it interesting how Messiaen adopt and deploy a specific set of subversive strategies in order to reach his musical, social, ideological and private goals, all of which are linked with faith. In the case of Messiaens music scope of the referential systems is capacious, but centered around religion. Olivier Messiaen, French composer, organist and ornithologist, is considered, along with Schonberg, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Cage, Boulez, Stockhausen, Glass and others, one of the most prominent figures in the development of music in the last century. Messiaens position within European musical modernism is firmly established through his works of the 1940s. As well as in the case of many other seminal creators from previous era his music exhibit, a more or less, eclectic mixture of various provenance. Nevertheless, Messiaen achieved certain balance between traditional, so to speak Western canonical, avant-garde, culturally exotic (or Other) and individual discourses. The main factor that connects and synthesizes this heterogeneous assemblage is, somehow surprisingly, of spiritual heritage. Despite the constant effort of numerous scholars to diminished the role of faith, Catholicism and Christianity in Messiaens music in favor of, undoubtedly important but not sufficient enough, purely musical innovations and accomplishments, our thesis is based on the notion that comprehensive understanding of his music essentially require involvement of metaphysical, spiritual, religious, or in another more convenient words, conceptual framework. Here we must agree with basic ideas presented in the texts by Robert Kelly and Peter Bannister concerning this topic.1 Bannister offers a convincing
1

Peter Bannister, Messiaen as preacher and evangelist in the context of European modernism in: Messiaen the

Theologian, ed. by Andrew Shenton (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010); Robert Kelly, Tradition, the Avant Garde, and Individuality in the Music of Olivier Messiaen: Musical Influences in Mditations sur la mystre de la Sainte-Trinit, www. robertkelleyphd.com/index.htm?homepage.htm&1, 2000.

view on Messiaens role in the context of European modernism through the model of a musical preacher and evangelist. Analyzing the relation between tradition, avant-garde and individuality in the Music of Olivier Messiaen, Robert Kelly argued in favor of the importance of catholic faith and its profound influence. Even more, as he said: Because this particular philosophical influence on Messiaens work comes from his steadfast religious faith, it informs all of his work regardless of the sacred or secular nature its overt subject matter.2 However, list of Messiaens compositions that, in some sense, contains religious layer is enormous. Table 1 Messiaens compositions directly linked with religion year 192 8 192 8 193 0 193 0 193 2 193 2 193 3 193 5 193 6 193 7 193 8 193 9 194 1 194 3 194 4
2

title The Eucharistic banquet The celestial banquet The death of numbers The forgotten offerings Apparition of the eternal church Hymn to the Holy Sacrament The Ascension The Lord's nativity Poems for Mi O sacrum convivium! Songs of earth and heaven Glorious bodies Quartet for the end of time Visions of the Amen Three small liturgies of the Divine Presence

genre/ensemble orchestra organ cantata orchestra organ orchestra orchestra organ song cycle choral motet song cycle organ chamber two pianos orchestra, choir and soloists

Robert Kelly, ibid.

194 4 194 8 195 0 195 2 196 0 196 3 196 4 196 9 196 9 197 4 198 3 198 4 198 7 199 2

Twenty Contemplations of the Infant Jesus Turangalla Pentecost mass Book for organ Time-color Colors of the Celestial City Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ

piano orchestra and soloists organ organ orchestra solo piano and ensemble wind, brass and percussion large mixed ensemble

Meditations on the mystery of the Holy Trinity organ From the canyons to the stars St Francis of Assisi Book of the Holy Sacrament The city on high Illuminations on the beyond... small mixed ensemble opera organ small mixed ensemble orchestra

From the very beginning of Christian sacred musical practice, composers have created the musical symbols in order to convey transcendental ideas. On the technical level this include specific usage of tonalities and modes, explicit and intentional choice of intervals configured in a way that conform religious concepts (for example, a well-known treatment of chromatics, ascending and descending movement in the melodic line, conventional handling of harmonic intervals, that is to say, conceptually, from dissonant depiction of human sinful nature to Gods perfection in octave etc.). Particularly interesting is the parallels made between shaping of melodic lines and visual representation of symbols, mainly Cross, and, in some way mystical, conversion of Christian expressions into their numerological counterparts which can be traced in the sphere of rhythmic, metric and the other measurable units. This growth has reached hey-day 3

