Page 129 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 129
the role of the conservatoir e de par is in messiaen’s development ...
war time, the Conservatoire might have been like a marvelous shelter and
perhaps much more: a sublimated homeland, whose he would have been a
“young king.”
After the war, the students of the Conservatoire, such as Loriod, and
others, supported this local model, Messiaen, as they would have defend-
ed their flag, their champion. Perhaps because Messiaen honored them as
a rising composer. But also, most likely, because he was this student leg-
end, this “mister eight prices,” this “Conservatory champion” perhaps even
more for them than simply a great composer. Pierre Boulez supported Mes-
siaen during the period after the war, despite some aesthetic differences be-
tween them at times.13 However, Boulez was severe with his opponents, at
the slightest divergence.14 But Boulez had been a pupil in Messiaen’s class of
harmony, between 1944 and 1945. So, obviously, he supported his own roots,
his teacher, his coterie, that is to say, his very precise social class. He sup-
ported the Conservatoire.
After the war
Now we must withdraw from the subject of this book. As a conclusion, we
shall mention the after-war period. Until his retirement, despite his singu-
lar financial independence, Messiaen continued to teach at the Conserva-
toire. Why? According to Pierre-Michel Menger it was,
less because of strict economic necessity than by taste or balance be-
tween creation and social life, permanent contacts with the profes-
sional circles of the music.15
But mostly, let us notice Messiaen fertilized these circles at the root: the pu-
pils, all future instrumentalists, future conductors, future musicologists, all
of them marked since their youth – their studenthood at the Conservatoire
– with the idea that Messiaen would logically become a musical myth, any-
13 Jean-Claude Risset reported that Boulez “had been cruel with some musics by Mes-
siaen (“musique de Lupanar», he even wrote about a very sensual work of the 1940’s).”
Jean-Claude Risset, Du songe au son: entretiens avec Matthieu Guillot (Paris, L’har-
mattan, 2007), 68.
14 “All the musicians who never felt the necessity of dodecaphonism are USELESS.” Pierre
Boulez, Relevés d’apprenti (Paris: Seuil, 1966), 149.
15 Pierre-Michel Menger, Le paradoxe du musicien. Le compositeur, le mélomane et
l’État dans la société contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1983), 71.
127
war time, the Conservatoire might have been like a marvelous shelter and
perhaps much more: a sublimated homeland, whose he would have been a
“young king.”
After the war, the students of the Conservatoire, such as Loriod, and
others, supported this local model, Messiaen, as they would have defend-
ed their flag, their champion. Perhaps because Messiaen honored them as
a rising composer. But also, most likely, because he was this student leg-
end, this “mister eight prices,” this “Conservatory champion” perhaps even
more for them than simply a great composer. Pierre Boulez supported Mes-
siaen during the period after the war, despite some aesthetic differences be-
tween them at times.13 However, Boulez was severe with his opponents, at
the slightest divergence.14 But Boulez had been a pupil in Messiaen’s class of
harmony, between 1944 and 1945. So, obviously, he supported his own roots,
his teacher, his coterie, that is to say, his very precise social class. He sup-
ported the Conservatoire.
After the war
Now we must withdraw from the subject of this book. As a conclusion, we
shall mention the after-war period. Until his retirement, despite his singu-
lar financial independence, Messiaen continued to teach at the Conserva-
toire. Why? According to Pierre-Michel Menger it was,
less because of strict economic necessity than by taste or balance be-
tween creation and social life, permanent contacts with the profes-
sional circles of the music.15
But mostly, let us notice Messiaen fertilized these circles at the root: the pu-
pils, all future instrumentalists, future conductors, future musicologists, all
of them marked since their youth – their studenthood at the Conservatoire
– with the idea that Messiaen would logically become a musical myth, any-
13 Jean-Claude Risset reported that Boulez “had been cruel with some musics by Mes-
siaen (“musique de Lupanar», he even wrote about a very sensual work of the 1940’s).”
Jean-Claude Risset, Du songe au son: entretiens avec Matthieu Guillot (Paris, L’har-
mattan, 2007), 68.
14 “All the musicians who never felt the necessity of dodecaphonism are USELESS.” Pierre
Boulez, Relevés d’apprenti (Paris: Seuil, 1966), 149.
15 Pierre-Michel Menger, Le paradoxe du musicien. Le compositeur, le mélomane et
l’État dans la société contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1983), 71.
127
