Le ciel est vide-Roman Vlad's cantata at the confluence between music, mathematics and theology

摘要

This paper aims at identifying, in the cantata entitled Le ciel est vide, composed by Roman Vlad, the connections between the composition process and the rigor of mathematical constructions. We will show that mathematical generalization does not involve a detachment from the naturalness of music and that, on the contrary, it leads to its refining, to its reduction to the essential nature and that, in the present case, generalization is synonymous with the interference between the composition systems of Roman Vlad and Olivier Messiaen. Finally, we will show that the real message of the text is an affirmative one, although it is expressed by means of negation.