in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulting with formation of elaborate musical rhetoric. Having spent more than 40 years in the service at La Sainte Trinit (Church of the Holy Trinity) in Paris, Messiaen was highly accustomed with this tradition. But, in the same time, he observed, quite perspicaciously, that musician, in the context of modern society, cannot eficiently and fully contrive the task of spreading his message closed under the institutionalized umbrella. There is nothing new in writing religiously inspired music for public consumption outside Church, but Messiaen here started a tendency that will have broader impact. Namely, Naji Hakim, Messiaen's successor in the position of the titular organist at La Sainte Trinit, in his text Music in the Catholic liturgy in France at the end of the 20th century wrote: In spite of what its name might suggest, the Paris-based association Art, Culture et Foi (Art, Culture and Faith) shows no actual interest in the Liturgy. This paradoxical attitude is the reflection of what is happening today on a large scale within the French Catholic cultural landscape - musical art inspired by Christianity has deserted the liturgy and taken refuge in concerts or in recordings.3 Although Messiaen was aware of the distinction, in sense of a terminology, between religious and liturgical composition and music, which we can observe in the following sentence: Liturgical music is exclusively dependent on the church service, whereas religious music spans all times and places, touching the material as much as the spiritual, and in the end finds God everywhere.4

Naji Hakim, Music in the Catholic liturgy in France at the end of the 20th century in: Musicae Sacrae

Ministerium, Anno XXXVII/XXXVIII 2000/2001, Consociatio Internationalis Musicae Sacrae, 1 00165 Roma Via Di Torre Rossa, 21 ; 1 00186 Roma Piazza S. Agostino, 20 A ; Table ronde, Octobre 2000, Avignon : The Ordinarium Missae after Council Vatican II ; Speakers : Gabriel MR. Steinschulte, Naji Subhy Hakim, Mons. Valentino Miserachs Grau, P. Louis Hage OLM, Keizo Nagahara, Mons. Johannes Overath.
4

Peter Bannister, ibid, 1.

Composer considered, rightly, that actual and effective influence lay on the side of socalled religious music. This particular end that have been mentioned is of our interest here. Nevertheless, mere words are not of the primary concern. If your objective is to spread a message which importance surpass question of form and media than you will find a way to infiltrate even into a extremely hostile backdrop. Proclamation of Christian doctrine in an intellectual and artistic environment of the France, and Western Europe in general, from XX century was not an easy task. In spite of this, Messiaen counted on the final effect of his art. From the act of naming the composition, across choosing the appropriate ensamble to the construction of a specific musical, and in the same time communicable, language, composer developed firm strategy that allow him to operate efficiently. Messiaen had an ambition to evangelize, baptize and sacralize secular musical world, believing in transcendentality of ideas, in a power of music to transfer complex concepts without losing its core elements. In other words, speaking in terms of a semiology, composer changed signifier but preserved signified. Material carrrier of a sign is changed to conform the prevailing contemporary state of music. In the same time, Messiaen try to preserve the message by inventing the coded system developed and explained, partly, in his autopoetical treatise Technique de mon langage musical (The technique of my musical language) and also in the annotations attached to the compostions.5 As for the individual pieces, every one of them has certain, carefully established symbolic system, which Messiaen often present in discoursive form. For example, in the piano cycle Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus (Twenty Contemplations of the Infant Jesus) every movement have a title, subheading and, on the macro level, all pieces are

Olivier Messiaen, The technique of my musical language, translated by John Satterfield (Paris: Alphonse Leduc,

1956).

interconnected in the network of cyclic themes that unite this work not only on musical means, but also on the plane of verbal narrative.6 The second composition of our interest here, Visions de l'Amen (Visions of the Amen) postulate, on the surface, verbally presented cosmological narrative, an ultimate and finite history, from the start to the conclusion, in seven carefully selected phases. Seven movements are thematically unified due to the sophisticated treatment of the principal theme, called Theme of Creation. It is intriguing to notice that there is enough similarity between this subject matter and the theme of God from Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus to enable a speculation about intentionality of this bond. In our analytical approach we recline on Kramers notion of musical hermeneutics 7 and on the other hand, on musical semiotics. We shall examine three compositions, all of them were composed during the years of WWII: Visions de l'Amen for two pianos, Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine (Three small liturgies of Divine Presence) for orchestra, choir and soloists and Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus for piano. In Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus Messiaen depict 20 different focal characters and points of view of the same event - The Birth of Christ. For this occasion we will discuss second movement from this cycle, Regard de l'toile (The Star's Contemplation or Gaze of the star).

