Browsing by Author "Schafer, Jacob"

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    Structure and Perception: The Rhythmic Canon in the Music of Olivier Messiaen
    (2025-04-25) Schafer, Jacob; Blattler, Damian
    In the early to mid-twentieth century, an increased interest in complex rhythmic structures led to a resurgence of interest in the rhythmic canon. Olivier Messiaen was an influential innovator and practitioner of this technique, incorporating rhythmic canons in many of his works. Messiaen’s most important contribution was to treat rhythm as a parameter independent of pitch that could undergo complex development within a canonic structure on its own terms. In this document, I examine Messiaen’s rhythmic canons in the context of his broader compositional language, exploring their structure, formal function, and perceptual implications. First, I survey Messiaen’s compositional techniques most relevant for his canonic writing. Then, I propose a typology for analyzing Messiaen’s canons and discuss examples within each type: pitch canons, rhythmic canons by displacement, rhythmic canons by augmentation, and rhythmic canons by retrograde. Analysis of individual canons reveals how Messiaen’s compositional decisions respond to the compositional and perceptual tendencies inherent to each type of canon, and the proposed typological framework lays the groundwork for a better understanding of the general musical possibilities of the rhythmic canon.