Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie: An Informal Analysis (Mvt. VIII -- Developpement de l'Amour)

The eighth movement of the Turangalila-Symphonie is the summit of the work and it contains one of its biggest climaxes (and perhaps one of the biggest climaxes in all of music). Like the seventh movement, it is highly fragmented and consists of many striking horizontal juxtapositions. Messiaen seemingly has no problem going from Penderecki's Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima to The Wheels on the Bus in a matter of seconds. Click here for a map of the eighth movement (the width of each block is very approximate).

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

The eighth movement opens up in a mood very similar to that of the seventh movement. At this point, it is difficult to see why Messiaen calls this movement "The Development of Love" -- it sounds much more like the gates of hell opening up!


Some highlights of this section follow.

Diminishing Non-Retrogradable Rhythm

We have a repeated non-retrogradable rhythm of sixteenth note values {5-7-10-7-5} which gets diminished by one sixteenth note on each repetition. It is played by bass clarinet, 3rd bassoon, cymbals, gong, tubular bells, and basses (pizzicato). While it isn't exactly the "Statue Theme", the contours of the notes are the same as the "Statue Theme".

One cycle of the non-retrogradable rhythm. It gets diminished by one sixteenth note on each iteration. Click on image to enlarge.

The "Chord Theme"

There are two simultaneous appearances of the "Chord Theme". First, we hear the piano play the four chords repeatedly in a rhythm {4-4-3-3}, thrown about the instrument's registers and accompanied by maracas and vibraphone resonances.

The "Chord Theme" as played by the solo piano. Click on image to enlarge.

Shortly after, a very dense and spread-out orchestration of the "Chord Theme" enters in sixteenth notes played by 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, cornet, temple blocks, celesta, glockenspiel, violins, violas, and cellos.


Heh, it actually kind of sounds like the theme from Twilight Zone when it is heard by itself.

PART 2: THROUGH FIRST CLIMAX

The transition from part 1 to part 2 is about as abrupt as it gets in terms of musical mood swings. Immediately following the terrifying last note of part 1, we have a new theme that seems to be a sort-of fast variant of the "Love Theme" -- we will refer to it as the "Joyous Theme" (this is not the same as the "Joyous Theme" in the fifth movement).

The "Joyous Theme" occurs throughout the rest of the movement in various transpositions. Click on image to enlarge.

Superimposed with the "Joyous Theme" is the "Chord Theme", hammered out in eighth notes by solo piano. We also have metallic percussion playing the {4-4-3-3} rhythm that was played by the piano in part 1.

The "Chord Theme" played by the piano. Parts like this make me wonder how anyone can possibly play the piano part (quarter note is 160 bpm). Click on image to enlarge.

The "Joyous Theme" is interrupted by a fragment of the "Love Theme", followed by the "Flower Theme" (this can be seen in the map of the eighth movement). Interestingly, the durations (in sixteenth notes) of the theme are {2-3-5-8}, which is a fragment of the Fibonacci Sequence.

This lushly-orchestrated fragment of the "Love Theme" interrupts the "Joyous Theme" throughout the eighth movement. Click on image to enlarge.

This series of events repeats itself once with everything transposed up 1/2-step (to G major) except for the "Chord Theme" and the "Flower Theme", which remain at the same pitches. Following this, we have the first of the three "Love Theme" explosions. These consist of massive crescendos in mode 2 (always with a trill in the maracas -- an instrument characteristic to Messiaen's build-ups) leading into a colorful display of the "Love Theme" (3 trumpets, ondes-Martinot, and strings) accompanied by piquant chords in the woodwinds, celesta, glockenspiel, and piano.

The "Love Theme", played by 3 trumpets, ondes-Martinot, and full strings. Harmonies are formed by using parallel motion in mode 2.3. Click on image to enlarge.

Chords in mode 2.3 played by the solo piano during the 1st explosion of the "Love Theme". Notice how one hand lags behind the other by one sixteenth note. Click on image to enlarge.

