Chapter Four

Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies:

an assessment of Stravinsky’s
inluence on Messiaen

Matthew Schellhorn

I think that one must listen to my music, forgetting its success (not to mention
the polemics that attended that success!), and even forgetting the music. what
does a rose-window in a cathedral do? It teaches through imagery, through
symbolism, through all the characters that inhabit it – but what most catches
the eye are its thousand spots of colour which ultimately dissolve into a
single, very pure shade, so that someone looking on says only, ‘that window
is blue’, or, ‘that window is violet.’
I had nothing more than this in mind … .
Traité VII, p. 198

the stylistic indebtedness of a composer who for his sources of inspiration ‘chooses
everything’ (see nichols, 1986, p. 88) is naturally an intriguing issue. Discussions
of Messiaen’s music traditionally assert the originality of his langage musical
through seemingly unavoidable routine classiications and contextualizations of
his matchless techniques and philosophies. For much of his lifetime Messiaen
himself headed the debate with his contributions of programme notes, interviews
and idiosyncratic theoretical writings.
the Paris première (21 april 1945) of Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence
Divine (1943–44) was an unseemly beginning to the public and critical scrutiny
of Messiaen’s ‘language’. the notorious ‘cas Messiaen’ of 1945 has, like that of
the irst performance of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring just over thirty years earlier,
gone down as one of the great scandales of music history.1 with its sensual
instrumentation and appealing melodies Trois petites Liturgies was seen by the
public as occupying a unique place in a collection of works that had formerly
been considered rather inaccessible. as one commentator at the time put it, ‘a
“irst performance” of contemporary music in which the composer manages to
make himself immediately understood is an absolute godsend’ (Florand, 1946,

1 For a comprehensive round-up of the contemporary critical reaction to the irst performance
of Trois petites Liturgies, see Daniel-lesur, ‘trois Petites liturgies de la Présence Divine d’olivier
Messiaen’ (Daniel-lesur, 1946).
40 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

p. 43). oddly, the work’s accessibility was precisely the reason why it disturbed
the critics. though immediately popular with the public, Trois petites Liturgies
was viliied in the press as an unpardonable corruptio optimi. this was a battle not
only between a composer and his critics but also between the critics themselves.
‘In short,’ wrote claude rostand, ‘the whole musical world in Paris suddenly
went mad … . It was a kind of dance of glory and death around Messiaen, the
hero cruciied’ (cited in nichols, 1986, p. 40).2 the central criticism of the work
concerned its reputed lack of religiosity. ‘to judge by the title and the words,
the spirit of this work ought to be religious,’ wrote roger Blanchard, ‘but the
music does not lead us to a mood of contemplation owing to its multifariousness:
meditation is followed by jazzy uproar, and that in turn by easy-on-the-ear
passages, often reminding us of a charming operetta inale. to sum up, far from
ascending in a ine continuous line towards the ethereal spheres, the work follows
a downward curve and heads unerringly towards a prosaic world which it ought
to eschew’ (quoted in Daniel-lesur, 1946).3
Messiaen said he was ‘astounded’ by the critical reaction given the work’s
success with the public, yet he was nevertheless ‘pleased’ to rouse people from
their complacency: ‘I imagine it was a kind of native distrust by right-thinking
people, comfortably settled in their armchairs and worn slippers, opposed to
anything out of the ordinary, especially in the spiritual domain’ (Samuel, 1994,
p. 130). Pleased or not, though, one criticism about Trois petites Liturgies seems
to have irritated Messiaen. a new controversy had arisen, caused by a genuine
concern about how ‘new’ Messiaen’s new work really was. one review asked if it
‘mattered’ that the percussion writing of Messiaen’s inal Liturgie, ‘Psalmodie de
l’ubiquité par amour’, recalled the distinctive sound and rhythms of Stravinsky’s
Les Noces (Svadebka; The Wedding; 1914–23) (see roland-Manuel, 1945). But
in his class at the Paris conservatoire Messiaen was at pains to dissociate Trois
petites Liturgies as a whole from Stravinsky’s piece. the only common property
between the two scores, he maintained, was the use of piano, xylophone and choir.
and the clamp-down on conjecture went further. Messiaen would concede only
one inluence, albeit one that he considered had also inluenced Les Noces, that of
the music of Bali (Boivin, 1995, p. 324).
a relection of Messiaen’s unease about Trois petites Liturgies is seen in his
quite uncharacteristic claim that he liked them ‘too much’ to analyse them, despite
repeated requests to do so (Boivin, 1995, p. 324).4 It was only in 1978, when the
work had appeared on the syllabus for the Baccalauréat, that Messiaen inally

2 rostand was critic for Carrefour.

3 Blanchard was writing in Mondes.
4 Messiaen is known to have discussed the Liturgies in the 1960s – once at the École normale, for
the class of his former pupil Françoise Gervais, and subsequently in a public response to an analysis
by Jacques chailley that was published in L’Éducation musicale (Boivin, 1995, p. 324). Boivin is
referring to Jacques chailley’s article, ‘trois Petites liturgies de la Présence Divine’, in L’Éducation
musicale (chailley, 1968/69).
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 41

prepared an analyse succincte for the second edition of the score, which was
published with quelques remarques in 2002 in the inal Tome of the Traité (Traité
VII, pp. 193–217).
one explanation for Messiaen’s reticence might lie with the critics themselves,
some of whom had denounced what they saw as his highly codiied, ultra-
rationalist approach to composition (Père François Florand, for instance, asserted
in 1946 that ‘un artiste qui s’explique se diminue’ [Florand, 1946, p. 45]). Messiaen
might well have found that his written explanations were counter-productive, that
perhaps he should not reveal what some critics called the ‘nuts and bolts’ of his
compositional techniques (see Daniel-lesur, 1946). yet Messiaen’s sensitivity
about claims that Trois petites Liturgies were closely associated with Les Noces
sets alarm bells ringing. critical vetoes surely do not suit a composer-analyst who,
for the main part, sanctioned and even welcomed study of his music. while the
allegation of the inluence of Les Noces dogged Messiaen’s Liturgies from the
start, a detailed comparative study of the two works is wanting. as we look closer
at the similarities between Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies, is Messiaen’s
work really, as andré hodeir has called it (1961, p. 120), an ‘effeminate replica
of Les Noces’? Is Messiaen, as claude rostand called him (Daniel-lesur, 1946),
a composer ‘who wishes to pass himself off as a revolutionary [but who] brings
nothing important to music that has not already been said’?

