Farbe und Zeit

Olivier Messiaen’s “spectacle musical” 'Saint François d´Assise' (1975-83) ranks among the most significant works of the music theatre of the late twentieth century. By applying his genuine, instrumentally small structured mosaic form to the opera, Messiaen gains a new conception for the music theatre, which combines harmonic and orchestral wealth of colour with a seemingly ritual, static time structure, and thereby corresponds to the religious content of the subject.

This conception is for the first time demonstrated in the present study. The detailed analysis of the eight-volume score is preceded by a depiction of the categories “colour” and “time”, which are at the centre of Messiaen’s musical thought.

By critically discussing his synaesthetic correspondences between sound and colour and his theory of time, which was influenced by Thomas Aquinas and Henri Bergson, a new analytical and hermeneutical approach is developed, which takes into consideration both the symbolic aspect of Messiaen’s music and the aesthetics concerning the effect of his works, and is applicable not only to his single work for the stage but also to his complete oeuvre.

The study is rounded off with reflections on the textual sources of the libretto, which was written by the composer himself, on the theological background, previous productions and the position of Messiaen’s opera on Francis in the history of religious music theatre.