PART 3: THROUGH SECOND CLIMAX

Part 3 abruptly ends the preceding climax in part 2 with a series of agitated, dramatic gestures. Messiaen also introduces a new section which uses opposing scales of chromatic durations. Group A (arguably the most prominent) plays a rising scale in mode 3.1 with durations increasing from 1 sixteenth note to 9 sixteenth notes. Group B plays a descending scale in mode 4.4 with durations decreasing from 9 sixteenth notes to 1 sixteenth note. Group C plays an ascending whole-tone scale (mode 1) in eighth notes. All of this is accompanied by figurations in the piano, piccolo, and celesta.

Opposing scales of chromatic durations in different modes are used to create tension. Click on image to enlarge.

Group A:


Group B:


Group C:


Groups A, B, and C:


Actual recording:


What follows is basically a repeat of part 2 (juxtaposition of the "Joyous Theme", the "Love Theme" fragment, and the "Flower Theme") in different keys. We come to the second explosion of the "Love Theme" (second climax), but this time it is in D major and it lasts longer.

PART 4: THROUGH THIRD CLIMAX -- "SUMMIT"

Part 4 immediately begins with the "Joyous Theme", but this time it sounds far more desperate and passionate. No longer do we have the gentle, lush interludes comprising of the "Love Theme" fragment and the "Flower Theme" which were in the two preceding parts. Instead, the "Joyous Theme" is interrupted by dramatic gestures involving swooping glissandos played by the ondes-Martinot. The opposing scales of chromatic durations appear twice, exactly as they did in part 3 (although the 2nd appearance is transposed up 1/2-step). The whole section seems to be a race to something unbelievably and overbearingly massive -- and it is! The third explosion of the "Love Theme" (the third climax of the movement, referred to by Messiaen as the "summit" of the Turangalila-Symphonie) must be one of the biggest climaxes in all of classical music (1:24 in the audio clip below). It occurs in F# major, which is arguably the symphony's home key.



The full "Love Theme" is played, with sections repeated several times. It gradually dies down from a burning fire to just a warm glow as it becomes quieter and lower (finally played by cellos and basses).

PART 5: CODA

Another strikingly abrupt transition! The coda of the eighth movement consists of the same material that the introduction consists of, although it is a little bit more complex. We have the diminishing non-retrogradable rhythm, the chord theme in the solo piano, and the chord theme in the orchestra, but now Messiaen adds two layers of the "Statue Theme" in the brass. Click here for a diagram of part 5. Referring to the diagram, this "layered" section of part 5 ends when group 1 cannot be diminished anymore (since the minimum duration reaches 1 sixteenth note).


The movement closes with another return of the "Statue Theme" followed by a horrific blast from the tam-tam, bass drum, piano (its three lowest notes), and basses.


Note: In this movement, all audio recordings either ones that I generated using Finale or from Hannu Lintu's recent (and outstanding) recording of the piece with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie: An Informal Analysis (Mvt. VII -- Turangalila 2)

The seventh movement, entitled Turangalila 2, is the shortest of the piece. It is also the most intense and terrifying of the 10 movements. Structurally, it is a series of contrasting events and is highly fragmented. For convenience, we will divide the movement into nine parts.

A map of the seventh movement with rehearsal numbers for reference. Click on image to enlarge.

PART 1 (Through Rehearsal No. 1)

The movement opens up with a solo piano playing a more aggressive rendition of the gentle birdsong heard in the previous movement.

PART 2 (Rehearsal Nos. 1-2)

Messiaen says that this section was directly inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's story The Pit and the Pendulum. The ondes-Martinot plays a slowly descending scale in its upper register and trombones/tuba play a slowly ascending scale in their lower registers, giving the feeling of the walls slowly closing in on the prisoner.

During this, the rest of the orchestra plays a series sixteenth notes in a Klangfarbenmelodie setting. Klangfarbenmelodie (tr. sound color melody) is a term devised by the 20th-century Austrian composer Arnold Schoenberg. It refers to a melody constructed with different timbres instead of just different pitches.

