mmm039 Sunday, April 20, 2014: Messiaen theme with Sylvaine Bellec
39th m(usic(ician's)m(eeting) - April 20, 2014E.V.
Attendees:
tENT
[special guest] Sylvaine [Bellec at the Bayernhof Museum]
Clint
Hyla
Rob
Frank
Concetta
Ben
Liz
tENT & Sylvaine sit outside on the steps to enjoy the warm weather
Clint arrives
Hyla arrives & gives tENT 2 filmstrips (w/o their soundtracks):
"Folk Instruments"
"Rhythm, The Quarter Note and the Half Note"
Rob arrives & plays something on his cellphone that he introduces by saying "Name that tune"
tENT guesses that it's from the Matmos release where they used plastic surgery sounds
As it turns out, the recording was of one of his patients making a repetitive strange sound that wasn't the side-effect of respiratory problems
Hyla talks about a word for repetitive sound used for self-soothing purposes but she can't remember the word
[relevant interpolation from tENT typed here on Saturday, April 26, 2014: My friend Laura A. Truseal repeatedly sd the word "lalochezia" at a "One Word per Person Party" that I organized in 1990. That means: "The use of vulgar or foul language to relieve stress or pain." ( http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lalochezia ) The short version of the movie from that can be witnessed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvgoTPwwCog ]
tENT shares red wine
Sylvaine talks about Brittany (where she's from) & the Brittanic language (a Gaelic language closest to Welsh) wch was made illegal by the French. Brittany is generally identified as the Northwest area of France. Sylvaine talks wbout roots w/ 1st Nation peoples.
Frank & Concetta arrive
Rob talks about his proposed rock band
Frank provides Bard's Sorghum Malt Beer
Ben arrives
Sylvaine talks about her thesis on Messiaen & Ornithology:
She talks about how during the French political upheaval of 1968 Messiaen put his emphasis on science in order to cover up his Catholicism b/c he was afraid of becoming a persona non grata
Sylvaine met & studied w/ Jacques Penot who was the same ornithologist that Messiaen studied w/
Sylvaine's talking about the speed at wch birds vary their sounds & the difficulty of humans being adequately sensitive to this
Ben mentions a musical notion called the "Tatum" named after the great jazz pianist Art Tatum - when do notes come so fast that hearers can't differentiate them anymore?
Sylvaine talks about musicians providing a particular way of interpreting
She talks about meeting Messiaen near the end of his life w/ Penot in 1985 - Messiaen died in April 1992)
She talks about reading all the bks about Messiaen & birds
She specifically mentions birds that Messiaen frequently references:
Grive Musicienne = Song Thrush
Merle Noir = Blackbird: it's voice gets louder as it gets older
Troglydite = House Wren: very loud
Messiaen picked birds that're visually colorful & didn't necessarily pick them b/c of their song
Messiaen pieces have poems as epigraphs to the scores that don't specifically talk about songs per se
Messiaen is asked about why he does this & he says that it's a clue about the music
Messiaen had 2 main women as lovers in his life:
his 1st wife, who was a wealthy violinist who had many social connections - Messiaen had a son w/ her, gets her money, puts the wife in a mental institution, puts the son in a boarding school & then neglects him
his mistress, later 2nd wife, Yvonne Loriot, who's his student who's 20 yrs younger - she's a pianist - a "Loriot" is also a yellow bird w/ a simple song
His 1st wife is nearing death & asks Messiaen to visit her & to bring Yvonne along - the 1st wife then dies (1971?) & he then marries Loriot
Sylvaine says he stops writing bird music around this time out of guilt
Later, Messiaen combines spirituality & birdsongs
tENT gives Ben DVD-R of "Pi(ano Fort)e (the remake)" & Hyla one of the same to give to her friend Mark B (who plays a duet w/ Jaclyn)
Sylvaine talks about Messiaen's modes in relation to actual bird song
Sylvaine demonstrates that some of Messiaen's science is inaccurate - especially claims of modal transcriptions being accurate:
The above chart & sonogram was shown [not quite] in conjunction w/ playing a sample of the Rouge-gorge bird followed by playing Messiaen's Rouge-gorge theme. In the comparison, Sylvaine demonstrates that the middle part of the bird-song is eliminated & the silences are removed. In other words, Messiaen picks & chooses the parts he uses:
[sorry, no link to the sound file here]
[This section actually got played later in the evening but it makes sense to interpolate it here]
Ben explains Messaien's modes to us more & tells us that he composed "blues" from the 2nd Water Shed 5tet disc using a Messiaen mode that's a 10 note scale missing F# & C wch makes it a minor scale w/ a major 7th.