the uniqueness of Messiaen’s sound-world in Trois petites Liturgies belies

its dependence on Stravinsky’s Les Noces. Messiaen himself acknowledged
the similarities of orchestration between the two works. But to emphasize the
common choice of piano, percussion and choir is to make the most obvious but
least remarkable comparison.
It has been said that an ad hoc assembling of instruments, and the implied
notion that a composer could choose his forces freely, was Stravinsky’s ‘lesson
to the future’ (Grifiths, 1985, p. 113). unusual orchestral preoccupations and
progressive sonorities had characterized much of Stravinsky’s early music. But
Stravinsky agonized over the scoring of Les Noces, taking seven years to reach
the inal version, contemplating at times various formats of large and small
orchestras, with harpsichords, pianos, harmoniums, cimbalom and percussion,
and also a combination of pianolas with ‘bands of instruments that included
saxhorns and lugelhorns’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 118). Stravinsky settled
on an orchestra of four pianos, percussion and chorus (including four solo parts)
– a radical combination that would be ‘at the same time perfectly homogeneous,
perfectly impersonal, and perfectly mechanical’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962,
p. 118). later he said that ‘no work of mine has undergone so many instrumental
metamorphoses’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 118).5
5 For a fuller account of the development of the instrumentation of Les Noces, see taruskin, 1996,
pp. 1456–9, 1501.
42 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

while confronting the exigencies of composing his Quatuor pour la in du

Temps in a Silesian prisoner-of-war camp Messiaen no doubt took heart from
Stravinsky’s successful explorations of non-traditional instrumental combinations.
But Trois petites Liturgies seems truly orientated to the ‘lesson’ of Les Noces. For
his Liturgies Messiaen was searching for something new, something that would
be daring not only in its ‘musical æsthetic’ but also in its ‘combination of timbres’
(Samuel, 1994, p. 130). like its diverse text, the orchestra of the Liturgies is a
concoction – ‘not a chamber orchestra’, Messiaen said, ‘still less a symphony
orchestra “grouped” in the classical way, but rather a europeanized hindu or
Balinese instrumentation’ (Messiaen, 1945). within the sonic fabric of Messiaen’s
Liturgies every component ibre remains strong and identiiable; as in Les Noces
every part is effectively a solo one. at the core of both works is the piano. In Les
Noces the traditionally individualist identity of the piano is supplanted both by
the scoring – the use of four pianos in combination – and by writing that relies on
melodic repetition and extremes of register. likewise, in Trois petites Liturgies
Messiaen inds for the piano an unusual role – ‘just as important’ as the other
instruments, ‘not only treated as an important soloist but also accorded the role of
studding the texture with diamonds, not one corresponding to the classical concerto
style’ (Samuel, 1994, p. 116). also reminiscent of Les Noces is Messiaen’s use of
the choir. unison singing carries an important meaning in both works, and an echo
of the contradictions in Les Noces is found in the asexual voice of Trois petites
Liturgies. vocal solos also play a crucial part, lending to each work an ambiguity
that goes beyond the meaning of the text. In Les Noces, single voices represent
at times the individual, at times the collective; the only solos of Trois petites
Liturgies (at igures 6 and 15 of ‘Psalmodie’) lend to the text a particularized,
personal meaning, and remind us of the interdependence in love of the human and
the spiritual; Messiaen said of these ‘acts of love and reverence’ that their feelings
‘cannot be accounted for, and I shall not try’ (Traité VII, p. 197).
as in Les Noces the mechanical is present in Trois petites Liturgies, in the
orchestra itself. we meet for the irst time in one of Messiaen’s major works
the ondes Martenot, an instrument attractive to Messiaen precisely on account
of its timbral adaptability (Samuel, 1994, pp. 57–9), and one that was to him
inseparably linked with orchestral innovation.6 Indeed, the ondes of Messiaen’s
‘Psalmodie’ had its own innovation, using the diffuseur métallique for the
irst time in its history in combination with trills in augmentation (Traité VII,
p. 197). Trois petites Liturgies also sees Messiaen’s irst signiicant exploration
of percussive sonorities, with the appearance of the celesta, the vibraphone, the
maracas, the chinese cymbal and the tam-tam.7 again, it is the lexibility – in
Messiaen’s words, the ‘power and poetry’ – of percussion that makes it attractive:
the ‘unreal quality … and other very complex sound phenomena [of percussion

6See chapter Five for more information on Messiaen’s use of the ondes Martenot.
7Messiaen had studied percussion at the Paris conservatoire under Joseph Baggers (Samuel,
1994, p. 112).
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 43

instruments] … bring us close to some of the enormous and strange noises in

nature like waterfalls and mountain streams’ (Samuel, 1994, p. 57).
Messiaen’s orchestra evolved, too, from irst performance to the second edition
of the score (1978). the original programme gives the number of unison female
voices as nine, revised to eighteen for the irst edition of the score (1952). For the
second edition the number of singers and string-players was doubled, to thirty-
six ‘sopranos and some mezzos and altos’ and eight irst violins, eight seconds,
six violas, six cellos and four double basses. In the second edition Messiaen also
becomes speciic about the piano, which has to be a concert grand piano ‘with
a brilliant tone, and beautiful resonance’. Messiaen’s revisions of the orchestra
were accompanied by changes to his speciic requirements for the exact positions
of the performers on the concert-platform. the prefaces of the scores indicate
Messiaen’s requirements. In its early performances the Liturgies were staged with
the choir surrounded by the strings, and percussion and solo instruments at the
front; in what might seem an odd arrangement the piano – sans couvercle – was on
the right of the conductor, with the ondes on his left. For the second edition of the
score the positions of the performers were altered, with the piano – now couvercle
levé – moved to the more traditional position on the left side of the stage, and the
percussion on the left of the strings towards the back; the choir was split between
two levels, one group immediately behind the orchestra on platform level, the
other raised on gantries.
careful practical planning behind performance is, in fact, a further similarity
between Trois petites Liturgies and Les Noces. In his original conception Stravinsky
had wanted musicians and dancers on stage as equal participants; a later version
divided the instruments into family groupings and kept them separate from one
another. when originally staged, on 13 June 1923 at the théâtre de la Gaité-
lyrique in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballets russes, Les Noces had its four pianos
at each corner of the stage, separated from the percussion ensemble, the chorus,
and soloists who were in the orchestra pit (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 118).8
Messiaen’s site-speciic planning of his Liturgies puts it irmly in a Stravinskyan
tradition, reminding us also of Stravinsky’s Histoire du soldat (1918), which
has the percussion at the front of the stage, to the right of the conductor, and of
Œdipus Rex (1926–27, 1948), the score of which speciies that the chorus ‘is
concealed behind a kind of bas-relief in three ascending tiers … [which] represents
a sculptured drapery, and reveal[s] only the faces of the choristers … ’.

