OLIVIER MESSIAEN
b. 1908 in Avignon
d. 1992 in Paris

Thème et variations

On June 22, 1932, Olivier Messiaen, then twenty-three, married the twenty-five-year-old violinist Claire Delbos. During the summer he began work on a wedding present for his wife, a set of variations for violin and piano, but he would not finish it until five days before the premiere on November 22, 1932, at a concert sponsored by the Cercle Musical de Paris. The young composer was anxious that this music, written for his wife, should have a popular success. To a friend he wrote: “As an additional item . . . my wife and I will give the first performance of my Thème et variations for violin and piano. It would be very nice of you to come along and make lots of noise so that this work–one of my best–gets an encore. Unless you would prefer to whistle, which would make just as much noise.” The premiere proved a success, and the Thème et variations remains one of the earliest of Messiaen’s works to have earned a place in the repertory.

The theme itself is rather long, stretching out over twenty-eight measures. Messiaen divides it into three sub-themes of seven, seven, and fourteen measures each, and the variations treat all three of these segments in different orders. Bach might have recognized the form, but he would have been dismayed by the harmonic language, for Messiaen’s Thème et variations destroys the harmonic basis that has traditionally been a part of variation form, instead treating the themes modally and varying them through such techniques as canonic imitation, transposition, and diminution. Textures tend to be active and sometimes quite thick, with much of the writing for the violin in its high register, and the fifth (and final) variation makes a grand summation before the work glides to a subdued close.

Some have been ready to dismiss the Thème et variations as a youthful work, representing a stage that Messiaen had to pass through before he could develop a language entirely his own. Yet Pierre Boulez has spoken of the importance of this music to him, noting that he heard the Thème et variations as a young man and decided on the spot—without knowing who had written this music—that he wanted to study with its composer.

Program note ©2008 Eric Bromberger

 

 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Fantaisie pour violon et piano

Olivier Messiaen’s Fantaisie for violin and piano, written in 1933, was only published by Durand in January of this year. The one-movement work is dedicated, like the Poèmes pour Mi from the same era, to Messiaen’s first wife, the violinist Clare Delbos. The Fantaisie is a rarity in Messiaen’s output, being one of only three chamber works with a solo violin (its companions being the Théme et variations, 1932; and the “Louange a l'immortalité de Jésus” from the Quatuor pour la fin du temps; 1942). Like the Théme et variations, the Fantaisie bears some of Messiaen’s familiar compositional hallmarks, but lacks an explicit theological program. 

The Fantaisie appears to be modeled as a first-movement sonata form. An opening declamatory theme in the piano, which Messiaen reused later that year in the second movement of the orchestral work L’Ascension (“Alléluias sereins d’une âme qui désire le ciel”), leads into the first-subject area. The descending triplet figure in the violin recurs throughout the work. The second-subject area, Un peu moins vif mais très passionné, is a passage of long, lyrical melodies, similar to those in “Le Verbe” from the organ cycle La Nativité du Seigneur (1935). Messiaen introduces brass-like writing in the piano during the development; the two instruments gradually moving towards a passionate climax before the recapitulation begins. The work eventually concludes with a virtuosic coda. The sonata-movement pattern might leave one wondering if Messiaen had further movements planned; however, even if this were the case, the Fantaisie is more than strong enough to stand as a work its own right.

 

 

OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Poèmes pour Mi

Composed at Petichet in the southeast of France in 1936, the Poèmes pour Mi for soprano and piano were orchestrated the following year and published by Durand (Paris). They were published in two books (Numbers 1–4 and 5–9) and premiered in Paris on April 28, 1937, with Marcelle Bunlet, accompanied by the composer. The cycle consists of nine songs in two separate volumes on poems written by Messiaen himself, which broadly extol the virtues of marriage. They bear in their title a dedication to Claire Delbos whom Messiaen had married in 1932 and whose nickname was “Mi.”

In the preface to Technique de mon langage musical, Messiaen wrote that his songs “often present by their proportions and character, an aspect of abridged theatrical scenes.” This is certainly true for Poèmes pour Mi. The set opens with the longest piece, “Thanksgiving,” in which the composer thanks God for the gift of their union and for the gift of Jesus. The second song, “Landscape,” describes a lake as a jewel and as solace for the “road full of sorrow and quagmires” and is followed by a song which alludes to death ending sorrow and to Truth in angelic form. The first book ends with “Terror,” a disturbing and ambiguous setting full of devilish cackles and extremes of dynamic and register. The fifth song, “The wife” recalls Christian dogma about marriage (“nothing can separate that which God has joined”) and is simpler and calmer than the previous piece. The wife is also recalled in the sixth song, which is an elegy to her beauty and grace. The seventh song depicts the couple as “sacramental warriors” on a march to the Holy City and is in complete contrast to the eighth song, “The necklace” in which the wife describes a gift from her husband. The set ends with “Prayer fulfilled,” a companion to the opening Thanksgiving in which the composer thanks God for his wife and proclaims that “joy has returned!”

The music is fluent in its use of pedal points, embellishments and extended appoggiaturas and modes of limited transposition. Although performed comparatively rarely compared to other French mélodie, the Poèmes demonstrate a mature and personal style for Messiaen and in his Technique Messiaen himself noted that although he had not quoted very much from his two song cycles (Poèmes pour Mi and Chants de Terre et Ciel) that “since they are particularly ‘true’ in sentiment and typical of my manner, I advise the reader who wishes to understand my music better to begin by reading them.”

 

Program notes ©2008 Andrew Shenton, PhD