Olivier Messiaen's System of Signs: Notes Towards Understanding His Music

Cover
Half Title
Dedication
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
List of Figures and Tables
List of Music Examples
Acknowledgements
Author’s Note
Introduction
	Understanding Messiaen’s Music
	Music and Language
	The Language of Signs
	Messiaen’s Music as Language
	Primary and Secondary Sources
	Case Study: Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité
1 Messiaen’s Theology
	The Basic Tenets of Catholicism
	Catholicism in France in the Twentieth Century
	Messiaen’s Theology
	Messiaen’s Principal Theological Topics
	Thomas Aquinas and Trinitarian Theology
2 Communicating through Music
	Messiaen the Innovator
	Messiaen’s Commentaries and ‘Le Cas Messiaen’
	Messiaen’s Sign System Defined
	Modes of Limited Transposition and Colour as Signs
	Rhythm as a Sign
	Plainchant as a Sign
	Birdsong as a Sign
	Musical Hermeneutics
3 Adding a Communicable Language
	The Art of Musical Cryptography
	Different Cipher Systems
	Twentieth-Century Developments
	François-Bernard Mâche and the langage
	Messiaen’s Theoretical Explanation of the langage
4 Linguistic Analysis of the langage communicable
	Classification of the langage communicable
	The Alphabet
	Phonology and Morphology
	Grammar and Syntax
	Identification and Discussion of the Leitmotifs
5 Issues of Cognition of Messiaen’s langage and Signs
	Transmission
	Acquisition
	Perception and Retention
	Musicological Use of Messiaen’s Recordings
	Cognition
	Further Uses of the langage communicable
6 The Semiotic System in Context
	Aquinas and the Summa Theologiae
	Identification and Discussion of the Text Superscriptions
	The Concept of the Rosetta Stone
	Aquinas, Angels and the Méditations
	The langage as Part of a Complex Semiotic System
	Trinitarian Theology Expressed in the Méditations
7 Meaning and Mentalese
	The Question of Understanding
	Messiaen and the Intentional Fallacy
	Semantics
	Messiaen’s Mentalese
	Epilogue
Select Discography
Glossary
Bibliography
Index