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TitleMessiaen’s Debussy
NameCochran, Timothy Benjamin (author), Rao, Nancy Yunhwa (chair), Johnson, Douglas (internal member), Grave, Floyd (internal member), Klein, Michael (outside member), Rutgers University, Graduate School - New Brunswick,
Degree Date2012-05
Date Created2012
SubjectMusic,
Composition (Music),
Musical analysis,
Messiaen, Olivier,--1908-1992--Criticism and interpretation,
Messiaen, Olivier,--1908-1992.--Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie.,
Debussy, Claude,--1862-1918--Criticism and interpretation
DescriptionMessiaen devoted Tome VI of his posthumous Traité de rythme, de couleur, et
d’ornithologie to analyses of Claude Debussy’s music. Though Debussy’s influence has
long been a cliché of Messiaen’s biography, the significance of Tome VI lies not in its
ability to elucidate the mechanisms of influence, but rather in the way it discloses
interpretive lenses that Messiaen employed to engage with his predecessor’s work. Based on the assumption that analysis is a fundamentally hermeneutic activity, I examine the tools that Messiaen uses to conceptualize Debussy’s music, and I demonstrate how these modes of interpretation are often bound up with broader conceptions of musical structure and meaning essential to Messiaen’s own music. The dissertation addresses three types of interpretation found in Tome VI: technical
approaches to musical structure, extramusical approaches to water imagery, and the
frequent interpolation of poetic quotations within analysis. First, I explore how
Messiaen’s personal theories of compositional technique shape his interpretation of
altered dominant harmonies, rhythmic variation, and “the rhythm of dynamics” in Tome
VI. Next, I examine Messiaen’s references to water imagery in Debussy’s music, noting a combination of a priori, programmatic, topical, and metaphoric modes of interpretation.
Of all his water descriptions, Messiaen’s metaphor for shocking rhythmic contrast—“the
stone in the water”—reflects a compositional perspective most directly, as striking
durational oppositions play analogous expressive roles in his birdsong settings and
depictions of divine breakthrough. In the final section, I speculate on the interpretive role
of quotations from poetry throughout the volume, for which I infer three hermeneutic
functions: the intertexts elevate the perceived significance of the music, ground musical
details within preexistent narratives, and provide imagery through which the reader can
assess musical details described in adjacent passages. My reading of the poems as
interpretive tools provides a model for interpreting Messiaen’s own music through the
lens of scripture quotations that precede many of his works. By reconstructing these
diverse modes of interpretation, the dissertation forms a picture of Messiaen as a dynamic
interpreter who engages with Debussy’s music through many of the same hermeneutic perspectives that inform his compositional approach.
d’ornithologie to analyses of Claude Debussy’s music. Though Debussy’s influence has
long been a cliché of Messiaen’s biography, the significance of Tome VI lies not in its
ability to elucidate the mechanisms of influence, but rather in the way it discloses
interpretive lenses that Messiaen employed to engage with his predecessor’s work. Based on the assumption that analysis is a fundamentally hermeneutic activity, I examine the tools that Messiaen uses to conceptualize Debussy’s music, and I demonstrate how these modes of interpretation are often bound up with broader conceptions of musical structure and meaning essential to Messiaen’s own music. The dissertation addresses three types of interpretation found in Tome VI: technical
approaches to musical structure, extramusical approaches to water imagery, and the
frequent interpolation of poetic quotations within analysis. First, I explore how
Messiaen’s personal theories of compositional technique shape his interpretation of
altered dominant harmonies, rhythmic variation, and “the rhythm of dynamics” in Tome
VI. Next, I examine Messiaen’s references to water imagery in Debussy’s music, noting a combination of a priori, programmatic, topical, and metaphoric modes of interpretation.
Of all his water descriptions, Messiaen’s metaphor for shocking rhythmic contrast—“the
stone in the water”—reflects a compositional perspective most directly, as striking
durational oppositions play analogous expressive roles in his birdsong settings and
depictions of divine breakthrough. In the final section, I speculate on the interpretive role
of quotations from poetry throughout the volume, for which I infer three hermeneutic
functions: the intertexts elevate the perceived significance of the music, ground musical
details within preexistent narratives, and provide imagery through which the reader can
assess musical details described in adjacent passages. My reading of the poems as
interpretive tools provides a model for interpreting Messiaen’s own music through the
lens of scripture quotations that precede many of his works. By reconstructing these
diverse modes of interpretation, the dissertation forms a picture of Messiaen as a dynamic
interpreter who engages with Debussy’s music through many of the same hermeneutic perspectives that inform his compositional approach.
NotePh. D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
NoteIncludes vita
Noteby Timothy Benjamin Cochran
Genretheses
Persistent URLhttp://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000065105
Languageeng
CollectionGraduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.