a comparison of the instrumentation of Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies

suggests a connexion between the two works closer than Messiaen would allow. In
fact, there is clear evidence to show that when Messiaen came to write Trois petites
Liturgies in 1943, after his repatriation from Silesia, Les Noces was uppermost
8 this arrangement, argued for on aesthetic grounds by Diaghilev, was in fact disliked by
Stravinsky (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 117).
44 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

in his mind. During his internment Messiaen had continued to compose and to
analyse, having managed to keep with him a small collection of pocket scores
– among them Bach’s Brandenburg concertos, Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony,
ravel’s Ma Mère l’Oye and Berg’s Lyric Suite (Goléa, 1960, pp. 58–60).9 also
among Messiaen’s iercely guarded mini-library was the score of Stravinsky’s Les
Noces, a score that became the meeting-ground of a new, important friendship
with Guy Bernard-Delapierre. as Bernard-Delapierre later recalled: ‘he spent his
time reading them and lent me some of them including, I remember, Stravinsky’s
Les Noces. It was this tiny score that got my brain working again and restored
my hope’ (Bernard-Delapierre, 1945). Messiaen himself stressed the importance
of his scores, saying that this varied musical diet was his ‘solace at a time when I
would suffer, as the Germans themselves suffered, from hunger and cold’ (Goléa,
1960, p. 61).
Messiaen’s subsequent dedication of Technique de mon langage musical to
Delapierre attests to the importance of their meeting and to its circumstances.
and traces of Messiaen’s response to the language of Les Noces are found in
Technique de mon langage musical. to begin with, at a time when Messiaen was
formulating his treatise, the octatonic sounds of Les Noces cannot have escaped
his notice.10 In citing the changes that Stravinsky made between irst sketch and
inal score of the The Rite of Spring, Peter hill has suggested that Stravinsky did
not work with speciic reference to octatonic collections (hill, 2000, pp. 39–52).
Granted, the presence in Stravinsky’s music of what is in truth a sequence of
alternating tones and semitones could well arise through melodic writing that
is largely tetrachordal.11 that aside, it is well worth remembering that it was
Messiaen, in Technique de mon langage musical, who was the irst – at least
in print – to associate Stravinsky (among others) with the use of the octatonic
collection, or ‘mode 2’.12 Messiaen inds that the scale is used in Les Noces as a
sort of ‘timid sketch, the modal effect being more or less absorbed by classiied
sonorities’ (Messiaen, 1956, p. 59; 2001b, p. 87). In fact, in Stravinsky’s work a
clear distinction can be seen between passages of ‘sketchy’, incidental references
to the mode, and those where its use is explicit and unambiguous. Pieter van
den toorn has termed these distinct groups ‘list 1’, where reference to the mode
seems conscious, and ‘list 2’, where the mode is only referred to transiently (van

9 comparisons have been made between the technical procedures and emotional climate of
Berg’s Lyric Suite and passages of ‘Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes’ (sixth movement of
Quatuor pour la in du Temps); see hayes, 1995, p. 186.
10 For a treatment of octatonicism in Stravinsky’s output see especially Berger, 1968,
pp. 123–54.
11 In much the same way, lashes of ‘tonal’ writing arise in Messiaen’s works because of the
opportunities afforded by his ‘modes of limited transposition’ for standard tonal formation. this is
true, for instance, of ‘le baiser de l’enfant-Jésus’ (no. 15 from the Vingt Regards), where a form is
suggested that owes its dialectic to an ‘acceptable’ tonal argument.
12 Stravinsky’s use of octatonic collections remained largely undetected for nearly half a century.
See van den toorn, 1983, p. 463, n. 7.
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 45

Example 4.1 Stravinsky, Les Noces, igure 93 ( 1922, 1990 chester Music limited,
london, united kingdom. all rights reserved. reprinted by permission)

den toorn, 1983, pp. 44–6). according to van den toorn’s deinition, instances of
‘list 2’ can be heard throughout Les Noces, for example in the irst scene (except
igures 9 and 12–16), in the second scene at igures 29, 31–40 and 53–62, in the
third scene at igures 67–72 and 78–80, and in the fourth scene at igures 87–106.
Perhaps the most striking instances of ‘list 1’ occur in the second scene at igure
60 and in the fourth scene at igures 89–93 (see example 4.1).
here, the octatonic mode is outlined in its pure, original form, articulated
clearly in swirls of ascending and descending scales. Stravinsky’s unmissable use
of the octatonic mode in these passages is far from a ‘timid sketch’; the scales
represent dramatic climaxes, moments of octatonic outpourings that bring with
them stark transformations of texture and metre, and invariably spawn an abrupt
change in the proceedings.
Given the almost text-book quality of Stravinsky’s ‘mode 2’ scales in Les
Noces it seems both surprising and signiicant that Messiaen did not mention
them in Technique de mon langage musical. Messiaen maintained that ‘harmonic
colours’ were the primary source of the modal language of Trois petites Liturgies:
‘in juxtaposition and superposition they [the modes] produce blues, reds, blues
46 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

