Quatuor pour la fin du temps, by Olivier Messiaen: Musical Analysis

• Grant number: 09/08593-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2009
• End date: August 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Adriana Lopes da Cunha Moreira
• Grantee: Daniel Paes de Barros Pinto
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The aim of this work is to analyze compositional procedures and structural aspects from Quatuor pour la fin du temps, for violin, clarinet, violoncello and piano, by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. Special attention will be given to the fourth movement, which is named Intermède. This research aims the analytical comprehension and publicizing, in Portuguese, of the XX century European music, that will contribute for the topics bibliography. The methodology will embrace the analysis of composing techniques employed by the composer, which concerns scales, chords, textures, rhythm aspects, color and musical notation. The research will be constructed based upon the study of publications focusing composing material and techniques, XX century music history and analysis, as (and specially) theoretical material provided by the composer himself - his Technique de mon language musical and Traitè de rythme, de coleur et d´ornithologie, besides dissertation and thesis that presents theoretical references to techniques studied and to the work of Olivier Messiaen. The resulting analysis will verify a possible relationship between the collected data and conclusions will be elaborated upon the works structure.