Switched On Messiaen

WEAR HEADPHONES – IT’S BINAURAL

This is a submission to C21MP 2024 conference at the Townshend Studio, UWL

Title: Switched on Messiaen: what affordances might CEMIs offer to deliver an alternative sonic manifestation of the stymied aspirations of the proto-spectralist movement?

Justin Paterson, Robert Sholl, Charles Norton, Anna McCready
University of West London



Theme-3: ‘Composition and songwriting’ – submitting a composition
Messiaen noted that “in my opinion, one does not fully understand music if one has not often experienced these two phenomena: complementary colours [and the] natural resonance of sounding bodies.” For him, “complexes of sound” were more important than musical genre. Further, his student Florentz indicated the range of harmonics available on organs, his ideal future ‘harmonic’ organ and the way birds communicated. Both created birdsong-like music from harmonics and complexes of timbres.
This submission presents a short, initially-improvised composition using birdsong from Messiaen’s sketches and material from works including Sept haïkaï. Here, the lyrebird will mimic it; manifested by human soprano and synthesiser respectively.
Comprising a typical post-1960s Messiaen form (chorales, monodies, complex superimposed counterpoint) and other aspects of his musical language, layers of synthesised timbres from the Townshend collection will bring harmonics and ‘complexes of sound’ – unavailable to Messiaen – to create a musical narrative that extends the ecology of his music.
During synthesiser performance, multiple human operators will respond to sonograms of real birdsong presented as a graphical score for the adjustment of front-panel parameters. The keyboardist will have no prior knowledge of the likely timbres and must improvise in response to them, embodying Ascott’s (Groundcourse) “unlearning through disorientation”. Synth-triggers will be mapped via a custom-designed controller array, facilitating a unique performative hybridisation of multiple instruments. The piece will be further (re)composed/produced and binaurally mixed in Dolby Atmos® to bring perceived elevation to the birdsong.
The video will present both the final artefact as provocateur and some of its seminal precursors, creating new knowledge by examining trajectories in between, and the implications of synthesiser-spectralism, reimagined. The presenters bring expertise in multiple areas of this concept – each able to direct the ensuing discussion in different ways to offer wide-ranging and meaningful incisiveness.