Running head: REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 1

Revival of Avant-garde in Messiaen and Boulez

An Inspection into Serialism Influences in Messiaen and Boulez’s Piano Works

Adeline Ong Siau Shiun

Universiti Sains Malaysia

Author Note

This paper is prepared for VZM386, Performance and Instrumental Literature Study,

taught by Dr. Yoshioka Yumi.

REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 2

Abstract

Following World War II, a strong impact was seen on European musicians as new

experimental style started to sprung up especially the twelve tone method and serialism, a

metaphor for rebuilding a shattered world. In 1950s, Neoclassicism of Stravinsky and

Prokofiev was pushed from center of attention and an establishment of total organization of

music is provoked among young composers such as Stockhausen, Boulez and Nono, partly

due to Darmstadt influence in Germany where serial music is performed and analyzed.

French composer, Olivier Messiaen stimulated great influences where his works drew

inspirations from Hindu modes, bird sounds and Greek poetry, resulting in an exotic and

eclectic sound with polymodal and polyrhythmic writing. His most famous student, Pierre

Boulez drew on his method of rhythmic manipulation and pitch mode in Mode de valeurs et

d’intensites (first European work to be written in total organization) and composed the

Structures I in total control of musical elements, too. The paper discusses about the

application of serialism method in Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensites and Boulez’s

Structures Ia through usage of pitches, duration of notes and articulation whereby the

comparison between them portrays similarities and differences between one another as

influence of Messiaen on his student’s early works is strong.

REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 3

An artistic renewal for new aesthetical ideas was seen among the young avant-garde

composers, looking towards a more conventional pathway to compose music including

rational thinking procedures and mathematical applications. What were followed often have

sparse and disconnected textures, angular melodic lines and short phrases. Those who adhere

to Schoenberg’s serial music feel that other aspect of musical elements should be controlled

instead of dealing with pitches only. Thus, the first European piano work to be written in

total organization (also called total serialism or integral serialism) is Mode de valeurs et

d’intensites for solo piano, composed by Olivier Messiaen in 1949, being part of Quatre

etudes de rythmes.

He spoke out against the affinity of second Viennese school composers to experiment

exclusively with pitch structures while adhering to traditional conceptions of rhythm and

form. At the same time he cited the possibility of using a series of timbres, a series of

intensities, and especially a series of durations. To describe the piece as ‘serial’ is not strictly

accurate, although it has many things in common with serial music (Johnson, R. S., 1975,

p.105).

Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensites was rather modal and not based on

twelve-note tone row series, but all basic musical elements are predetermined before actual

notation of the piece take place. In this piece, three divisions of twelve-note pitches

(consisting of all notes of a chromatic scale) have been created with different note duration,

dynamics, intensities (modes of attack) associated to each note, thus resulting in 36 different

pitch of sounds, 24 rhythmic values, 7 dynamics and 12 mode of attacks. The first division

has basic duration of demisemiquaver, the second division with a basic duration of

semiquaver and the third division with quaver as basic duration unit. Each note of the

divisions has a multiply of 1 to 12 of the basic duration unit. As this piece is in three-part
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 4

texture, some notes may sound at the same time as another part. Hence, notes of each series

are permutated at times in symmetrical order, which is different from classical serial

composition where following a specific tone row of a series is a must. For example, series of

note that follow the order of 1, 7, 2, 8, 3, 9, 4, 10, 5, 11, 6, 12. There is also no sectional form

as each pitch is played within the particular series. However, a similar pattern of descending

note occurred in each series. Its sparse sounding due to almost single-note texture and widely

scattered notes with jagged melodic outlines correlates this piece under pointillism style.

In addition, dynamics and modes of attack are freely assigned to each pitch. The 7

types of dynamics are ppp, pp, p, mf, f, ff and fff. Each pitch keeps the same duration,

dynamic and mode of attack throughout the piece but notes with same letter names have

different durations, dynamics and modes of attack in each division. As compared with a true

serial piece where order of notes are fixed according to the tone row while the parameters

(note durations, dynamics, modes of attack etc.) are free, the order of notes in Mode de

valeurs et d’intensites are freely ordered within the division whereas its parameters are set.