streaked with red, mauves and greys speckled with orange, blues studded with
green and gold circles, purple, hyacinth, violet, and the gleam of precious stones
– ruby, sapphire, emerald, amethyst … ’ (Traité VII, p. 194). But Messiaen’s use
of the octatonic scale in his Liturgies bears great resemblance to Stravinsky’s
in Les Noces. while much of the ‘harmonic colour’ of Trois petites Liturgies is
subtly underpinned by mode 2, Messiaen seems compelled at times to outline the
mode overtly. this is the case, for instance, in the inal bars of ‘Séquence’ (from
igure 11 [see example 4.2]) and again at the conclusions of the two énergique
sections of ‘Psalmodie’ (igures 5 and 14). For Messiaen, as for Stravinsky,
the explicit use of mode 2 seems important: after a welling up of emotion, the
presence of well-deined octatonic scales is cathartic, and always precedes a new
formal boundary.
technical similarities between Trois petites Liturgies and Les Noces were
preigured as early as 1939, when Messiaen wrote his famous Revue musicale
essay, ‘le rythme chez Igor Strawinsky’ (Messiaen, 1939d). In this two-page
homage Messiaen presents the general rhythmic sympathies of both composers
openly, hailing Stravinsky for restoring rhythm ‘to a position of honour’. It is a
telling discussion. we learn of Stravinsky’s ‘fascination’ with prime numbers,
corresponding to Messiaen’s own predilection for all that held the ‘charm of
impossibility’ (see Messiaen, 1956, p. 13; 2001b, p. 8; Goléa, 1960, p. 65), and also

Example 4.2 Trois petites Liturgies, ‘Séquence du verbe, cantique divin’, ig. 11
(reproduced by permission of editions Durand & cie)
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 47

of his familiarity with the writings of the thirteenth-century hindu ‘rhythmician’

Çârngadeva (Messiaen, 1939d, p. 92). Stravinsky himself was clearly irritated by
Messiaen’s sincerely held theories, later saying, with regard to The Rite, ‘But you
know, when I did that, I took no notice of all those hindu rhythms!’ (craft, 1994,
pp. 65–6).13
Stravinsky’s scorn nearly causes us to miss the point. whether or not he used
prime numbers or hindu rhythms intentionally, clearly the important thing to us
is not so much what techniques Stravinsky’s works employ. rather, Messiaen’s
analyses are valuable precisely because of their subjectivity. as Pierre Boulez
has said, ‘the ultimate object of analysis is self-deinition by the intermediacy of
another’ (Boulez, 1986, p. 123). what did Messiaen ind in Stravinsky’s music?
an answer to this question lies in what Messiaen calls in his Revue musicale essay
Stravinsky’s ‘rhythmic treasure’. Messiaen readily admits that this was a hoard
he had plundered, just as Stravinsky had studied his predecessors to acquire his
own ‘system’ of composition. and Messiaen singles out Les Noces as the work
in which many elements of Stravinsky’s rhythmic language reach their apogee.
to Messiaen the ‘jewels’ of Les Noces are roughly cut. But they work together
elegantly in establishing an ametrical rhythmic sense. Messiaen sees this irst in
the phenomenon of ‘superimposed metres’ (mesures superposées), whereby new,
contradictory hypermetres are caused to appear extending across the bar-lines.
right at the technical heart of Les Noces Messiaen identiies a crucial mechanism,
a sort of rhythmic gearbox (engrenage rythmique) (Messiaen, 1939d, p. 92). the
analogy holds good: Stravinsky’s vehicle is given increased power by a sort of
clutch – ‘partial rhythmic modiications’ (variations rythmiques partielles) – where
small rhythmic cells of different durations are subjected to constant variation and
reinement by the addition or subtraction of small added values.
while relections of Stravinsky’s ‘jewels’ are seen in much of Messiaen’s music,
in Trois petites Liturgies they shimmer particularly brightly. complex metric
hierarchies, for instance, are centrally important to the last Liturgie, where the 4/4
metre is overlapped irst at bar 7 by a recurrence of the melody every eleventh
quaver, and later at igure 2 where the piano cycle of chords is completed every
fourteenth quaver. Sure enough, the additive principle is evident, too, throughout
Trois petites Liturgies. It is encountered most visibly as a small-scale rhythmic
device that gives momentum and luidity to many melodic lines. In the middle
section of ‘antienne’, for instance, the repeated e-B-e melodic terminations are
given an added distinctive quality by the ‘short’ penultimate note. the melodies of
‘Séquence’ use the additive principle more lexibly, as an accelerator to the peaks
of phrases, and moments later as a brake at the cadences. Inside this showcase of
perfect equilibrium, Messiaen takes a chance to polish his own jewels: at igure 4

13 Stravinsky is also noted to have commented, in conversation with harry Freedman, canadian
composer and cor anglais virtuoso, ‘tout ce qu’il faut pour écrire la Turangalîla, c’est sufisament du
papier’ (quoted in Boivin, 1995, p. 296). It is not recorded what was said when Stravinsky attended a
performance of Trois petites Liturgies at la Biennale de venise on 20 September 1957.
48 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

he emphasizes the valeurs ajoutées with bright piano chords that cut like diamonds
into the texture.
the Stravinskyan origins of the additive principle are made more manifest at
deeper musical levels in Trois petites Liturgies. to see this we need to consider the
signiicance of what Messiaen identiies in his Revue musicale essay as the ‘vital
principle of Stravinskyan rhythm’ (Messiaen, 1939d, p. 92). Messiaen has laid out
in full his exploration of Stravinsky’s employment of additive and (what we might
call) subtractive rhythmic cells in combination with each other (Traité II, pp. 91–
148). these are the direct descendants of the ‘partial rhythmic modiications’ of
Les Noces – the esteemed personnages rythmiques, or ‘rhythmic characters’, that
Messiaen believed gave The Rite of Spring its ‘magical force’ (Samuel, 1994,
p. 71). In a discussion of the opening of ‘turangalîla 1’, third movement of the
Turangalîla-Symphonie, Jonathan cross has represented Messiaen’s own use
of personnages rythmiques as the cornerstone of an ‘antithetical completion’
of Stravinsky’s Introduction to The Rite of Spring (cross, 1998, pp. 112–18).14
certainly, the similarities in orchestration (Messiaen’s analysis notes Stravinsky’s
‘badly chosen’ instrumentation – Traité II, p. 97), not to mention the manifest
gestural correspondence between the two opening melodies for solo woodwind,
point to a ‘creative mis-reading’ of The Rite. throughout his piece Messiaen retains
Stravinsky’s ‘terms’ – that is to say, he takes three main ideas, superimposes them,
and then abruptly ceases their interaction (their ‘Lilâ’?) – but by creating layer
upon layer of personnages rythmiques he transforms their use into a ‘rational
constructive principle’.
even though the additive principle is explored relatively simply in Trois petites
Liturgies, it nonetheless makes its presence felt in the structure of the work. this
is true, for instance, in the middle section of ‘antienne’, where layers of rhythmic
material are created through a regular increase in every note-value of another
layer (as at igure 4+11) – a ‘rhythmic canon through the addition of a “point”’
is Messiaen’s technical term (Traité VII, p. 197). the additive principle also
permeates the irregularly increasing phrase-lengths of the opening of ‘antienne’,
where Messiaen allows Stravinsky’s small-scale device to pervade the form,
eloquently, subtly, letting it take root as an architectural philosophy. Such fusion
of technique and form carries yet more meaning in the expanding sections of
‘chant’ in ‘Psalmodie’. In this Liturgie, where melody is deemed periodically
unnecessary, and where melodic ostinatos are obliged to ‘revolve’ subserviently
to the rhythms of the text, we catch a glimpse of Messiaen’s own development
of Stravinsky’s ‘vital principle’. Messiaen has himself revealed that the layers
of dramatic activity in ‘turangalîla 1’ were an attempt to emulate not only the
personnages rythmiques of The Rite, but also the purely rhythmic theme, as he
saw it, of the famous opening of ‘the augurs of Spring’ (Traité II, p. 99). the
famous repeated chords were, Messiaen said, Stravinsky’s ‘attempt to break
the link between melody and rhythm’ (Traité II, p. 99). and of course many of
14 cross is applying ideas from the writings of harold Bloom.
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 49

