A digital scholarly companion to Olivier Messiaen's Technique de mon langage musical (1944), offering contemporary analysis, reference tools, and a composer's workbook for developing your own systematic musical language.
- GitHub Pages: https://music-comp.github.io/tmml-mc/
- Codeberg Pages: https://music-comp.codeberg.page/tmml-mc/
Messiaen's treatise remains essential reading for composers and theorists, but the original text presents barriers: it's organized artfully rather than systematically, uses 1944 terminology that differs from contemporary theory, and exists only as a non-searchable image-based PDF.
This companion provides:
| Part | Contents |
|---|---|
| I | Structural orientation to the original (detailed TOC, how to obtain) |
| II | All 19 chapters summarized in contemporary music-theoretical language |
| III | Reference apparatus: concept index, technique guides, cross-reference tables |
| IV | Composer's workbook for documenting your musical language |
This is not a replacement for the original. It's a bridge to help readers engage with Messiaen's ideas using current terminology, and a tool for applying his method of compositional self-systematization to your own practice.
Messiaen's original text remains under copyright (until 2039 in France, 2051 for the English translation). This companion contains no substantial quotation from the original—only transformative scholarly summary and analysis. Readers should obtain the original from the publisher, Alphonse Leduc et Cie (now Hal Leonard Europe).
- mdBook — static site generator for documentation
- Markdown source files in
/src
# Install mdBook
cargo install mdbook
# Build the book
mdbook build
# Or serve locally with live reload
mdbook serveCorrections, clarifications, and improvements welcome. Please open an issue or submit a pull request.
Areas where contributions would be particularly valuable:
- Corrections to music-theoretical terminology
- Additional cross-references between concepts
- Translations of the companion material
- Accessibility improvements
This companion material is released under CC0 1.0 Universal.
You are free to share and adapt this material for any purpose, provided you give appropriate credit and distribute contributions under the same license.
This project was developed as a resource for the music composition and theory community. Messiaen's method of rigorous self-observation—knowing what you do, why you do it, and where it comes from—remains as valuable for composers today as it was in 1944.
"Let us think of the hearer of our modal and rhythmic music... to be charmed will be his only desire." — Olivier Messiaen