Olivier Messiaen on Music Theory Print

Apparition de l'église éternelle

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Film#

Filmmaker and musician Paul Festa created the film Apparition of the Eternal Church which captures the responses of 31 artists and writers to the piece. It is also featured during the elevator scene in Pedro Costa’s 2014 film Horse Money.

External links#

Messiaen plays his work in Sainte-Trinité, Paris (1956; YouTube)

Catalogue d'oiseaux

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Premiere#

The work was premiered by Yvonne Loriod on 15 April 1959 in Paris, Salle Gaveau, for the concerts of the “Domaine musical” organized by Pierre Boulez.

Aim of the work#

For these pieces, Messiaen did not want to be limited to the evocation of the bird of which each of it bears the title.

Title of the pieces#

1 - The Alpine chough (Chocard des Alpes)
2 - The Eurasian golden oriole (Loriot d’Europe)
3 - The blue rock thrush (Merle bleu)
4 - The western black-eared wheatear (Traquet stapazin)
5 - The tawny owl (Chouette hulotte)
6 - The woodlark (Alouette lulu)
7 - The Eurasian reed warbler (Rousserolle effarvatte)
8 - The greater short-toed lark (Alouette calandrelle)
9 - The Cetti’s warbler (Bouscarle de Cetti)
10 - The common rock thrush (Merle de roche)
11 - The common buzzard (Buse variable)
12 - The black wheatear (Traquet rieur)
13 - The Eurasian curlew (Courlis cendré)

Recordings#

Yvonne Loriod: Erato Records 2292-45505-2/VI; ECD 71590 (1970–1973)
Peter Hill: Regis B000Q7RKW8 (1986)
Anatol Ugorski: Deutsche Grammophon 4743452 (1994)
Hakon Austbo: Naxos Records 8.553532.34 (1997), Also includes Petites esquisses d’oiseaux (composed in 1985).
Paul Kim: Centaur Records CRC 2567/68/69 (2001), Also includes La Fauvette des jardins and Petites esquisses d’oiseaux
Roger Muraro: Accord 4657682 (2002)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard: Pentatone PTC 5186670 (2018)
Carl-Axel Dominique BIS BIS-CD-594/596 Also includes “La Fauvette des jardins” and “Petites esquisses d’oiseaux”.

External links#

Catalogue d’oiseaux in Les Inrockuptibles
Three tracks on Gallica
Catalogue d’oiseaux on Naxos
Messiaen Catalogue d’oiseaux on Gramophone
Olivier Messiaen, Catalogue d’oiseaux (in 7 books), for piano, I/42 (1956-1958) (Håkon Austbø, piano) on YouTube
First Book
I. Le chocard des alpes (The Alpine chough)
II. Le loriot (The Eurasian golden oriole)
III. Le merle bleu (The Blue rock thrush)
Second Book
IV. Le traquet stapazin (The Black-eared wheatear)
Third Book
V.-VI. La chouette hulotte & L’alouette-lulu (The Tawny owl & The Woodlark)
Fourth Book
VII. Le rousserolle effarvatte part 1 (The Eurasian reed warbler)
VII. Le rousserolle effarvatte part 2
Fifth Book
VIII. L’alouette calandrelle (The Greater short-toed lark)
IX. La bouscarle (The Cetti’s warbler)
Sixth Book
X. Le merle de roche part 1 (The Common rock thrush)
X. Le merle de roche part 2
Seventh Book
XI. La buse variable (The Common buzzard)
XII. La traquet rieur (The Black wheatear)
XIII. Le courlis cendré (The Eurasian curlew)

Concert à quatre

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Composition#

Messiaen first considered writing an oboe concerto for Heinz Holliger, then a piece for oboe, cello, piano, harp and orchestra on the subject of Grace. As it stands, the work is in four movements, in which Messiaen draws inspiration from Mozart, Scarlatti and Rameau as well as from his usual birdsong transcriptions. His notes also mention Henri Dutilleux and the orchestration of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit by Marius Constant. She also added a chorus of bells from the same source.

Des canyons aux étoiles...

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Instrumentation#

The work is scored for four soloists (piano solo, horn solo, xylorimba solo and glockenspiel solo) and orchestra. The string section consists of only 6 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, and 1 double bass with fifth-string lower extension. The woodwind requires 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 1 alto flute, 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 1 E-flat clarinet, 2 B-flat clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, and 1 contrabassoon. Messiaen remarks: “all of the woodwind parts are difficult.” In addition to the sixth movement’s horn solo, the brass section also consists of 2 horns, 2 trumpets in c, 1 trumpet in d, 2 trombones, and 1 bass trombone. The unusually large percussion section, divided for 5 percussionists, consists of Messiaen’s own invented instrument the geophone, 1 wind machine, 1 thunder sheet, 1 gong, 1 set of tuned gongs, 1 set of tubular bells, 1 pair of maracas, 1 whip, 1 bass drum, 1 triangle, 1 wood block, 1 set of wooden wind chimes, 1 set of crotales, 1 reco reco, and 1 tumba, among other percussion instruments.