Messiaen’s works explore the separation of musical parameters, a project that for
him culminated in 1949 with Mode de valeurs et d’intensités, the second of the
Quatre Études de rythme. although Messiaen maintained in his programme notes
that the separation of pitch and duration in Trois petites Liturgies stemmed from
the music of Guillaume de Machaut (elsewhere, he said he had also discovered
this phenomenon in the separation of râga and tâla in hindu rhythms),15 the
association it had in his mind with the ‘theme of durations’ in The Rite of Spring
and its parent principles in Les Noces point to more powerful afinities with
Stravinsky.
the profound dependence on Les Noces of Trois petites Liturgies is apparent in
its very ethos. like Les Noces it is a non-sacred work, despite its representations
of church liturgy and ritual. Messiaen called it ‘primarily a very great act of faith’
(Samuel, 1994, p. 130), saying that he wanted to accomplish ‘a liturgical act, that
is to say, to bring a kind of ofice, a kind of organized act of praise, into the concert
hall’ (Samuel, 1994, p. 22). nevertheless, asked whether he preferred his Liturgies
to be performed in a concert hall or in a church, Messiaen replied that they were
‘at home’ in either place (Samuel, 1994, p. 22). Stravinsky likewise admitted the
inluence of liturgy on Les Noces, saying that it was primarily ‘a product of the
russian church’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 115). however, the completion
of the marriage ceremony, though an essential part of the programme, cannot be
said to be the main focus of the drama. In Stravinsky’s words: ‘as my conception
developed, I began to see that [the title] did not indicate the dramatization of a
wedding or the accompaniment of a staged wedding spectacle with descriptive
music. My wish was, instead, to present actual wedding material through direct
quotations of popular – i.e., non-literary – verse’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962,
pp. 114–15).
while Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies concern acts of worship played
out in a non-liturgical environment, the sense of ritual is central to both works.
Stravinsky stressed that the series of ‘quotations of typical talk’ comprising the
text of Les Noces is ‘always ritualistic’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 115).
Stravinsky’s careful grouping of the insistent quaver articulation at igure 2 in the
irst scene is close to chanting. Messiaen tells us that he conceived his text not to
be read but to be sung, and that, as with plainchant, one is to stress the important
words.16 In addition, the ‘plain-chantesque’ violin solo in the middle section of
‘antienne’, which uses a variety of neumes including the torculus, the porrectus,
the distropha and the pressus, recalls the explicit use of authentic russian chant
at igure 50 of Les Noces.
In Les Noces the idea of ritual is further captured by the very actions of
the characters. as Stravinsky explains, the bride weeps in the irst scene ‘not
necessarily because of real sorrow at her prospective loss of virginity, but because,
ritualistically, she must weep’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 116). Proper nouns
15 See ‘texte de presentation’ in second edition of score (1978). See also Goléa, 1960, p. 66.
16 See ‘texte de présentation’, in second edition of score (1978).
50 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

belong to no one in particular, having been chosen for ‘their sound, their syllables,
and their russian typicality’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 115). Moreover, it is
not the speciic characters themselves but what they represent that is important:
‘Individual roles do not exist in Les Noces, but only solo voices that impersonate
now one type of character and now another’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 115).
hence, the iancé’s words are sung in the grooming scene by a tenor, but by a bass
at the end. and the two unaccompanied bass voices in the second scene are not
to be identiied with two priests, even though they ‘read’ the marriage ceremony.
Messiaen’s text is equally elusive. Trois petites Liturgies has no character-base,
no well deined individual personalities, despite the exploration of a distinctive
relationship and of its subjective experiences. we do not know who is speaking
to whom, or whether, indeed, there are only two people present. the ‘interior
dialogue’ of the irst Liturgie – an intimate prayer spoken in the irst person singular
voice (‘restez en moi’, ‘Parlez en moi’) – contrasts sharply with the collective
voice (‘c’est pour nous’) of the second Liturgie. even so, Messiaen scores both
pieces – so very different in tone – for all voices throughout. the division of the
choir into three parts at the very end of the ‘antienne’ is only another example of
the irony here. like a marriage, Trois petites Liturgies is fundamentally a mystical
expression of joy and unity, and it is also highly personal. as Messiaen said, the
sentiments of his Liturgies ‘do not explain themselves – and I shall not give them
any explanation’ (Traité VII, p. 197).
Plurality of voice and of personalities, and the ambiguities of the relationship
between them, have their origins in the main literary source behind the texts of
both works. Stravinsky said that he had conceived Les Noces as a ‘collection of
clichés and quotations of typical wedding sayings’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962,
p. 115). however, the text of Les Noces is replete with quotations from that great
Biblical poem of love, Song of Songs – for instance, the ‘hair’ of the irst scene
(see Song of Songs 4:1), the ‘palace’ of the irst and third scenes (see Song of
Songs 4:12 and 5:1), and the ‘sun and moon’ of the third scene (see Song of
Songs 6:10). It is a fact that cannot have gone unnoticed by Messiaen, who would
himself draw on Song of Songs for the text of Trois petites Liturgies; for instance,
the title ‘le Bien-aimé’ in ‘Séquence’ corresponds with the ‘Beloved’ of Song of
Songs.17
the allegorical portrayal in Song of Songs of the reciprocal love of God and
Israel as a relationship between husband and wife, as a dialogue between the lover
and his Beloved, made an ideal starting-point for both Stravinsky and Messiaen.
like Song of Songs, which is a collection of poems made coherent simply by
their common theme of love, the texts of Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies
betray no deinite plan. yet while there is no development of thought or action
– Stravinsky compared Les Noces to scenes in James Joyce’s Ulysses where the

