| Abstrakt: |
AbstractMessiaen rarely commented on form. His posthumously published seven-volume Trait? de rythme, de couleur, et d?ornithologieoffers an important new perspective on many aspects of his music; yet despite the vast amount of information that the composer?s surveys of his works disclose ? details that, in many cases, only he himself could have supplied ? his analyses do have certain limitations, notably with regard to form. In a largely complimentary essay on Messiaen in La Musique depuis Debussy(1961), Andr? Hodeir closes with a scathing assessment of Messiaen?s activity in the domain of form. In order to assess the validity of Hodeir?s comments, I have surveyed Messiaen?s analyses, proposed a hypothetical taxonomy of formal models in a range of the composer?s works, and attempted to place his thinking in the wider context of attitudes to form in the twentieth century. |
