We're nearing the end of our section on 20th-century pitch, rhythm, etc. in my sophomore aural skills class, and it's our last meeting before spring break. I thought it would be neat to look at some of Messiaen's music, specifically the Quartet for the end of time. So we talked about additive rhythm and non-retrogradable rhythms. We talked about some of the material in terms of deviation straight "models." We performed excerpts from the third movement, sixth movement, and first movement.
To close out the class, I told my students about Messiaen's love of birdsong. Recording technology being what it was in his day, I told them to collect birdsong, he'd bring a pencil and paper out into the wilderness and jot them down. So we listened to a few birdsongs and tried to write them down. We then compared our transcriptions with Messiaen's. The students really seemed to enjoy this--I'm definitely adding it to the repertoire of "fun" class periods.
In the first movement of the quartet, Messiaen uses songs of the blackbird (in the clarinet) and the nightingale (in the violin). I took the sounds from here. The songs were not identical to what Messiaen transcribed, but they were close enough for the students to note the similarities.
To close out the class, I told my students about Messiaen's love of birdsong. Recording technology being what it was in his day, I told them to collect birdsong, he'd bring a pencil and paper out into the wilderness and jot them down. So we listened to a few birdsongs and tried to write them down. We then compared our transcriptions with Messiaen's. The students really seemed to enjoy this--I'm definitely adding it to the repertoire of "fun" class periods.
In the first movement of the quartet, Messiaen uses songs of the blackbird (in the clarinet) and the nightingale (in the violin). I took the sounds from here. The songs were not identical to what Messiaen transcribed, but they were close enough for the students to note the similarities.