Gathering into Meter

Definition: The notational practice of organizing ametric polyrhythmic music within conventional metric frameworks (measures with time signatures) to facilitate performance, even though this metric notation contradicts the music's underlying ametric conception.

Messiaen's Treatment: Messiaen introduces this chapter by acknowledging a fundamental notational problem: superposing several complicated rhythms often necessitates "gathering" them into one meter for practical purposes. This involves writing ametric rhythms—which have no inherent relation to conventional meter—within a normal meter system using syncopations to produce slurs, dynamics, and accents exactly where desired, thereby creating the intended effect despite the contradictory metric notation.

This practice has the fault of contradicting the composer's rhythmic conception. Messiaen notes that certain examples cannot be written otherwise, and that for reader comprehension, he will notate each rhythm separately (as conceived, without measure) before showing how they combine afterward (gathered into meter).

This represents a pragmatic compromise between compositional theory and performative necessity. Messiaen's ametric thinking—organizing by precise durational values rather than metric hierarchy—requires notational translation into conventional metric systems that performers can read. The result is music whose notated meter (barlines, time signatures) does not reflect its actual rhythmic organization.

Modern Context: This issue remains central to twentieth- and twenty-first-century rhythmic notation. Composers working with ametric, polymetric, or highly complex rhythmic structures face similar choices:

• Metric notation of ametric music: Using conventional barlines and time signatures as organizational conveniences while relying on accents, articulations, and phrasing to convey actual rhythmic intent (Stravinsky, Bartók, Carter)
• Proportional notation: Abandoning conventional metric notation entirely in favor of spatial/temporal representations where distance equals duration (Cage, Feldman, Ligeti)
• Multiple simultaneous meters: Notating each layer in its own meter, requiring performers to coordinate despite different barlines (Ives, Nancarrow, Carter)
• Metric modulation notation: Using nested tuplets and tempo relationships to represent complex proportions within conventional metric frameworks (Carter, Ferneyhough)

Contemporary music theory recognizes the distinction between notated meter (visual/symbolic) and performed meter (actual temporal organization). Performers of Messiaen must learn to read through the notational meter to realize the underlying ametric conception—understanding that barlines are organizational conveniences, not indicators of metric accent.

This notational tension also reflects broader questions about the relationship between score and sound, notation and conception, visual representation and aural reality. Messiaen's acknowledgment of the problem demonstrates his awareness that musical ideas may exceed notational systems' capacity to represent them clearly.

Examples: This issue pervades all examples in this chapter, though Messiaen addresses it most explicitly in the introduction and promises fuller treatment in Chapter VII.