Messiaen and his Technique.

Messiaen composer, teacher, organist, bird watcher,

interested in ancient and non-Western musical cultures, neumatic notation, etc.

His ideas regarding Rhythmic structure and notation.

 Four ways of notating complex rhythms

o non-measured phrases, without time signatures (recitation, senza misura

o time signatures which change frequently

o rhythmic symbols (conducting patterns) marked in the score

o "false" meter with accents and ties (4/4 with syncopations)

 rhythmic transformations of motives

 added value rhythms

o extra value (sound)

o added silence

o added "dot"

 augmentation/diminution based on a variety of factors

 irregular but constant values (similar to aksak)

 rhythmic canons

 rhythmic pedal (ostinato)

 polyrhythms

 non-retrogradable rhythms (palindromes)

His ideas regarding pitch structure

 Modes with limited transpositions

o symmetries

o equal partitions of the chromatic scale (12 divided by 1,2,3,4, and 6)

o the charm of impossibilities.

 added notes

 clusters

 chords

o 13th chords

o "resonance" chords and "natural harmony"

o chord progressions litanie

A mode with limited transpositions is a scale which is divided in segments of the same size
and containing the same exact arrangement of steps and halfsteps. Whithin an octave (12
semitones), there are a number of such divisions possible:

 12 : 2 = 6 (the repeating segment is a tritone -6 semitones- long)

 12 : 3 = 4 (the repeating segment is a major third -4 semitones- long)

 12 : 4 = 3 (the repeating segment is a minor third -3 semitones- long)

 12 : 6 = 2 (the repeating segment is a major second -2 semitones- long)

 12 : 12 = 1 (the repeating segment is a minor second -1 semitone- long)

The last case produces the chromatic scale - not a very interesting result. The mode whose
repeating segment is a major second long is the wholetone scale and there are only 2 such
scales possible. Dividing the octaves by 4 leads to scales build around the pillars represented
by a fully diminished chord and there are 4 possible transpositions for each of them. When
the octave is divided by 3, the mode is built around an augmented triad and there are 3
possible transpositions of that scale. For modes built around the interval of a tritone there
are 6 possible transpositions.

Example:

C, D, E flat, F, F#, G#, A, B: repeating 2 + 1 = 3 semitones (fully diminished chord)

or

C, C#, D#, E, F, G, G#, A, B: repeating 1 + 2 + 1 = 4 semitones (augmented triad)

Messiaen combines modes with limited transpositions with nonretrogradable rhythms in

order to create a sense of "failure of the rational thinking", an impasse created by a logical
proceedure. Compare this with certain images (optical illusions) created by the artist Escher.