melisma - personal responses to art, Part One

"A group of many notes (usually at least five or six) sung melodically to a single syllable. Melismas are found especially in liturgical chant"

The first poem of Messiaen's Poemes pour Mi contains a very beautiful example of a melisma. A word I learn the meaning of from the sleeve notes as they used to be called. The Alleluia sung by a female voice starts out of a winding, sinuous, chain of faltering notes that creates a backdrop to this exclamation of faith very different to some powerful affirmation. The music makes me feel, as this is a very personal reaction, as if something complex, quite profound is coming to surface, in a quite wholly contingent manner, quite independently of any action or intention, on the part of what is human. It is a spiritual revelation appearing out of some natural process, or very close to a natural process, perhaps it suggests a world in the act of appearing, as it comes susceptible to human perception.
There is a tradition of French Catholic pantheism which Messiaen belongs to, very tuned to the material world, attentive to this force which brings to life the world, an elan vital, which to my mind is not such a silly notion as some argue.