There were many composers to write in reaction to the horrors of World War II, but only one wrote not about the absence of a God but of the assured existence of a supreme power. Olivier Messiaen, a thirty three year old French militant draftee, whittled away the days in Stalag VIIA composing what would be his most famous piece ever. The Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps is not about the apocalypse, but the removal of the abstract dimension of time from the existential plane. As Messiaen said himself, "I did not… want to comment upon the Apocalypse. My only wish was to articulate my desire for the dissolution of time." (Hill 236) This is a concept closely related to biblical themes, and it is obvious why Messiaen had his mind set on this dissolution of time. Held in captivity, Messiaen had plenty of time on his hands. It was said that he would spend hours writing one second of music, so carefully crafting the rhythmic-vs.-melodic material to support his philosophical views. The piece mainly represents a turning point in Messiaen's compositional technique, introducing themes that would set the tone for his life's work.
Olivier Messiaen was drafted into the French army in September of 1939. Due to his poor eyesight he was not sent into action, but worked as a furniture mover in Sarraguemines before being placed in Sarralbe as an orderly. He was shortly moved to Verdun, where he was captured by the German forces. It was in Verdun that Messiaen had unexpectedly begun his quartet by writing a clarinet solo entitled "Abyss of the Birds", which would later become the third movement. Along the way he met two musicians who would become not only dear friends, but also performers of his masterwork. Etienne Pasquier, a child prodigy on the cello, accompanied Messiaen in the morning to listen to birdsong that would inspire the quartet. Henri Akoka was a talented clarinetist who played for silent films in his youth. Messiaen wrote "Abyss of the Birds" and had Akoka tackle the difficult figures in the fields of Verdun while the composer acted as the music stand. Shortly after being captured, Messiaen was moved to Stalag VIIA.
With all the time in the world on his hands and under the distress of being held in a concentration camp, Messiaen's composition continued. Henri Akoka did not believe that "Abyss of the Birds" could be played, but he finally mastered the piece. "Intermede" was written as an experiment for three musicians (Rischin 16): a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Contrary to the rest of the quartet, "Intermede" begins with a traditional rhythmic pattern driving forward metrically like a clock. With the arrival of Jean Le Boulaire, and the appearance of a violin (most likely given to him by camp authorities) the trio would practice "Intermede" in the washrooms of the camp.
"Abyss of the Birds" and "Intermede" were the basis for the quartet, which was the trio with Messiaen on piano. In this time in the camp Messiaen, a deeply religious man, spent a lot of time reading the bible and considering the concept of time. There are three ways this paper will interpret the concept of time in relation to Messiaen's own philosophical and compositional views- time as a transient/non-transient dimension, rhythmic time, and the perception of time. But first, let us consider the concept of the dissolution of time, and it's relation to Revelation 10.1-7:
" And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow on his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire…. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land … and, standing on the sea and on the land, he raised his right hand toward Heaven and swore by He who lives forever and ever … saying: 'There will be no more Time; but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.'"
Revelation of Saint John, chapter 10
The title of Messiaen's quartet and its subsequent movements are clearly derived from this text. His interpretation of the bible passage does not end there, like many other compositions that refer to the bible. Musical time is based on change and typically is directly related to musical pitches. The religious believe that God created time and that it begins and ends within his creation. It is in this way that the time aspect of the bible begins on the first page and ends at the last. Time ends at the apocalypse, but once the book is closed it still "lives on" in its effect. This explains the eighth movement of Quatuor. "This quartet comprises eight movements. Why? Seven is the perfect number, the Creation in six days… the seventh day of this repose extends into eternity and becomes the eighth day of eternal light, of unalterable peace." (Rischin 129) The eighth movement is the eternity that is not bound by time, dissolution of time. So is time to be considered a transient aspect of existence, or is it simply a concrete dimension that does not come nor go but simply is? Messiaen's quartet makes us consider this as the music moves forward metrically in some movements ("Intermede" and "Dance of the Furies"), stretches time in others ("Praise to the Immortality of Jesus" and "Praise to the Eternity of Jesus"), or does not "move" (develop) in any traditional sense ("The Crystal Liturgy").