For details in the correlation amongst titles, modes and concepts represented by symbol see: Siglind Bruhn, Images

and ideas in modern French piano music (Stuyvesant: Pendragon Press, 1997, 391-395)
7

These are his conditions of musical hermeneutics (all of them are fulfilled in our case): The composer has provided

us with verbal clues; Either the musical or the verbal texts (or both) include quotations or allusions that furnish a context beyond that which is presupposed in the piece itself; The musical structure itself speaks in pictures or symbols that, within the given historical framework and among interpreters embedded in a certain cultural context, elicit universally shared responses and understandings (Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993, 1-20).

Example 1 Olivier Messiaen, Regard de l'toile from Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus Formal analysis from symbolic aspect

In the subheading of this piece (Shock of grace.the star shines naively, surmounted by a cross) two symbols (star and cross) are connected in a meaningful way. There is, also, a natural, 9

visual similarity between the Bethlehem Star and the Cross in the tilted, leaned position. Also, this bond was, presumably, borrowed from the paintings of Christs nativity (Roger van der Weydens Adoration of the Magi of 1460 and Albrecht Durers The Birth of Christ of 1503). We should, also, make a reference to the book Le Christ dans ses Mysteres of the Belgian abbot Dom Columba Marmion from which Messiaen adopted the notion of a gaze, regard, look, perspective or contemplation. Every observer or agent has its musical counterpart. Most important is, apparently, the theme of God, which is involved in many episodes of a narrative. The main theme of this, second piece, its linear structure and choice of particular tones (A, A flat, B flat and G), that represent Star and the Cross conform the visual, graphical representation of a tilted Cross and the rising Star. Furthermore, whole structure, from detail to the big picture, is pervade with the principle of a number three. The meaning and fundamental importance of this number for Christianity is well-known. On the ground scale the piece is consisted from three segments. Formal analysis of this piece is founded on a textual reading of a, previously mentioned, subheading remark. Two contrasting segments (the one of the shock of grace and the one with a star and a cross) manifest themselves in music in two lucidly separated sections (the first one is marked with red and the second with blue color), both of which have three appearances. 8 Shock of grace is depicted by sudden inception and then gradual calming down whereas star and the cross sections are marked with aforementioned musical symbol/theme. Inside this sections, threepart logic continuous. This is apparent in the first five measures called Modere, which has three repetitions. As a governing process, threefoldness9 operates on many levels: 1) formal structure (three distinctive parts or elements, especially in texture)

See example 1. See example 2 where these three steps are marked with blue, red and green color.

10

2) tonal organization (Messiaens second mode, equally spread 12 semitones and grading of pitches through three steps to a full twelve tone chord) 3) dynamics (forte, piu pianissimo and fortissimo) 4) motion (abrupt accented stop, perfectly unfluctuating motion and syncopations) 5) rhythm (thirty-second-notes, sixteenth-notes and half-notes with dotted quarter notes) 6) duration (gradual growth time signatures 5/16, 12/16 and 24/16)10 Example 2 Olivier Messiaen, Regard de l'toile from Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus (measure 1-9) Threefoldness principle

Symbolic functions of music in Visions de l'Amen are strongly dependent on composers usage of four hands because the piece was written for two pianos. This fact facilitates an exploitation of a broader sonorous space. Meaning of a word Amen in the context of Messiaens cycle relies on its usual denotation gesture of assent. Musical counterpart of Amen is the
10

Siglind Bruhn, Images and ideas in modern French piano music (Stuyvesant: Pendragon Press, 1997, 288-289).

