Type of Document Dissertation Author Stephens, Michael Author's Email Address mstephens@csc.edu URN etd-08012007-131227 Title Two Ways of Looking at Messiaen's "Vingt regards dur l'enfant-Jésus" Degree Doctor of Philosophy Program Music School School of Arts and Sciences Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Eric Moe Committee Chair Amy Williams Committee Member Dennis Looney Committee Member Mathew Rosenblum Committee Member Keywords
- analysis
- piano
- program notes
- translation
- Messiaen
Date of Defense 2007-05-12 Availability unrestricted Abstract The analytic component of my dissertation, “Two Ways of Looking at Messiaen’s Vingt Regardssur l’Enfant-Jésus,” takes two points of entry into the masterwork for piano: the first examines
the role of repetition in two of the movements, “Regard de la Vierge” and “Regard du Fils sur le
Fils”; the second investigates Messiaen’s synesthesia, analyzing the pitch collections that
contributed to his visual perceptions. “Regard de la Vierge” utilizes the juxtaposition of
disparate musics in order to create a conflict; pitch-centricity and the sharing of motives unify
the movement and contribute to the resolution of the conflict. In “Regard du Fils sur le Fils”,
Messiaen re-contextualizes the first movement, labeled the Thème de Dieu, which provides the
structural foundations for the superimposition of two additional musics.
In Baptism, the compositional component of my dissertation, I continue to explore a
technique that is for me a significant change in style: the overlapping of musical events. Some
sections of the ensemble continue with one music, while other sections begin new or divergent
material. In most instances, the simultaneous musics are realized through metric modulations.
The piece was originally commissioned by the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble and David Stock, and after the initial performance, I revised the work in order to highlight this feature. The
University of Pittsburgh Orchestra, under the direction of Roger Zahab, performed the revised
version in February of 2007.
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