PART 3 (Rehearsal Nos. 2-3)

During part 3, only six percussionists play in three pairs. Woodblock is paired with bass drum (this is the most prominent pair), triangle is paired with maracas, and Turkish cymbal is paired with Chinese cymbal. Each of the three pairs plays a different tala, but one player in the pair reads it from left-to-right and the other in the pair reads it from right-to-left (retrograde). Click here to see a map of part 3.

PART 4 (Rehearsal Nos. 3-6)

Part 4 consists of a cello solo accompanied by birdsong in the piano and woodwinds. Vibraphone and cymbal have a repeated rhythm with 8 sixteenth notes added on each iteration -- an example of rhythmic augmentation.

PART 5 (Rehearsal Nos. 6-7)

This part is an exact retrograde of part 2 (i.e. it is part 2 read backwards).

PART 6 (Rehearsal Nos. 7-9)

This part is among the most complex in the symphony and is a compilation of several of Messiaen's rhythmic compositional techniques. Similarly to part 2 of the first movement, Messiaen layers several processes, resulting in a very dense and chaotic sound whose aesthetics are much closer to Skrillex than to, say, Beethoven. Click here to see a map of part 6.

Cell 1: Flute, Piccolo, & Celesta

Cell 1 is a five-measure long sequence of sixteenth notes. This was actually heard previously in the third movement (entitled Turangalila 1) and a variation will appear in the ninth movement (entitled Turangalila 3).

A combination of flute, piccolo, and celesta. Click on image to enlarge.

Cell 2: Solo Piano

The solo piano plays a series of three chords in a right/left hand rhythmic canon consisting of the Ragavardhana-Candrakala-Lakskmica juxtaposition. The left hand lags behind the right hand by four sixteenth notes.

A right/left hand rhythmic canon with the Ragavardhana-Candrakala-Lakskmica juxtaposition. Click on image to enlarge.

Cell 3: The "Chord Theme"

This is probably the most interesting of all cells in this section. Messiaen assigns each of the four chords from the "Chord Theme" to different groups of instruments.

The four seven-note chords which make up the "Chord Theme".

• Chord 1: 1st trumpet, violins, violas, cellos, small cymbal (up 1 octave)
• Chord 2: 2 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 3 horns, Chinese cymbal (down 1 octave)
• Chord 3: 2 oboes, violins, violas, cellos, suspended cymbal
• Chord 4: Bass clarinet, 3 bassoons, 4th horn, 3 trombones, tuba, ondes-Martinot, gong (down 2 octaves)

Referring to the graphical analysis we can see that chords 3 and 4 remain in their locations. However, chords 1 and 2 "approach" chord 3 by one 16th-note on each iteration until the first three chords sound simultaneously. Click here for a visual representation of this cell.

Cell 4: Vibraphone & Glockenspiel

Vibraphone plays the same thing that they had in part 4. Glockenspiel plays it in rhythmic canon, lagging behind the vibraphone by an eighth note.

Cell 5: Temple Blocks & Maracas

This cell consists of three sixteenth-notes played by the temple blocks followed by a trill played by the maracas. The initial value of the maracas trill is 16 sixteenth-notes and it decreases by 1 sixteenth-note on each iteration (rhythmic diminution). Click here for a diagram.

Cell 6: Side Drum

The side drum repeats a tala three times. Each cycle has a duration of 46 sixteenth notes.

Cell 7: Bass, Bass Drum, & Triangle

Here we have two scales of chromatic durations playing against each other. The triangle expands from a value of 1 sixteenth note to a value of 16 sixteenth notes. Meanwhile, the bass and bass drum contract from a value of 16 sixteenth notes to a value of 1 sixteenth note. In fact, part 6 ends when the bass and bass drum have reached the end of their scale.

PART 7 (Rehearsal Nos. 9-10)

Part 6 is immediately cut off by solo piano in a return of the birdsong heard at the beginning.

PART 8 (Rehearsal Nos. 10-12)

A series of dramatic gestures thrown about the orchestra. The "Statue Theme" makes an appearance. A fast, descending scale of cluster chords in the piano followed by an enormous gong crescendo leads into part 9.

Piano cluster chords as heard at 22 seconds in the audio clip above.