Boulez, struck by the possibilities for serialization of all parameters used in

Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensites, evolved his own serial techniques in a different

direction with help of mathematical approach to eradicate traditional pulse and meter in

music. Perhaps the most prominent traditional musical element that was followed by Boulez

was the rhythmic feature as Messiaen acknowledged that rhythm is the most important part of

music. Thus, he composed Structures I in 1952, which consists of three movements.

He proclaimed that serialism is the only pathway for future music development and

those who has not experienced the necessity for the dodecaphonic language is useless. For

his whole work is irrelevant to the needs of his epoch (Simms, B. R., 1996, pg.320).
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 53

Thereupon, this total serialization technique results in a highly complex and organized

composition, Structures 1a (1952) for two pianos, constructed by using two 12X12 matrices

of numbers. A collective organization of pitch, duration, dynamics and modes of attack were

predetermined in integral serialism technique. In this piece, pitches of notes were derived

from first division of Messiaen’s pitch mode:

Eb D A Ab G F# E C# C Bb F B

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Construction of Structures 1a is based upon the twelve transpositions of the series where

numbers are assigned to each pitch and written up in two number matrices, the prime form

(‘O’ matrix) and inversion form (‘I’ matrix). As it was written for two pianos, piano I plays

the twelve P forms and twelve RI forms while piano II plays the twelve I forms and twelve R

forms, resulting in forty eight versions of tone series. Boulez then relates those tone rows to

serialization of all other parameters such as all note durations, dynamics, modes of attack and

tempi.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
2 8 4 5 6 11 1 9 12 3 7 10
3 4 1 2 8 9 10 5 6 7 12 11
4 5 2 8 9 12 3 6 11 1 10 7
Piano I 5 6 8 9 12 10 4 11 7 2 3 1
6 11 9 12 10 3 5 7 1 8 4 2
P forms 7 1 10 3 4 5 11 2 8 12 6 9
8 9 5 6 11 7 2 12 10 4 1 3
9 12 6 11 7 1 8 10 3 5 2 4
1 3 7 1 2 8 12 4 5 11 9 6
0
1 7 12 10 3 4 6 1 2 9 5 8
1
1 10 11 7 1 2 9 3 4 6 8 5
2
‘O’ matrix
Piano II RI forms
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 6

All the twelve transpositions of the series and derived forms (inversions, retrogrades, inverted

retrogrades) were used once.

1 7 3 10 12 9 2 11 6 4 8 5
7 11 10 12 9 8 1 6 5 3 2 4
3 10 1 7 11 6 4 12 9 2 5 8
1 12 7 11 6 5 3 9 8 1 4 2
0
1 9 11 6 5 4 10 8 2 7 3 1
Piano II 2
9 8 6 5 4 3 12 2 1 11 10 7
I forms 2 1 4 3 10 12 8 7 11 5 9 6
1 6 12 9 8 2 7 5 4 10 1 3
1
6 5 9 8 2 1 11 4 3 12 7 10
4 3 2 1 7 11 5 10 12 8 6 9
8 2 5 4 3 10 9 1 7 6 12 11
5 4 8 2 1 7 6 3 10 9 11 12
‘I’ matrix
Piano I RI forms

Likewise, drew on his tutor’s rhythmic manipulation in Mode de valeurs et

d’intensites, Boulez used similar concept of basic duration in Messiaen’s first division, where

he established an arithmetical scales of durations from demisemiquaver to dotted crotchet.

The series corresponds to the twelve-note tone row and any row of duration values can be

chosen in the matrices to provide rhythmic organization of the piece. Hence, the duration

series also have forty-eight possibilities just like the pitch series.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Duration series used by Boulez is the same as Messiaen

Besides, Boulez also created a wider dynamic range as compared with Messiaen’s

seven types of dynamics, which are pppp, ppp, pp, p, quasi p, mp, mf, quasi f, ff, fff and ffff.

