Chapter X: Melodic Development
Original: Pages 35–36 in Satterfield translation
Musical Examples:
Overview
This concise chapter systematizes melodic transformation procedures, demonstrating that melodies—like rhythms (Chapters IV–V)—can undergo systematic development through specific operations. Messiaen identifies three primary techniques: elimination (progressive reduction of thematic material), interversion of notes (reordering pitch content), and change of register (extreme octave displacement). By invoking historical models (Beethoven's Fifth Symphony development, Vincent d'Indy's analytical writings, Alban Berg's Lyric Suite, André Jolivet's Mana) while demonstrating these techniques with his own materials, Messiaen positions his melodic practice within a developmental tradition extending from Classicism through modernism. The chapter's brevity belies its significance—these transformation procedures, combined with the modes of limited transposition (harmonically) and rhythmic techniques (temporally), create a complete parametric system where melody, rhythm, and harmony undergo parallel transformational operations. This represents the extension of systematic thinking from rhythm (where it is most developed, Chapters II–VII) to melody, reinforcing the treatise's underlying principle of unified compositional logic across parameters.