Messiaen’s Final Works by Christopher Dingle (review)

In Messiaen’s Final Works, Christopher Dingle argues that the music Messiaen composed after his opera Saint François d’Assise (1975–83) underwent a stylistic change, thereby constituting a distinct and final period in his creative output (p. 9). The works in question span the Livre du Saint Sacrement (1984) to Éclairs sur l’audelà. . . (1987–91), and also include an incomplete work, the Concert à quatre (1990–92). Dingle’s argument for a stylistic break is persuasive, considering that Messiaen regarded Saint François as not only his magnum opus but also his last work. But obviously, Messiaen continued to compose, and in his book, Dingle charts the composer’s creative renewal after Saint François, which for the author is the culmination of the monumental (and, in the end, penultimate) style begun with La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1965–69 [p. 32]). In his exploration of this “Indian summer in Messiaen’s life” (p. 8), Dingle centers his efforts on Éclairs, the “highlight” of the maître’s last creative phase.

In addition to supplying a historical and stylistic context for his discussion of Messiaen’s final works, Dingle examines the compositional techniques used in each piece, particularly as related to harmony. Since he maintains that Messiaen’s music defies analytical classification, thus making the application of a single theoretical method futile, Dingle opts for approaches devised for the occasion, engaging in speculation as the situation warrants. Through his focus on the tertian-based harmonies found in many of Messiaen’s chord types, Dingle argues that the composer’s use of harmony at surface and deeper levels of structure is ultimately a “kind of modified tonality” (p. 313).

Messiaen’s Final Works is organized into four parts. Part I (“Final Works”) provides a context for a protracted examination of Éclairs sur l’au-delà. After an introductory chapter that lays out the book’s rationale and contents (pp. 3–10), chapter 2 (“A Few Techniques from Messiaen’s Musical Language,” pp. 11–30) supplies an overview of Messiaen’s harmonic language, focusing on the modes of limited transposition, along with more recently invented chord types, and how they are at times applied in the composer’s music. Although containing some general observations about the compositional techniques used in Saint François d’Assise, the next chapter (“Messiaen’s Final Work? Saint François d’Assise,” pp. 31–44) derives its real value from the historical and stylistic information it offers. Chapter 4 closes Part I with an examination of Messiaen’s organ summa, the Livre du Saint Sacrement (“Messiaen’s Final (Organ) Work: Livre du Saint Sacrement,” pp. 45–59).

Part II (“The Miniatures”) considers the small-scale works that Messiaen composed in the wake of the Livre. Chapter 5 (“Introduction to the Miniatures,” pp. 63–64) provides a backdrop to these miniatures, whereas chapter 6 (“A Work for Yvonne Loriod . . . ,” pp. 65–82) focuses on an analysis of Petites esquisses d’oiseaux (1985). Chapter 7 (“Two Works for Boulez . . . ,” pp. 83–112) looks at the background, structure, and similarities between Un vitrail et des oiseaux and La ville d’en-haut. Chapters 8 (“A Work for Mozart: Un Sourire . . .,” pp. 113–27) and 9 (“A Work for Alfred Schlee: Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes,” pp. 129–33) are discussions of two neglected pieces in the Messiaen literature. Un sourire is a composition written for Mozart’s bicentenary, and Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes, a work composed for the ninetieth birthdays of Alfred Schlee and his company, Universal Edition. A short chapter (“The Miniatures: An Overview,” pp. 135–36) concludes this part of the book.

Part III (“Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà. . .”) forms the core of Messiaen’s Final Works. It opens with an informative introduction to Éclairs sur l’au-delà. . . (pp. 139–58) that charts its history from commission to realization, as well as muses about its overall...