Rowlands, Megan
(2023)
Releasing Messiaen's birds from their musical cages: Using Deleuzian theory to unlock new performance frameworks.
PhD thesis, University of Liverpool.
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Abstract
Many of Olivier Messiaen’s later compositions have a foundation in the systematic collection and notation of birdsong. The integration of these songs into works such as Le Merle Noir (1952) and Catalogue d’Oiseaux (1958), was conducted through a dual transcription process, with the composer notating his works using a combination of live field sounds and a collection of birdsong recordings. While much music-theoretical research has explored the relationship between analysis and performance, the synthesis has rarely been made with relation to birdsong, with past research relating to either analysis or performance. The primary aim of this study is to establish new possibilities and frameworks for the performance of birdsong and other equivalent sound sources. While Messiaen’s birdsong works are the focus of this project, the theories and possibilities provided can be applied to any musical work. The study therefore seeks to answer the following questions: 1. In what ways are natural sound sources manipulated when employed in a musical work? 2. To what extent can performers overcome the ‘limiting forces’ of notation to communicate a ‘natural’ narrative as well as the technical format of a work? 3. How can new performance approaches unlock greater interpretative flexibility in a work with ‘natural’ origins (such as birdsong)? To expand the current research beyond existing performance studies, the investigation takes a philosophical approach, using the work of Gilles Deleuze as a basis for other lines of enquiry. Deleuze and Guattari suggest that “birdsongs are often recognised as having a territorial function” (Bogue, 1999). In transforming them into music, the songs undergo ‘relative deterritorialization’, with written notation forming a discrete symbolic ‘language’ centred around fixed variables rather than the natural continuum of birdsong. Through a philosophical lens, this thesis employs a combination of primary and secondary research methods, working with performers and listeners of Messiaen’s music to explore how a territorial approach may alter or expand their interpretations of both micro and macro aspects of the repertoire. The current study expands on existing performance conventions through consideration of Messiaen’s creative process, rather than his end product. In doing so, the project offers new interpretative possibilities (‘territories’) for future performance. These opportunities enable performers and listeners to further ‘deterritorialize’ Messiaen’s discrete musical notation to maintain greater focus on its birdsong inspiration: a continual process which Deleuze insists should be our ultimate goal.
| Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) |
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| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Analysis, Birdsong, Deterritorialization, Olivier Messiaen, Performance |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of the Arts |
| Depositing User: | Symplectic Admin |
| Date Deposited: | 18 Aug 2023 13:48 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Aug 2023 13:48 |
| DOI: | 10.17638/03170710 |
| Supervisors: |
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| URI: | https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3170710 |
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