As far as this minutes-taker can tell, Ben meant the "Blue Plate Tectonics" CD ( http://www.rastascan.com/catalog/brd034.html )
Ben explains his upcoming Concerto
Sylvaine continues her explication of how scientifically incorrect Messiaen's modes are as bird-song transcription:
Troglodyte = House Wren = mode 3
Merle Noir = Blackbird = mode 3
both os these are written in the same mode
Rouge-Gorge & Grive Musicienne both use Mode 7
Sylvaine's conclusion being that Modal L'Oiseaux Modal Scientifique
Sylvaine goes on to contest Messaien's claims that his music uses 4 parts & states that 3 parts are actually used & that the use of 3 parts is symbolic of the Holy Trinity: A, B, A (referring back to Messiaen's public avoidance of religious symbolism in favor of scientific claims during times of atheistic / scientific political upheaval in France) - she goes on to refute the claim that the bird transcriptions have anything to do w/ the time of day the songs were sung - as Messiaen claimed
Sylvaine talks about how the Loriot bird is very hidden, just like the Loriot mistress
She explains that the Grive Musicienne is the composer & that he changes but that the Loriot doesn't change
She also explains that Messiaen uses a musical alphabet to spell out "Loriot"
After Messiaen's 1st wife died & he was enabled to marry Yvonne Loriot the Loriot bird theme leaves the music
Liz arrives sometime around here
Ben talks about "L'Oiseaux Exotique": Robert Fallon looked thru Messiaen papers w/ English bird names taken from records - Sylvaine explains that there're no French records that mix science & music in the way the English records do
Sylvaine talks about the Musique Concrete composer François-Bernard Mache
Sylvaine talks about Messiaen's last opera, St Francis of Assizes, in wch he combined birds w/ his spirtual references to show birds as a metaphor for transitioning to the spiritual: humans -> birds -> sky
Sylvaine that in Messiaen's symbolism some birds = the holy trinity:
Sky Lark of the Fields = Holy Spirit
Grive Musicienne = Jesus
Rossignole (Nightingale) = God / Father
Playing of the beginning of the CD that accompanies Sylvaine's thesis (see/hear previously [not] provided mp3 of track 1)
Sylvaine interpolates explanation
Concetta asks why Messiaen cdn't just say that he's inspired by birds instead of taking the pseudo-scientific stance
Sylvaine says he was being careerist
Sylvaine explains that she wanted to major in physics & minor in music in France but it wasn't allowed b/c the 2 disciplines are seen as too separate
Hyla sd that the academy in Zagreb is anti-interdisciplinary
Sylvaine says that Canada & N. America in general is more open to inter-disciplinarian study - hence she made her thesis in Canada
Ben talks about Michael Pestel playing actual bird-song recordings & relating them to Messiaen versions
Sylvaine talks about composer Machuen's biasing perception of Speezop (? don't know if I got the name right here)
Sylvaine talks about working w/ Xenakis in 1986 to produce a happening w/ improv & lights using 14 students 15 yrs old
tENT talks about how philosophically contrary that was to the position taken by Xenakis in his "Formalized Music" bk
Bell tells story about Xenakis coming to his school in 1981
Liz tells Xenakis story about a piece presented in Seattle in 2006 or 2007
Sylvaine quotes Messiaen from p 19 of her thesis:
Sylvaine talks about 2 of the plays she performed in at her school in Montréal & about the administration's subsequent stopping of the theater, wch was very absurdist
She started a cabaret as a replacement
Screening of movie of her singing an Edith Piaf song at the cabaret
Frank & Concetta & Clint & Hyla & Ben leave @ 10:42
tENT screens Michael Pestel's lyrebird footage from Australia
Sylvaine talks about Freemasonry & Mozart & Enlightenment & Constantine & Copernicus & Galileo
Sylvaine says that Leonardo Da Vinci claimed that Jesus had a wife & sd that John the Baptist actually started Christianity
Freemasons discover Mozart as a young touring prodigy & teach him things such as: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity
Mozart uses symbolism - D Major
Mozart maybe poisoned but body disappeared
Mozart shows how to become a Freemason in The Magic Flute
Mozart is against castration for the production of castratos & pro equality of women
Mozart uses clarinet, a secular instrument, in his requiem - it's in German, not Latin, the poor public are allowed, the king's not invited
tENT shows Lotte Reininger's silhouette animation of Mozart's Papagano sequence from the Magic Flute
Sylvaine talks about Beethoven's deafness
tENT plays Monty Cantsin's "d composing Mozart" tape that he publishes, wch is made entirely from the final chords of Mozart symphonies (all in D Major?), & gives a copy to Sylvaine (who doesn't take it..)
tENT gives Liz MM 26 CD & Sylvaine Alex Grey bk
tENT brings down "Secret Societies of the European Revolution" (1876) bk & shows Liz & Sylvaine article about the Illuminati
END OF mm 39
In the ensuing days, tENT makes a scanned pdf copy of the Illuminati
chapter wch he WeTransfers to Sylvaine..
to the mm index
forward to mm 40
backward to mm 38
to the tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE movie-making "Press: Criticism, Interviews, Reviews" home-page
to the "tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - Sprocket Scientist" home-page
to the "FLICKER" home-page for the alternative cinematic experience
to find out more about why the S.P.C.S.M.E.F. (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Sea Monkeys by Experimental Filmmakers) is so important
for info on tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE's tape/CD publishing label: WIdémoUTH
to see an underdeveloped site re the N.A.A.M.C.P. (National Association for the Advancement of Multi-Colored Peoples)