ABSTRACT
Interest in the theoretical dimension of Messiaen’s music has not been strongly represented in the literature by major studies – except for the canonical work of Robert Sherlaw Johnson (Johnson, 1989), Jonathan Bernard’s article on Messiaen’s synaesthesia (Bernard, 1986), Anthony Pople’s monograph on the Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Pople, 1998), Aloyse Michaely’s ‘Habilitationsschrift’ (Michaely, 1987), and of course Messiaen’s own writings. I believe that a contemporary music–theoretic approach may illuminate certain basic features of Messiaen’s music that have not been fully explored. In this regard, the posthumous publication of the Traité de rythme, de couleur et d’ornithologie (Messiaen 1994–2002), provides both occasion and motivation for the reconsideration and amplification of some of the musical ideas of the prolific master. 1
