{"id":888,"date":"2016-01-20T16:05:11","date_gmt":"2016-01-20T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/?p=888"},"modified":"2016-01-20T16:05:11","modified_gmt":"2016-01-20T21:05:11","slug":"slow-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/2016\/01\/slow-it-down.html","title":{"rendered":"slow it down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen\u2019s Turangal\u00eela Symphonie<\/em> presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot \u2013 important topics that are easy to write about but fall short of getting at a central essence of this musical experience.<\/p>\n

Taken alone, the melody has a 1940s pop swing to it (sorry the images are blurry — click on them and they open clearly in a new window):<\/p>\n

\"messaien<\/a><\/p>\n

With a pop harmonization, we could easily have a suitable framework for a Rogers\/Astaire dance number:<\/p>\n

\"messaien<\/a><\/p>\n

But Messiaen has a different goal in mind.\u00a0 His harmonization looks like this:<\/p>\n

\"messiaen<\/a><\/p>\n

Phrase endings match the pop style, but chords through the middle of the phrase are completely irrational, giving an impression of randomness.\u00a0 And the way these harmonies are voiced makes them seem even more chaotic:<\/p>\n

\"messaien<\/p>\n

Note that the melody is doubled an octave below (difficult to see in these tight formations, and with these spellings), and no matter how complex the phrases get, they all end with clear, traditional cadences.<\/p>\n

What is Messiaen after here?\u00a0 If we look at how the melody and harmony are arranged in the orchestra, an answer emerges:<\/p>\n

\"messiaen<\/a><\/p>\n

First, the tempo: though it\u2019s marked \u201cmoderate,\u201d the eighth-note gets the beat, so each measure lasts six seconds.\u00a0 \u00a0At that tempo, this melody is drawn out, distended, almost unrecognizable as a single unit as opposed to a series of melodic gestures.<\/p>\n

The Ondes Martenot, with its unfamiliar (orchestrally speaking) sound, is marked f<\/em><\/strong>, clearly distinguishing it from the strings, marked p<\/em><\/strong> and muted.\u00a0 But look more closely: it\u2019s doubled not only by the entire first violin section but also by half of the violas and the entire cello section an octave below. \u00a0That\u2019s an enormous body of support, held back by mute and dynamic. The strange harmonies, meanwhile, are relegated to dramatically smaller forces: the divided second violins and half the violas.\u00a0 So we have a melody with tremendous heft (though not loud), and harmonies that barely register in comparison.\u00a0 Now we see those irrational harmonies the way Messiaen intended them: an indistinct haze, wisps within the melody, like music we barely hear and misconstrue.<\/p>\n

Turangal\u00eela<\/em> is Messaien\u2019s take on Tristan and Isolde: when asked about the work, he replied simply, \u201cit\u2019s a love song.\u201d\u00a0 Jardin du sommeil d\u2019amour<\/em> depicts the lovers enclosed in sleep with one another, a dream-landscape growing out of their slumber.\u00a0 \u00a0I like to think of the composer enfolded in the arms of his love, Yvonne Loriod, in a Paris apartment, faintly registering a pop song on the radio from an adjacent flat mingled with bird song through the window.\u00a0 The distortions of the music, with foregrounded melody, distorted harmony and lethargic tempo, all conjure a surreal landscape: consciousness mingling with imagination.<\/p>\n

The technique of slowing music down and exploring the details that emerge has an interesting contemporary resonance: current software has suddenly given this technique widespread currency, from Ted Hearne\u2019s Law of Mosaics<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, which slows and overlays Barber\u2019s Adagio for Strings<\/em> and Vivaldi\u2019s Four Seasons<\/em>, to Justin Biebers U Smile<\/em> subjected to 800% slowdown through PaulStretch<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a musical experience that finds a fresh intersection between Minimalism and timbral exploration — and Messiaen produced one of its more potent ancestors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sixth movement of Olivier Messiaen\u2019s Turangal\u00eela Symphonie presents an interesting lesson in melody, harmony and scoring, if we can step beyond the usual comments on birdsong, modes of limited transposition and the Ondes Martenot \u2013 important topics that are easy to write about but fall short of getting at a central essence of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/curves\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}