In the first movement alone, "The Crystal Liturgy", Messiaen introduces two forms of dissolution of time- the use of isorhythmic figures, and non-retrogradable rhythms. Isorhythmic composition is the predominant feature in the first movement. This is the use of incongruous melodic and rhythmic lengths. For example, the cello is playing a repeated five-not melodic phrase over the course of fifteen rhythmic values while the piano plays twenty nine chords over seventeen rhythmic values. The ostinato itself is based on three Hindu rhythms from the deci-talas, 120 rhythms listed in Carnagadeva's thirteenth century treatise Samgitaratnakara (Rischin 52). The listener will remember the melody, and also the rhythm, but will not be able to associate the two as they are never the same (it would have taken hours for one combination of rhythm and melody to repeat, and the piece ends well before then.) It is because of the use of isorhythm in "The Crystal Liturgy" that the listener hears the piece on the vertical (textural) scale, and not the vertical (time) scale. This is one way of eliminating time- by putting the music in front of the listener in a non-developmental form that forces them to forget about time (the relationship between memory and perception of time will be covered later). The piece ends abruptly, disrupted by the birdsong of the violin and clarinet. Non-retrogradable rhythms also make appearances throughout the quartet. This is essentially a musical palindrome- the rhythm would be presented exactly the same in retrograde. This can consist of a three-note figure (half note, dotted quarter, half note, for example) or over the course of multiple rehearsal marks (such as in the sixth movement). A good example of this is the rhythm ostinato created in "The Crystal Liturgy" in the piano part (i.e. ms. 1-3, the first nine rhythmic values can be broken up into three non-retrogradable sections of three values). These methods of circumventing conventional time figures in musical expression remove the feeling of both metric and clock time.
Messiaen could not do away completely with rhythmic time while still remaining true to his compositional values. It is true that he could have composed a piece with not rhythms (ametric composition, or use of extremely long note values, etc.) but then time would still play an important transient role. What he could do away with is bar lines and time signatures (most notably in "Dance of the Furies") to keep the performers fixated on the phrasing over the pulse. For example, rehearsal mark C in "Dance of the Furies" begins with two phrases of four and a half beats each, one phrase of five and a half beats, then a phrase of sixteen and a quarter beats, all separated by phrase markings (similar to measure lines). In addition, the composer came up with a method of augmentation/diminution that distorted rhythmic time to the point of disorientation for the listener. It was not uncommon for Messiaen to write a rhythm, then immediately afterwards include an augmentation/diminution of the exact rhythm by ¼, ½, ¾, or even double the value, or by a dot, two dots, etc, as explained in his composer's preface to the quartet (Rischin 131). A good example of this can be found in "Abyss of the Birds", measure seven (example of a two beat rhythm pattern immediately followed by a diminished rhythm), and measure 27 (three eighth notes followed by augmentation).
Rhythmic time is not necessarily heard so much as it is perceived. Time in this sense is relative as it is based on memory of what has happened before (is it faster, slower, syncopated, etc.). Methods of time stretching as described before impair the listener's ability to find the beat and in effect they forget what has transpired rhythmically due to these inconsistencies. Even in more consistent environments that follow a 4/4 meter, the presence of an offbeat rhythm and a tempo indication of extremely slow and tenderly (as is the case in "Praise to the Immortality of Jesus"); the feeling of rhythm gets lost in the piano ostinato that presents a "musical silence" as sounds that are unchanging are "unnoticeable or intolerable" (Hill 237) (surely the ostinato in the aforementioned movement is the former due to musical context). Additionally, in "Praise to the Eternity of Jesus" the prescribed forty four sixteenth notes per minute, resulting in no note values shorter than 1.36 seconds and thereby removing any feeling at all of forward motion (Hill 241). The use of augmentation and diminution (especially in "Abyss of the Birds" and "Dance of the Furies") also adds to the distortion of perception of rhythmic time.
Messiaen clearly spent a lot of time planning his quartet. Of course that is all he had, time. Besides some menial chores, Messiaen was confined in a barrack1 to write at the behest of camp authorities (Rischin 28). It is with this in mind that one must look at the score taking into account the "architectural time" (Hill 237) aspect of his writing in which the composer would spend hours writing one second of music. Non-retrogradable and isorhythmic writing is not a simple task, especially seeing as how Messiaen claimed to have known nothing about the pre-existing concept of isorhythms (which date back to medieval times) (Adolphe 1). He also meditated on the outline of the quartet, with the eighth movement signaling eternity. It is ironic that the composer wrote to Claud Arrieu that he was concerned about disappearing from the music scene (Dingle 69) right before writing what would become one of his most famous and widely performed pieces. In writing an ode to the dissolution of musical time, Messiaen cemented himself in the annals of history forever.
1 In his version of the story it was a washroom. This is not very believable, as he has been known to exaggerate the extent of the circumstances under which the quartet was written and performed, such as the cello only having three strings and the clarinet having a melted key (both claims have been refuted). (Rischin 65)
Adolphe, Bruce. Chamber Music Society. 15 Apr. 2009 <http://www.chambermusicsociety.org/files/MESSIAEN%20Quartet%20for%20t he%20End%20of%20Time.pdf>.
Dingle, Christopher. The Life of Messiaen (Musical Lives). New York: Cambridge UP, 2007.
Messiaen companion. Portland, Or: Amadeus P, 1995.
Rischin, Rebecca. For the End of Time The Story of the Messiaen Quartet. New York: Cornell UP, 2003.