Messiaen Chord on the Dominant

Chapter 14 in Messiaen's "Techniques of my musical language" is a really dense set of chords and progressions. We’ll start with what he labels the Chord on the Dominant. Messiaen thinks of this type of chord chords as a specific set of interval relationships that contain all the notes of the major scale. when he creates a progression of chords, each chord is inverted and then transposed so that there is a common bass note - this creates wonderful progressions that Messiaen likens to an ‘effet vitrail’ or ‘stained glass effect’.

0:00 intro and the spiritual necessity of this study
1:25 chapter 14 is dense
2:35 summary of approach to inversion and progressions
3:40 puppy update and interruption
5:55 chord on the dominant is a specific voicing of all notes in the major scale ( ex. 201)
8:00 the stepwise approach to chord
8:57 a complicated progress of chord inversions ( ex.204)
12:16 breakdown of the root
13:14 a Bach interruption
15:06 first inversion

Studying music is a fair analogy for examining the human condition. The music of Olivier Messiaen is particularly suited for this study. I'll often wander into an extra-musical tangent hoping to explore more about composition, listening, performing and practicing.

In each episode, I'll work through the text and also play the many musical examples Messiaen provides. Occasionally I'll work on some homework assignments, setting myself the task to write short practice pieces based on the material at hand.

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