Musical Analysis of Regard de l’Onction Terrible by Olivier Messiaen: Context, Symbolism, Form and Performance

Abstract

This article addresses the work Vingt regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus (Twenty Contemplations of the Infant Jesus) by Olivier Messiaen with a focus on its eighteenth piece, Regard de l’Oction terrible. Our primary objective was a musical analysis of the piece by contextualizing the symbolic references engaged in its composition, form, and aspects of performance through a careful study of the score, both textually and at the piano. To that end, we use the thoughts and reflections of the composer himself (MESSIAEN, 1944, 1947, 1995, 1994) in interlocution with the studies of musicologist Siglind Bruhn (1997, 2007), with aspects of contour theory as presented by Joseph Straus (2005), and with the disparate considerations in respect to its form published by Messiaen scholars Reverdy (1978), Rogosin, (1996), Bruhn (1997), and Healey (2013). In conclusion, we identify symmetry as a striking element of the piece within the scope of its form, structure, and symbolism.

Keywords

• Olivier Messiaen
• musical analysis
• musical performance
• twentieth-century music
• Vingt regards sur l’Enfant Jésus.