17 It seems almost certain that Messiaen’s score was the edition in russian with French text by
charles-Ferdinand ramuz, Stravinsky’s Swiss collaborator, originally published by J. & w. chester
ltd, london, in 1922.
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 51

reader ‘seems to be overhearing scraps of conversation without the connecting

thread of discourse’ (Stravinsky and craft, 1962, p. 115) – a progression of
passion is evident in both works. a heightening of ardour between the lovers
in Les Noces is part of the programme; Messiaen’s third Liturgie is denser in its
surrealist imagery than its two predecessors.
the similarities between the texts of Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies
might be called coincidental were it not that at times Messiaen appears to take
not just single words but also whole phrases from Stravinsky’s text. close
textual correspondences are manifest right from the outset. the ‘nightingale’s
garden’ of the irst scene of Les Noces recalls Song of Songs 4:12, 4:16, 5:1 and
6:2; Messiaen’s work likewise enjoys the presence of a nightingale at the very
opening.18 In Messiaen’s third Liturgie the words ‘Posez vous comme un sceau
sur mon cœur’ (‘Set me like a seal on your heart’) are a direct quotation from
Song of Songs 8:6; but these words also recall Stravinsky’s ‘Il l’a mise sur son
cœur’ (‘he has impressed himself on your heart’) in the inal scene of Les Noces
(at igure 132). Furthermore, Messiaen’s phrase, ‘ne me réveillez pas: c’est
le temps de l’oiseau!’ (‘Do not wake me: it is the time of the bird!’) parallels
Stravinsky’s ‘Dormir te laissera, pour la messe il te réveillera’ (‘he will leave you
to sleep, for the Mass he will wake you’); both these phrases have their parent in
the phrase ‘Do not wake my beloved before she pleases’ from Song of Songs 2:7,
3:5 and 8:4.19 Similarly, the litany-like formulas of Song of Songs are captured
by Messiaen’s repetitive ‘c’est pour vous’ refrain of ‘Psalmodie’; this phrase also
strikingly echoes the opening scene of Les Noces at igure 14: ‘c’est pour toi,
nastasie timoféievna, c’est pour toi qu’il chante et qu’il chantera, il chantera sa
plus bell’ chanson pour toi.’
the close textual correspondences between Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies
are matched by arresting similarities in the music. as a general observation,
for instance, in Messiaen’s Liturgies the framing of almost identical material
by antiphons in ‘Psalmodie de l’ubiquité par amour’, and the a-B-a structures
of ‘antienne de la conversation intérieure’, recall the repetitive verse-refrain
principle of the opening scene of Les Noces. But compare igure 2 (example 4.3)
of this opening scene and the middle section (igure 4) of Messiaen’s ‘antienne’
(example 4.4).
here, Stravinsky’s work is imitated not just by the chant-like monodic unison
of Messiaen’s phrase – on the same note, e – and by the sharp interjections of
the piano and percussion, but also by the inal cadential igure which combines
elements of Stravinsky’s female and soprano solo lines.
18 the nightingale held a particular fascination for both composers. It is the protagonist of
Stravinsky’s opera (lyric tale) in three acts, Le Rossignol (Solovey; The Nightingale; 1914); the bird
appears in many works by Messiaen, notably right at the beginning, and elsewhere, of Quatuor pour
la in du Temps.
19 this phrase was to remain signiicant to Messiaen, making a return in ‘Je dors mais mon cœur
veille’ (‘I sleep but my heart wakes’), no. 19 from Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus; see Song of
Songs 5:2.
52 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

Example 4.3 Stravinsky, Les Noces, ig. 2 ( 1922, 1990 chester Music limited,
london, united kingdom. all rights reserved. reprinted by permission)

this arch-like cadential lowering becomes an important melodic property to

Messiaen’s ‘Psalmodie’; although its mood is transformed for the words ‘Posez
vous comme un sceau sur mon cœur’ (example 4.6), and the comparable phrase
‘Imprimez votre nom dans mon sang’ (for example at igure 0+12 and igure 1+16),
its origins in Les Noces remain explicit and recognizable.
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 53

Example 4.4 Trois petites Liturgies, ‘antienne de la conversation intérieure’, ig. 4

(reproduced by permission of editions Durand & cie)

continued
54 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

Example 4.4 concluded

looking at the second Liturgie, ‘Séquence du verbe’, Messiaen’s tetrachordal

opening melody is closely related to the opening ‘chant’ of Les Noces
(example 4.7) and also to the playful ‘console toi, petit oiseau’ melody at igure 9
(example 4.8).
It should be noted, too, that in both Les Noces and Trois petites Liturgies the
motivic importance of the fourth derives from their opening bars; the original
form of this interval in both works is a descending fourth, covering the same
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 55

Example 4.5 comparison of vocal lines from examples 4.3 and 4.4

Example 4.6 Trois petites Liturgies, ‘Psalmodie de l’ubiquité par amour’, ‘Posez
vous … ’ (reproduced by permission of editions Durand & cie)

Example 4.7 Stravinsky, Les Noces, opening ( 1922, 1990 chester Music limited,
london, united kingdom. all rights reserved. reprinted by permission)

Example 4.8 Stravinsky, Les Noces, ig. 9 ( 1922, 1990 chester Music limited,
london, united kingdom. all rights reserved. reprinted by permission)
56 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

Example 4.9 Trois petites Liturgies, ‘Séquence’, opening (reproduced by permission

of editions Durand & cie)

