This study explores Messiaen's Catalogue d'oiseaux (1956-58), a solo piano work which consists of thirteen movements, each of which is inspired by a bird found in France, together with other birdsongs from the same habitat. The complete performance of the Catalogue lasts approximately for 2V2 hours, though individual movements are often chosen to be performed on their own or in groups. It is one of Messiaen's most important works of the 1950s, exhibiting a mature style of birdsong writing which greatly influenced his later work. A key event in the 1950s was Messiaen's meeting (in 1952) with the ornithologist Jacques Delamain, from which he obtained a detailed knowledge of birdsong There are four chapters in this study, while the extensive musical examples can be referred to in Volume II. Messiaen's development of birdsong writing since the 1940s will be discussed in Chapter One, `Introduction'. This includes an explanation of his creative journey while composing the Catalogue, and selected pages of sketches are analysed to identify how the composer transcribed his birdsong writing to the final score. The second chapter is concerned with details of Messiaen's piano writing in the Catalogue, highlighting some of the technical difficulties and in particular the aspect of the fingerings used in the work. Chapter three is the main focus for this study. Five movements from the Catalogue are selected for a performance analysis, including an identification of the different musical and poetic structures, discussion of Messiaen's musical language and of other aspects which aim to assist in a performance of these works. The last chapter is a discussion of interpretative issues where a selection of seven recordings are compared and evaluated. The objective of this final chapter is mainly to explore how pianists interpret these programmatic works, and the different approachesth at can be employed. Since the principal aim of this study is to illuminate issues of performance, the main intention of the analysis is to reveal an understandable and discernable structure in these works and to identify important features of the composer's style of piano writing. Along with the discussion of the Catalogue, earlier works will be explored in order to investigate Messiaen's development of piano writing which in the Catalogue received a whole new dimension from his transcription of birdsongs.

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This thesis discusses the piano works of George Crumb, particularly Makrokosmos I, in the light of the Adornian critique of the post-war avant-garde and of Lyotard's theorisation of the postmodem. According to Adomo and Lyotard, modem thought is characterised by a totalising nature and both the Adomian critique of the post-war avant-garde and Lyotard's theorising of the postmodern are directed toward the critique of that character. This thesis shows the way in which Crumb's composition responds to this critique of modernity. Elements of musical structure, text treatment, exploration of timbre, spatiality (music notation and stage setting), and citational practice are identified through an analysis of Makrokosmos L These elements are contextualised both within Crumb's oeuvre (particularly, the piano literature) and within the musical and theoretical production of the post-war avant-garde, and finally, discussed with reference to Lyotard and Adomo's critique of modem thought. It is shown that, in contrast to the self-referentiality of music composition which pervades both integral serialism and experimentalism, Crumb's articulation of musical materials obeys a logic of montage resulting from the blocking of two incommensurable modes of sense, notably, musical structure (analytic unity of the work), and elements which deconstruct that structure (namely timbre, and notation). In addition to the perspective of historical musicology, the investigation discusses specific compositional elements from the point of view of perception (namely timbre) and representation (notably citation, text setting). By doing so, it is intended to show that Crumb deconstructs the totalising rationality pervading modem thought from not only an expressive but also a critical point of view.

Most of the existing research on Paul Wittgenstein (1887–1961) focuses on his performing career in central Europe as a left-hand pianist and his commissions from the most prominent composers of the 20th century such as Richard Strauss and Maurice Ravel, and his favourite composer, Franz Schmidt. His British performing career and the compositions Ernest Walker, Norman Demuth and Benjamin Britten composed for and dedicated to him, however, remain relatively unexplored. By examining a variety of primary sources that are disclosed here for the first time, this thesis offers the first scholarly research into Wittgenstein’s performing activities in Great Britain in the 1920s–50s and his British commissions in order to fill a major research gap in Wittgenstein studies. Chapter 1 explores Wittgenstein’s self-recognition as a member of the Viennese aristocracy and the shaping of his musical identity, conception and taste, followed by an overview of the related primary sources that are currently located in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, a detailed summary of his performing activities in Great Britain and a discussion of the British reception of him as a left-hand pianist. Chapter 2 focuses on Walker and the three compositions he wrote for piano left-hand, two of which he composed before meeting Wittgenstein and one after, and the pianist’s attitude towards them. Chapter 3 brings to light the much-neglected composer Demuth and the two works he composed for Wittgenstein and discusses possible reasons why the pianist never performed them. Chapter 4 examines Wittgenstein’s first and only official British commission, the Diversions, Op. 21 by Britten, and investigates the interaction between composer and pianist in the compositional process and their differing conceptions of the work.