Natural Harmony

Definition: A conception of harmony as emerging from acoustic phenomena, pre-existing in nature rather than constructed by theoretical systems, motivated by spiritual and aesthetic rather than purely formal concerns.

Messiaen's Treatment: The chapter culminates in an aesthetic manifesto where Messiaen acknowledges that his upcoming investigations into modes of limited transpositions and various technical combinations "ought not make us forget the natural harmony: the true, unique, voluptuously pretty by essence, willed by the melody, issued from it, pre-existent in it, having always been enclosed in it, awaiting manifestation." He describes his desire for "enchanted gorgeousness in harmony" as pushing him toward coloristic imagery—"swords of fire, those sudden stars, those flows of blue-orange lavas, those planets of turquoise, those violet shades, those garnets of long-haired arborescence, those wheelings of sounds and colors in a jumble of rainbows." He references the preface to his Quatuor pour la fin du Temps, stating that "such a gushing out of chords should necessarily be filtered; it is the sacred instinct of the natural and true harmony which, alone, can so charge itself."

Modern Context: This passage reveals the aesthetic and spiritual foundations underlying Messiaen's technical apparatus. The concept of "natural harmony" functions as both acoustic principle (harmony derived from resonance phenomena) and theological claim (harmony as pre-existing in divine creation rather than human construction). The vivid coloristic language—unprecedented in theoretical treatises—demonstrates Messiaen's synesthesia and his conviction that harmony exists primarily for sensory and spiritual experience rather than structural logic. This aesthetic position distances Messiaen from both the systematic serialism emerging in the 1940s (which he would later engage with) and from neoclassical restraint. The filtering metaphor suggests that while natural harmony provides infinite possibilities, compositional discipline requires selection and refinement—technical mastery serves to channel rather than generate harmonic inspiration. Contemporary readers might interpret this as a phenomenological approach to harmony, where perceptual and affective experience takes priority over abstract structural relations. The passage also reveals Messiaen's literary ambitions and his comfort with poetic rather than purely technical discourse.

Examples: Discussed conceptually throughout Chapter XIV