Example 4.10 comparison of melodic lines from Les Noces, ig. 1, and ‘Séquence du
verbe’

notes – e to B. as Messiaen’s melody progresses further in ‘Séquence’ it makes

an extremely close imitation of Les Noces at igure 1+11, over-reaching a high e
and descending to a low e (see examples 4.9 and 4.10).
Furthermore, Messiaen’s melody progresses in the same way as Stravinsky’s.
at the very close of Les Noces (igure 133), which can be viewed as the conclusion
of Stravinsky’s melody, the vocal line (now transposed for bass solo) is extended
to embrace a high e. In the same way, Messiaen’s melody expands its tetrachordal
orbit at igure 0+13, reaching up a fourth to a high a (examples 4.11 and 4.12).
Moreover, just as Stravinsky used this distinctively shaped repeating phrase
as an opportunity for alternating closely related clauses – ‘elle t’avait tressée!’
becomes ‘elle t’avait peignée!’, and later ‘Pauvre, pauvre d’moi’ becomes ‘Pauvre
encore une fois!’ – so Messiaen swaps ‘le verbe était en Dieu!’ with ‘et le verbe
était Dieu!’, and later ‘Parole de mon sein!’ with ‘le verbe est dans mon sein!’, ‘Il
a donné son ciel!’ with ‘Pour compléter son ciel’, and ‘et lui se dit en lui’ with
‘et lui se voit en lui’.
In the climax of Messiaen’s inal Liturgie we see a debt to the conclusion of Les
Noces. the setting of the words ‘Mais le face-à-face et l’amour’ (‘But to see you
face-to-face, and love’ – igure 14) vividly recalls the culmination (igure 132)
of Stravinsky’s piece; these passages in both works precede a inal, more tranquil
section. Jonathan cross has traced the origin of such endings to Stravinsky’s
favourite device of the chorale ending: ‘For Messiaen, as for Stravinsky, it is
both a rhetorical and a ritual device, implying a kind of synthesis’ (cross, 1998,
p. 55). It is true that the chorale-like ending of Trois petites Liturgies foreshadows
the conclusions of the Vingt Regards and La Transiguration. In Messiaen’s
Liturgies the lack of a conventional sense of climax is only one way in which
its inal section betrays the inluence of Les Noces. the structure of Les Noces
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 57

Example 4.11 Stravinsky, Les Noces, ig. 133 ( 1922, 1990 chester Music limited,
london, united kingdom. all rights reserved. reprinted by permission)

Example 4.12 Trois petites Liturgies, ‘Séquence du verbe’, bars 13–20 (reproduced by
permission of editions Durand & cie)

has been deined by Stephen walsh as a ‘terraced arrangement of short, incisive

musical gestures depending mostly on contrast’, with a series of ‘planes or ields
of activity’ serving ‘partly to deine structure, though apparently not to promote
it in any organic sense’ (walsh, 1993, pp. 77–8).20 this is especially true of the
monumental conclusion of Les Noces (at igures 133–5), where a simple two-
note collection (B c ) appears to represent the marital consummation, repeatedly
puncturing the texture as if to ‘halt’ the action. Many of Stravinsky’s works are
architecturally reinforced by sometimes no more than one or two distinctly proiled
chords. another example is found in the ‘Danse infernale’ of The Firebird, where
successive entrances of the kastchei theme are interrupted by a single simultaneity
– the (a e) ‘ifth’ played tutti. Messiaen follows Stravinsky’s principle in Trois
petites Liturgies, distilling the melody and harmony into a two-note collection (e
F ) at igure 3 of the second Liturgie; the use of this motif as a piano interjection
throughout igure 4 vividly corresponds to the closing bars of Les Noces. and
Messiaen would use this technique again in the irst and last sections of ‘regard
de l’esprit de Joie’ (no. 10 from Vingt Regards), this time in a very close parallel
of the irst movement of Symphony of Psalms; the percussive sounds and primeval
dance-like qualities of Messiaen’s piece are themselves an inheritance from The
Rite of Spring (see examples 4.13 and 4.14).
that the music and text of Trois petites Liturgies share so much with Les Noces
certainly seems rather more than a coincidence. the extraordinary concoctions of
orchestral timbre and the exacting development of the work’s instrumentation,
20 the afinities of Les Noces with the artistic works of the cubist movement are especially
apparent when considering the painting of Fernand léger (1881–1955), La Noce (the wedding;
1911–12). originally exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, léger’s La Noce depends largely on the
tension between interlocking planes, and the use of distorted, abstract and fragmented forms.
58 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

Example 4.13 Vingt Regards, ‘regard de l’esprit de Joie’, opening (reproduced by

permission of editions Durand & cie)

Example 4.14 Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms, opening (© 1931 by hawkes & Son
(london) ltd. revised version: © 1948 by hawkes & Son (london)
ltd. u.S. copyright renewed. reproduced by permission of Boosey &
hawkes Music Publishers ltd)

the use of the octatonic mode not only as a decorative device but also as one
imbued with a formal signiicance, the quest for unity between small- and large-
scale rhythmic techniques, and the association of the additive principle with
the separation of rhythm and melody: all these ingredients attest to Messiaen’s
admiration for the musical language of Stravinsky’s Les Noces. and to return
for a moment to those hindu rhythms and prime numbers that Messiaen said in
1939 were so central to Les Noces, his own 1978 remarques would note the use
of hindu deçî-tâlas in his Trois petites Liturgies, while prime numbers could be
found in the rhythmic canon (made up of thirteen quavers) of the irst Liturgie, in
the principal theme (thirteen and seventeen quavers) in the second Liturgie, and
in the celesta ostinatos (seven quavers) of the third Liturgie (Traité VII, pp. 194,
199, 203 and 213).21
In addition to the similarities of instrumentation and language Trois petites
Liturgies and Les Noces share a similar aesthetic. It can be said that the musical
21 Messiaen also makes a telling division of the ten-note ostinato at the start of the third Liturgie
into two groups of ive, making apparent the intervallic inversions (Traité VII, p. 212).
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 59