11

cadence, most obvious musical image of assent that can be felt throughout the work. However, it would be very nave to attach significance to every cadence or to have them too often in a musical process. Messiaen avoid this danger. In order to highlight cadences he thematicalized them. As we already know, Visions de l'Amen is founded on a theme of Creation, which is, in Paul Griffiths opinion, an enlargement of a pentatonic cadence.11 This musical device assent four Amens meanings.12 These are: 1) the Amen uttered by the Creator in creating which is analogous to I. Amen de la Cration (Amen of Creation) 2) the Amen of obedience to the divine will that correspond to III. Amen de lagonie de Jsus (Amen of the Agony of Jesus) 3) the Amen of longing for union with God is equal with IV. Amen du dsir (Amen of Desire) 4) the Amen of the eternal consummation of everything in Paradise refers to VII. Amen de la consommation (Amen of Consummation) There is another interesting insight into symbolic representations of a faith in Visions de l'Amen. It concerns the symbolic meaning of an A major, both as a principal key or tonality and triad structure, which was for Messiaen the symbol of luminous blue, of the sky, of Paradise. Whole cycle is gathered around note A, and around A major. Importance of this particular musical structure and sonorousness spread on our next example. Example 3 Olivier Messiaen, Antienne de la conversation intrieure from Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine (measure 137-141) A major/triad effect

11

Paul Griffiths, Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1985). These meanings were defined by Ernest Hello, XIX century French mystic and writer.

12

12

A major thrills us in a first of Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine, titled Antienne de la conversation intrieure (Antiphon of the Interior Conversation).13 Its acoustical, emotional and structural effect is a result of careful compositional planning. In this work Messiaen makes references to musical forms of a catholic liturgy. Three small liturgies are consisted, logically, of three movements: Antienne de la conversation intrieure, Squence du verbe, cantique divin (Sequence of the Word, Divine Song), Psalmodie de l'ubiquit par amour (Psalmody of the Ubiquity of Love). In the first, already mentioned, movement from Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine composer use an antiphonal technique through an alternation of phrases in choir and piano solo parts.14 Presence of choir sound invigorates this symbolic representation of a liturgy. In the last part of this work we can trace extensive use of the repetition on one note (in choir part), in this case more on undefined pitch but there are also fixed repetitions, which remind
13

See example 3. See example 4.

14

13

us to the tradition of monophonic singing of psalms in catholic church.15 Third movement, in some divisions, contains calm and pure sonority which, in a way, symbolize divine, immaterial state or even perfectly focused prayer. Example 4 Olivier Messiaen, Antienne de la conversation intrieure from Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine (measure 1-3) Metaphorical use of antiphonal technique

15

See example 5.

14

This question of the character of music leads us to the problem of function or purpose. Are Messiaens religious works intended for public, wide audience or express spirit of privacy? Is Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine just a short meditation of the Roman Catholic liturgy or, especially in the second and third movement, a vehement glorification? There seems to be the space for both interpretations. Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jsus belongs to a sphere of interior expression whereas Visions de l'Amen and Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine in particular, due to a relatively large ensemble, aim at external, sometimes spectacular and celebration impression. Example 5 Olivier Messiaen, Psalmodie de l'ubiquit par amour from Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine (measure 20-21) Psalmodic chant simulacrum

15

One crucial question arises out of the discussion. Has Messiaen gone too far with his project? One part of this question alludes to the aesthetical and poetical side of the problem and the second part suggest lack of competence and authority. We all know that music is to be heard and not read like a book so that, even when one knows the key to the language of the musical piece, the message remains veiled and hard to perceive, just as the Mystery of the Holy Trinity itself is hidden and difficult to comprehend. Also, Messiaens personal, subjective preaching 16

activity through music outside church service could be explained in positive sense only if its impact had come from the work of the Holy Spirit. Clearly, both statements put Messiaens evangelistic ambition and intention in unenviable position. Robert Johnson made a curious observation and in the same time description of the reception of Messiaens Trois petites liturgies de la prsence divine that perfectly mirrored described situation: The non Christian was out of sympathy with the religious sentiments expressed, while the traditional Catholic was displeased by apparently vulgar treatment of sacred ideas.It sets out, in fact, to transfer something of the substance of the Churchs liturgy to the concert-hall, an operation which is discomfiting to the non-believer as well as to the conservative Catholic.16 At the end Messiaens metaliturgical discourse is closer to the notion of simulacrum then to a dogmatic and doctrinal praxis. Nevertheless, his music is so much more distinguished. Valuable symbolic language can survive without firm ground.

16

Robert Kelly, ibid.

17