The dynamics are then formulated with number successions following diagonal shape (as

shown in blue rectangle) of both ‘O’ and ‘I’ matrices instead of tone-row system. As number
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 3

4, 8, and 10 do not appear in the diagonals of ‘O’ matrix, p, quasi f, and ff do not occur

throughout piano I where else numbers 4 and 10 do not appear in diagonals of ‘I’ matrix.

The twelve different modes of attack are just the same in Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et

d’intensites, except that it is also formulated following the diagonal shape (opposites of the

shape used for dynamics, red rectangle) of both matrices.

Again, in Structures 1a, three different tempos are used, which are Très modéré (A),

Modéré, Presque vif (B) and Lent (C) to mark different sections. The speed in this piece also

portrayed symmetrical form as shown:

A B C B A C B A B C A

Contrariwise, Mode de valeurs et d’intensites maintains Modéré throughout and is a

continuation of pitches following the three divisions with no sectional form, which is so

typical of Messiaen’s composition style. It also did not state a specific time signature, unlike

Boulez in Structures 1a where there is frequent change of time signature of almost every

measure to assist (or to control) in playing, which is so diverse with Messiaen.

Compared with Boulez’s vast usage of tone row series in the matrices, Messiaen only

composed Mode de valeurs et d’intensites with three divisions of notes and yet he managed

to create wide tone colours through varied rhythmic elements. The absence of time signature

in Mode de valeurs et d’intensites also convey a sense of timelessness. In contrast with

Boulez’s integral serialism technique on Structures, Messiaen preserved some freedom on his

usage of pitches from each division series instead of following the pitches totally like the

Viennese serialists. His pitch usage was more towards a twelve-tone mode. Mathematical
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 8

approach was used in composition just like Boulez. The difference is that Messiaen used

pitches derived from permutations of numbers as each note from the divisions is also

assigned with a number. For example:

Bar 24-28: 1-12-2-11-3-10-4-9-5-8-6-7 (1st division)

Bar 29-39: 1-2-3-12-11-10-5-4-6-9-8-7 (2nd division)

Bar 39-49: 1-11-3-9-5-7-8-4-10-2-12-6 (2nd division)

Bar 53-57: 6-7-12-1-5-8-11-2-4-9-10-3 (1st division)

Bar 61-80: 1-7-2-8-3-9-4-10-5-11-6-12 (3rd division)

Bar 81-86: 8-1-12-7-2-11-6-3-10-5-4-9 (1st division)

Bar 86-96: 9-4-5-10-3-6-11-2-7-12-1-8 (2nd division)

Bar 103-107: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-12-11 (1st division)

As discussed, Messiaen’s music suggests pointillism texture and evokes percussive

sonorities. His aim in rhythmic usage is to split regular pulse from its conventional division

into smaller rhythmic values. According to Johnson, R. S. (1975), his interest in rhythm

dates back to his student days where his tutors, Marcel Dupre and Maurice Emmanuel

stimulated his interest in ancient Greek rhythms. A particular feature of these rhythms is

their ‘ametrical’ character, which later also becomes a basic character of Messiaen’s rhythm.

The notion of a beat becomes replaced by a shortest note-value from which a rhythmic

pattern can be built up (pg32). His elimination of metrical unity and the common alternation

of strong beats and weak beats are replaced by an unmeasured meter which based largely on

intuitive feeling.

In brief, both Messiaen’s Mode de valeurs et d’intensites and Boulez’s Structures 1a

indeed portrays close resemblance in using serial technique in composition. Although

Boulez’s integral serialism is much more intense where not only all successions of notes were
REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ 3

predetermined but also the duration and other parameters such as dynamics, modes of attacks

or even the overall form, serialism which appears between pitches and duration are not

dependent on each other (not completely integrated) as the notes do not directly determine its

durations. The duration values are determined through the matrices. On the other hand, 9

Messian’s approach was more from a external perspective where the duration value is already

assigned together with the pitch in each divisions. Generally speaking, numerical data has

joined itself with musical reality, forming a basis for modern composition as mathematical

descriptions were used to explain musical elements in Western music nowadays. Fixed rules

had been obeyed and followed in search of a more rational approach of composition style.
 REVIVAL OF AVANT-GARDE IN MESSIAEN AND BOULEZ
10

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