drama replaces the drama of an act of worship; through the decontextualizing

of liturgy from its ecclesiastical home the works themselves become liturgies.
Moreover, it is also possible to discern direct and very obvious parallels of textual
and musical material. In some cases, these are unashamed and almost literal
correspondences of music; in others the imitations are more discreet. and the
similarities between Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Messiaen’s Liturgies are pointed
up by the parallel position of both works within their respective composers’ output.
Both works represent a watershed in the development of orchestral technique.
Both works explore similar and taut modal and rhythmic vocabularies. Both
works are a paradigm of the fusion of technique and form.
of course, in sharing stylistic and linguistic traits it is natural that Stravinsky
and Messiaen have suffered many of the same criticisms. these have been no
more misleading than in discussions of form. Peter hill has noted the prevailing
analytic and historical conception of the Rite of Spring as being constructed of
static ‘blocks’, which he attributes to ‘the traditional critical view which classiies
the Rite as a “pure” example of early twentieth-century modernism, with
Stravinsky represented as working in total reaction to all musical precedent’ (hill,
2000, p. 140). likewise, it is Messiaen’s apparently non-teleological approach to
form that has attracted some of the greatest disapproval. Boulez’s views typify
the tone: ‘[Messiaen] does not compose – he juxtaposes’ (Boulez, 1991a, p. 49).
It is, however, by such disparagements that new modes of appreciation can be
found, which further underlines the afinities between both composers. For in
Messiaen’s music – as in Stravinsky’s – conlicts between the mobile and the static
are evident, but it is the resultant tension between progression and regression that
is the driving force. In ‘Par lui tout a été fait’ (no. 6 from Vingt Regards), for
instance, we encounter what is perhaps Messiaen’s greatest formal coup: from the
midpoint of the piece the whole composition is played backwards, unravelling
the accumulated musical force and consequently denying any resolution which
the academic fugal form engenders. and, ironically, it is this constraint – which
questions the very concept of time itself during the course of the whole work – that
is to be the music’s liberation. right out of the black hole the ‘thème de Dieu’
erupts in its most august form yet, a convulsive mood-swing from contemplation
to virtuosity that elevates Vingt Regards as a whole onto a new emotional plane.
By privileging the fugue within Vingt Regards Messiaen in fact questions
Stravinsky’s view that the academic fugue is ‘a pure form in which the music
means nothing outside itself’ (Stravinsky, 1947, p. 76). nevertheless, the piece
still obeys fundamental Stravinskyan philosophy. as Stravinsky said, ‘Doesn’t
the fugue imply the composer’s submission to the rules? and is it not within those
strictures that he inds the full lowering of his freedom as a creator? Strength,
says leonardo da vinci, is born of constraint and dies in freedom’ (Stravinsky,
1947, p. 76). likewise, freedom on its own was not enough for Messiaen. when
claude Samuel concluded that, in sum, Messiaen’s language was one of ‘total
freedom’, Messiaen answered, ‘the word “freedom” is foreign to me’ (Samuel,
60 MeSSIaen: MuSIc, art, lIterature

1994, p. 62). rather, Peter hill has identiied that it is a ‘counterpoint of fantasy
with unyielding precision’ that is the central feature of Messiaen’s music (hill,
1995c, p. 309).22 Indeed, Messiaen was fascinated by the possibilities of apparent
contradictions in music, saying, ‘I always thought a technical process had all the
more power when it came up, in its very essence, against an insuperable obstacle’
(Samuel, 1994, p. 47). In these procedures he saw a means of putting a ‘spellbinding
power over the public’: ‘they possess an occult power, a calculated ascendancy,
in time and sound’ (Samuel, 1994, p. 48). this, too, echoes Stravinsky’s words:
‘a mode of composition that does not assign itself limits becomes pure fantasy …
an abandonment of one’s self to the caprices of imagination. … the more art is
controlled, limited, worked over, the more it is free. … My freedom thus consists
in my moving about within the narrow frame that I have assigned myself for each
one of my undertakings’ (Stravinsky, 1947, pp. 63 and 65).
the apparent paradox in a composer who has accounted readily for his own
language, but whose works can suggest unacknowledged outside inluences,
causes us to re-evaluate Messiaen’s openness in acknowledging the inluence of
other composers on his own formation. In the introduction of Technique de mon
langage musical Messiaen thanks all those who inluenced him – with no mention
of Stravinsky, though he does mention the importance to him of ‘russian music’
(Messiaen, 1956, p. 8; 2001b, p. 7). In fact, the only composer whom Messiaen
speciically names (other than his teachers Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupré) is
Debussy; the gift of the score of Pelléas et Mélisande on his tenth birthday was
‘probably the most decisive inluence’ to which he had been subjected (Samuel,
1994, pp. 110–11). later Messiaen would say that he remained closer to his
‘childhood loves’ – Debussy, Mozart, Berlioz and wagner (Samuel, 1994, p. 112).
even so, according to Philip corner, who attended Messiaen’s class from 1955
to 1957, Messiaen always spoke of Stravinsky as ‘le plus grand compositeur du
monde’. the accolade was, however, a qualiied one. Messiaen was ‘disgusted’
by ‘ugliness for its own sake’ in L’Histoire du soldat (Samuel, 1994, pp. 45–6);
after a Paris performance of Symphony of Psalms Messiaen stormed into class and
proclaimed ‘Stravinsky est mort!’ (Boivin, 1995, p. 296).
It is tempting to view Messiaen as an isolated, pioneering igure, yet that would
be to misunderstand the nature of his originality. In Messiaen’s ambivalence about
Stravinsky we see a composer defending his right freely to assimilate inspirations:
why Messiaen admired this ‘homme aux mille et un styles’ (as he had called
Stravinsky in 1939) is self-evident (Messiaen, 1939d, p. 91). If we can perceive
traces of Les Noces in Trois petites Liturgies, they manifest themselves as the
strands of a web – but one that is not woven deceitfully. Messiaen’s was no mere
parodic response to Stravinsky. Moreover, if we own that Stravinsky’s inluence
on Messiaen is greater than has previously been admitted, there is a key here for
future studies of both composers. For Stravinsky’s music invites, and facilitates,

22 hill makes his observation while accounting for the ideas of Cantéyodjayâ.
 StravInSky’S InFluence on MeSSIaen 61

a reassessment of our appreciation of Messiaen’s. and Messiaen helps us to

understand Stravinsky’s place in music history not by imitation but by his unique
reaction towards a unique composer. Indeed, Stravinsky’s inluence resonates
throughout Messiaen’s œuvre, the recognition of which must surely be vital to a
truer appreciation of the power of both composers.