PART 9 (Rehearsal No. 12 to End)

Part 9 is a combination of parts 2 and 3. Messiaen has altered part 2 by adding violins to accompany the ondes-Martinot's descending scale. He begins the "Klangfarbenmelodie" as he does in part 2, but halfway through the part (four measures in) he reverses it so that this layer is a palindrome about the barline separating the third and fourth measures of the part. At the same time, he also has the six percussionists play what they had in part 3. The movement ends with a "lightning and thunder" effect -- a flicker of grace notes played in the upper register of the piano followed by a booming strike of the bass drum.

The palindrome in the "Klangfarbenmelodie" layer of part 9. Click on image to enlarge.

Note: In this movement, all audio recordings either ones that I generated using Finale or from Riccardo Chailly's recording of the piece with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. I've been using Hannu Lintu's recording for most audio clips, but I think that Chailly does a slightly better job with the 7th movement.

Messiaen's Turangalila-Symphonie: An Informal Analysis (Glossary of Compositional Techniques)

Throughout his career as a composer, Messiaen used a variety of compositional techniques. Many of these were developed impressively early and he was so confident in them that he even published a short book "Techniques of My Musical Language" in 1944 -- when he was only 36.

This section is by no means complete and will be gradually expanded upon.

• I. Modes of Limited Transposition
• II. Non-Retrogradable Rhythms
• III. Rhythmic Augmentation & Diminution
• IV. Scales of Chromatic Durations
• V. Rhythmic Characters
• VI. Systematic Transposition

MODES OF LIMITED TRANSPOSITION

Often times in Messiaen's music we hear strange chords which sound like major chords with "extra notes". Or sometimes we hear melodies that aren't in major or minor keys, but they also can't be justifiably called atonal. This is because Messiaen derived his own set of modes (these are not the standard modes which are often taught in music theory -- i.e. dorian, lydian, etc).

Rather, Messiaen's modes are sets of pitches which can be transposed only a certain number of times before ending up with the original set. For instance, we could call the chromatic scale the zeroth mode (although I haven't come across any reference to this elsewhere). Transposing this set up one-half step gives us the exact same set of notes. Similarly, the whole-tone scale is the first mode. If we start with the set P0  {C D E F# G# A#} and transpose it up one-half step, we get the new set P1 {C# D# F G A B}. If we try and transpose the new set P1, we end up with {D E F# G# A# C} -- which is precisely the same as P0 starting on a D instead of a C! See the Wikipedia article Modes of Limited Transposition for a good overview on this topic. I also made a separate post which goes over many of the modes.

Like his predecessor Claude Debussy, Messiaen used parallel motion as a way of harmonization. However, Messiaen applied parallel motion to his set of modes instead of just diatonic, whole-tone, and pentatonic scales. We will use a descending, harmonized scale that appears frequently in part 2 of the 1st movement as an example on how this works.

Figure 1: Thrown back and forth between the brass section and solo piano, this scale in mode 3.1 appears 16 times in part 2 of the 1st movement and is harmonized using parallel motion. When Messiaen finds something he thinks is interesting, you are going to hear it again, and again, and again.

To start, lets look at and listen to a simple one-octave scale in mode 3.1.

Figure 2: Mode 3.1

Notice that the top eight notes on the descent are the same as the top voice in the previous figure. Messiaen constructs chords by adding voices -- layers of the same scale, but starting in different places.

Figure 3: A bit messy to read, but it illustrates the idea of adding voices.

Figure 4: The final result with a total of 6 voices.

It is interesting to see how many major chords are embedded within the harmonies. On the top staff, we can see that the first chord is a C major chord, the second chord is a B major chord, the fourth chord is an A-flat major chord, the fifth chord is a G major chord, the seventh chord is an E major chord, and the eighth chord is an E-flat major chord! The bottom staff doesn't contain any major chords, but we can recognize that the third and sixth chords are diminished.

NON-RETROGRADABLE RHYTHMS

Messiaen's music is filled with non-retrogradable rhythms. To "retrograde" essentially means to go back in time, or to reverse. Applied to music, this would mean reading something from right-to-left instead of the usual left-to-right. Thus, a rhythm that is non-retrogradable is one that does not change when it is read backwards. This is the musical equivalent of a palindrome (i.e. "wow" or "Rise to vote, sir").

