A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of a Modernist Work Composed in Captivity: Olivier Messiaen, "Quartet for the End of Time"

Abstract

French composer Olivier Messiaen, who joined the French army as a medic in the Second World War, was imprisoned by the Germans as a prisoner of war in Görlitz's Stalag VIII A camp in June 1940. Because he did not actively fight in the war as a medic, a German officer sympathized with Messiaen, secretly delivering him paper, pencils and erasers and even having a room in the rectory cleared for him to compose. Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) was composed in such an environment. The fact that the piece includes a non-standard instrumental combination consisting of piano, cello, violin, and clarinet as a quartet is a result of the existing instruments in the camp and the presence of competent musicians playing them. The structural design of the work includes both musical and mystical qualities on the axis of Messiaen's personal belief. The work, which consists of eight parts in total, symbolizes timelessness, that is, eternity, by depicting the seven days of creation and the eighth day when God rests, as represented in the Bible. The premiere of the work took place on January 15, 1941, in front of an audience of four thousand prisoners and guards. In this article, the non-musical motivations and the composition techniques used in the work titled Quatuor pour la fin du temps are examined in relation to each other. The main purpose of the research is to discover the determining effects of the non-musical motivation, which guides the compositional process of the work, on the musical elements of the work. In addition to some technical aspects such as Indian rhythms/Indian modes, Greek rhythms, medieval classical rhythmic principles, French organ music tradition, synthetic modes/synthetic rhythms, and total serialism, Quatuor pour la fin du temps is also analyzed in terms of phenomena and concepts such as Catholicism, ornithology, and synesthesia. In the Introduction chapter, Messiaen's life is summarized on the basis of his personality as a composer, the compositional process of the Quartet is reviewed in the historical framework, and the research purpose, including the research methods used in this article are explained. In the following chapters, all movements of the Quartet are analyzed one by one. The compositional techniques used by the composer are examined in detail through the written out (text) analysis of the musical passages detailing them with footnotes whenever necessary, and these prose analyses are supported by musical examples of the relevant musical passages quoted from the Quartet’s score. The Conclusion chapter consists of the inferences and evaluations made from the findings.