“THEME OF THE STAR AND THE CROSS” – CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS IN OLIVIER MESSIAEN’S “VINGT REGARDS SUR L’ENFANT-JESUS”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbmusica.2025.spiss1.15Keywords:
Messiaen, theology, Christian symbols, Nativity and Passion, art, musical analysisAbstract
Olivier Messiaen wanted his music to express of his profound Catholic faith, and many of his instrumental works written for the concert hall have an overt religious message. The Star of Bethlehem and the Cross of Golgotha, the most powerful symbols of Christianity, stand at the beginning and the end of Christ’s earthly life. The connection between the birth of Jesus and His death on the cross in theological texts and pictorial representations in Christian art is briefly surveyed. The study focuses on the way Messiaen gave a musical expression to this connection by using similar motifs and themes in movements depicting the joy of the Nativity and movements expressing the sorrow of the Passion. Relevant movements in which the composer uses the so-called Boris motif are presented, followed by an in-depth analysis of the “Theme of the star and the cross” in the piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus.
References
Acres, Alfred. The Columba Altarpiece and the Time of the World. The Art Bulletin, 80(3), 422–451. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3051299
Balmer, Yves. “Religious Literature in Messiaen’s Personal Library.” Messiaen the Theologian, edited by Andrew Shenton, Burlington. VT: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 15 27.
Bodky, Erwin. The interpretation of BACH’s keyboard works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960.
Bruhn, Siglind. “The Spiritual Layout in Messiaen’s Contemplations of the Manger”. Messiaen’s Language of Mystical Love, edited by Siglind Bruhn. New York: Routledge, 1998, pp. 247-268.
Bruhn, Siglind. Messiaen’s Contemplations of Covenant and Incarnation: Musical Symbols of Faith in the Two Great Piano Cycles of the 1940s. Hillsdale, NY: Pendragon Press, 2007.
Bruhn, Siglind. Les visions d’Olivier Messiaen. Paris: L’Harmattan, 2008.
Cavallo, Adolfo Salvatore. Medieval tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993.
Dingle. Christopher. “Forgotten offerings: Messiaen’s first orchestral works”. Tempo 61/241 2007. pp 2-21. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/tempo/article/abs/forgotten-offerings-messiaens-first-orchestral-works/B62098029C42A859420F4E3E5342BA2F
Gertsman, Elina. “Signs of Death: The Sacrificial Christ Child in Late-Medieval Art.” The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha es et O!, edited by Theresa M. Kenney, & Mary Dzon. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012, pp. 66-91.
Havard de la Montagne, Joachim. Olivier Messiaen. Musica et memoria. 1992. http://www.musimem.com/messiaen.htm
Ide, Pascal. “Olivier Messiaen théologien.” [Olivier Messiaen theologian]. Portrait(s) d’Olivier Messiaen, edited by Catherine Massip, Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1996, pp. 39-46.
Ide, Pascal. “Olivier Messiaen, musicien de la gloire de Dieu.” [Olivier Messiaen, musician of God’s glory] Communio no. XIX (9-10/1994), pp. 94-117.
Ide, Pascal. “Olivier Messiaen, un musicien ébloui par l’infinité de Dieu” [Olivier Messiaen, a musician dazzled by the infinity of God], Nouvelle Revue Théologique 121, 1999, pp. 436-453. https://www.nrt.be/es/articulos/olivier-messiaen-un-musicien-ebloui-par-l-infinite-de-dieu-254
Kars, Jean-Rodolphe. “Olivier Messiaen – ein Musiker der Freude.” [Olivier Messiaen – a musician of joy], Internationale Katholische Zeitschrift, Communio, 33 (2004), pp. 359-373. https://ikaz-communio.de/ojs/index.php/ikaz/article/view/5504/5426
Kars, Jean-Rodolphe. “The works of Olivier Messiaen and the Catholic liturgy.” Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art and Literature, edited by Christopher Dingle & Nigel Simeone, London: Routledge, 2007.
Lipffert, Klementine Symbol-Fibel. Eine Hilfe zur Betrachtung und Deuten mittelalterliche Bildwerke. [Symbol Primer. An aid to viewing and interpreting medieval art]. Kassel: Johannes Stauda Verlag, 1976.