Figure 5: Six examples of non-retrogradable rhythms. See below for audio clips of each.

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Example 4:

Example 5:

Example 6:

RHYTHMIC AUGMENTATION & DIMINUTION

One of Messiaen's most frequently used techniques is the augmentation and diminution of a rhythm. This involves repeating some base rhythm and on each repetition adding or subtracting a value.

Figure 6: An example of rhythmic augmentation (top) and diminution (bottom) using the base rhythm 2-1-2. Click on image to enlarge.

For the example of rhythmic diminution (bottom line), notice how the last iteration (2-1-2) cannot possibly be subtracted from without removing the middle note (we would have 1-0-1). There seem to be many cases in Messiaen's compositions where this "triggers" some other event. For instance,  in the 3rd movement when the maracas can no longer be contracted any further (see Figure 8 in the "Rhythmic Characters" section), the ondes-Martinot enters with wailing glissandi.

SCALES OF CHROMATIC DURATION

For the trivial case of rhythmic augmentation and diminution, the base rhythm is a single note (i.e. a sixteenth note to which a sixteenth note is added upon each iteration). Then we have what Messiaen refers to as a scale of chromatic durations.

Figure 7: An example of a scale of chromatic durations in sixteenth notes, ascending from a value of 1 to 8.

A dramatic example of scales of chromatic durations happens three times in the eighth movement. One group (mostly brass, lower winds, and percussion) plays an ascending scale, a second group (higher winds and strings) plays a descending scale, and a third group plays constant eighth notes -- all simultaneously! It is the sonic equivalent of being drawn and quartered.

RHYTHMIC CHARACTERS

In his scores, Messiaen calls this "rhythmic personnages" which approximately translates to "rhythmic characters". The idea here is that he has a set of three base rhythms -- let's label them A, B, and C (which he often labels them as in his scores). These rhythms are repeated several times in that order -- A, B, C. On each repetition, he alters one by augmenting it by a given value. Likewise, he alters another by diminishing it by the same value. The third rhythm remains constant.

There are several places where this happens during the Turangalila-Symphonie (not to mention the rest of his output), but there is a particularly clear example in the middle of the 3rd movement. Rhythm A is played by the maracas and is diminished by one 16th note, rhythm B is played by the woodblock and remains constant, and rhythm C is played by the bass drum and is augmented by one 16th note.

Figure 8: An example of "Rhythmic Characters" occurs at rehearsal no. 6 in the 3rd movement. Notice that rhythm B is an example of a non-retrogradable rhythm. Click on image to enlarge.

SYSTEMATIC TRANSPOSITION

Messiaen also has a melodic counterpart to the technique of rhythmic augmentation/diminution which he calls "Agrandissement Asymetrique". The English translation "Asymmetric Aggrandizement" isn't a good descriptor of the technique (nor does it really make sense), so I am going to call it "Systematic Transposition". For the technique of rhythmic augmentation/diminution, recall how a rhythm is repeated and various notes have values either added or subtracted upon each iteration. Systematic transposition does the same thing, but with transposition of pitches up or down an interval. For instance, let's say that our "melody" is three A's. Now, let's say that the first 'A' will be transposed up 1/2-step on each iteration, the second 'A' will be transposed down 1/2-step on each iteration, and the third 'A' will remain constant.

A simple melody consisting of three A's. Notes highlighted in green are transposed up 1/2-step on each iteration, notes highlighted in red are transposed down 1/2-step on each iteration, and the third note remains the same. The numbered brackets indicate each iteration. Click on image to enlarge.

 As a more complicated example, let's try and apply the same technique to the first two bars of Mary Had a Little Lamb and see how it evolves.

Systematic transposition applied to the first two bars of Mary Had a Little Lamb. Notes highlighted in green are transposed up 1/2-step on each iteration, notes highlighted in red are transposed down 1/2-step on each iteration, and notes that aren't highlighted remain the same. The numbered brackets indicate each iteration. Click on image to enlarge.