Marmion, Don Columba. Christ in His Mysteries. tr. Mother M. St. Thomas of Tyburn Convent, 9th ed. London: Sands & Co., 1939. http://www.liberius.net/livres/Christ_in_His_Mysteries_000001423.pdf
Massin, Brigitte. Olivier Messiaen, un poétique du merveilleux. Aix-en-Provence: Editions Alinea, 1989.
Meltzheim, Irène & Ide, père Pascal. “« Le musicien de la joie », entretien avec Olivier Messiaen.” Du côté de la Trinité, journal de la paroisse de la Trinité, n° 2 de mars 1991, repris in Musica et Memoria, n° 42 de juin 1991, p. 22-27, quoted in Havard de la Montagne, Joachim. Olivier Messiaen. Musica et Memoria numéro 46 de juin 1992.
Messiaen, Olivier. La Nativité du Seigneur – Neuf Méditations pour orgue. Score. Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1935
Messiaen, Olivier. Technique de mon language musical – 2 volumes. Translated by John Satterfield The technique of my musical language. Paris: Leduc, 1944, 1956.
Messiaen, Olivier. Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus pour piano. Score. Paris: Durand et Cie., 1947.
Messiaen, Olivier. Visions de l’Amen pour deux pianos. Score. Paris: Durand, 1950
Messiaen, Olivier. “Notes to recording of Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant Jésus, Michel Béroff (piano).” La voix de son maître EMI 2C 065-10676/78 S, 1970, quoted in the French original in David Rogosin Aspects of structure in Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, 1996, pp. 212-224.
Messiaen, Olivier (1994-2002). Traité de rythme, de couleur et d’ornithologie (1949-1992) en Sept Tomes. Paris: Alphonse Leduc.
Michaely, Aloyse (1983). “Verbum Caro”. Programmusik – Studien zu Begriff und Geschichte einer umstrittenen Gattung, edited by Constantin Floros, Hans Joachim Mark & Peter Petersen, Laaber: Laaber-Verlag, 1983, pp. 225-346.
Moës, Luc O.S.B. “Dom Columba Marmion. A precursor and logistical survey for Springtime.” Newsletter of Blessed Columba Marmion, Courrier n° 14, 2008, pp. 105-110, https://www.marmion.be/marm2214p.pdf
Murray, Michael. An interview with Olivier Messiaen, Diapason 70/1. No. 829, December 1978, pp. 3, 5.
Rogosin, David. Aspects of structure in Olivier Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. Doctoral Thesis, University of British Columbia, 1996. https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0087247
Rößler, Almut. Beiträge zur geistigen Welt Olivier Messiaens mit Original-Texten des Komponisten. Duisburg: Gilles & Franke Verlag, 1984.
Sachs, Hannelore, et al.. Christliche Ikonographie in Stichworten. [Christian iconography in keywords]. 2nd ed., München: Kösel-Verlag, 1975.
Samuel, Claude & Messiaen, Olivier. Musique et couleur. Nouveaux entretiens avec Claude Samuel, Paris: Belfond, 1986.
Seifert, Charles. Messiaen’s Vingt Regards: a historical and pedagogical study. PhD Thesis University of Illinois, 1989.
Shenton, Andrew. Messiaen’s System of Signs. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2008.
Shenton, Andrew. Messiaen the Theologian. Farnham, UK : Ashgate Publishing Company, 2010
Shenton, Andrew ed., Messiaen the Theologian (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010).
Stenberg, Andreas (ed.) Gierolamo Lombardi. Ante luciferum genitus from “Antiphonarium Vespertinum Dierum Festorum Totius Anni...” 1597, Bd.1, 2023. https://www.cpdl.org/wiki/images/1/1e/Gierolamo-Lambardi-Ante-luciferum-genitus.pdf
Strelan, John G. “Theologia Crucis, Theologia Gloriae: A Study in Opposing Theologies.” Lutheran Theological Journal 23, no. 3, December 1989.
Voragine, Jacobus, de. The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, translated by William Granger Ryan, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012.
Walter, Meinrad. “Musik aus dem Geist der Theologie Zum Werk des Komponisten Olivier Messiaen” [Music out of the spirit of theology. The work of the composer Olivier Messiaen]. Herder Korrespondenz 61 11/2007, pp. 589-593.
Zink, Jörg. Drei Könige unter dem Kreuz: Betrachtungen über das Weihnachtsbild Rogiers van der Weyden [Three kings under the cross: Considerations of Rogiers van der Weyden Nativity painting]. Gelnhausen: Burckhardhaus-Verlag, 1964.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai Musica
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