Diptyque (Messiaen)

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History#

In autumn of 1929, Messiaen acquainted himself with Charles Quef, then organist at the Église de la Sainte Trinité in Paris. Through this, he was able to play his first two organ recitals in the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Tencin on 15 and 22 September. The Diptyque was dedicated to two of Messiaen’s most influential composers and teachers: Marcel Dupré and Paul Dukas. The first part of the work is clearly influenced by their style. Messiaen himself premièred a concert for Les amis de l’orgue on 20 February 1930, at the Église de la Sainte Trinité. It immediately caught the attention of fellow musicians and was published shortly afterwards in May 1930, by Éditions Durand. This publication was followed by some of his other compositions (the Préludes were released in June and the Trois mélodies in October). It is Messiaen’s only organ work published by Durand. Messiaen later became critical of his own earlier style. In an interview with Karin Ernst on 24 October 1977, Messiaen referred to the Diptyque as a ‘sin’ of his youth.

Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà...

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Title#

“Éclairs” are flashes of lightning; “sur” translates in this context as over rather than on (cf. éclairs sur Paris, lightning over Paris); “l’Au-delà”, capitalized, refers to the Hereafter, the afterlife, or, literally, the beyond. Messiaen extends the imagery of the heavenly city with pearly gates described in the Book of Revelation. The weather event has the light, representing Jesus, and links to space and astronomy — two of the three threads in the 70-minute composition. Expression of theological ideas from the Catholic faith, and an often ecstatic intention, are characteristic of the composer.

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

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History#

Messiaen was approached in October 1963 by André Malraux, Minister of Cultural Affairs under Charles de Gaulle, with a commission for a sacred work to commemorate the dead of the two World Wars. Originally envisioned as a work for chorus, large orchestra and brass, to be performed in June 1964 at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and at Notre-Dame de Chartres, the concept of the work and projected date of performance changed several times over the following year. Composition began in early July 1964, while Messiaen was vacationing at the Lac de Pétichet in the Hautes-Alpes, and the orchestration was completed early in January 1965 . The title is taken from the penultimate line of the Nicene Creed: “Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi sæculi” (And I await the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the coming age). It was premiered in the Sainte-Chapelle at 11:00 in the morning on 7 May 1965 , and was performed for the second time in the morning of 20 June of the same year following a Solemn Mass at Chartres Cathedral and in the presence of President Charles de Gaulle, who warmly congratulated the composer after the performance . Both performances were conducted by Serge Baudo, and the general rehearsal in Chartres on 19 June was filmed for television, later broadcast in the series Les grandes répétitions . In his prefaces to the second and third movements, Messiaen also paraphrases passages from “The Resurrection,” from the supplement to the third part of the Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas .

Fête des belles eaux

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Structure#

This composition is in eight movements and takes approximately thirty minutes to perform. The movements are as follows: The fourth movement was later rearranged for cello and piano as the fifth movement (“Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus”) of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps; elements of the movement were also incorporated into a discarded movement of Les corps glorieux entitled Vie pour Dieu des ressuscités.

External links#

Olivier Messiaen: Fête des belles eaux (1937) (YouTube)
Fête des belles eaux synchronised to a facsimile of the manuscript fair copy by Claire Delbos (YouTube)
Fête des belles eaux synchronised to the Leduc edition of 2003 (YouTube)

Harawi (Messiaen)

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Analysis#

Messiaen, the son of two writers, had written two song-cycles beforehand (Poèmes pour Mi and Chants de Terre et de Ciel) but these were composed on personal levels. Several sources of inspiration had led to Messiaen conceptualising Harawi, then eventually the entire Tristan trilogy (succeeded by the Turangalîla-Symphonie and the Cinq rechants, both completed in 1948) such as folk music from the Andes and the opera Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner, where he was introduced to the myth. A harawi or yaravi is a genre of Peruvian folk music and poetry, akin to a tragedy, often dealing with lost love and a contemplation on death, often played on the flute. The cycle concentrate on Messiaen’s Peruvian reimagining of the myth of the two fated lovers, Tristan (unnamed) and Iseult (Piroutcha). However, it is very likely that the work has a subliminal context as an expression of love to Messiaen’s mentally deteriorating wife Claire Delbos. Despite this, no mention at all is made of her in the work. The texts of the cycle are written in a highly surrealist form, generally with comprisations of isolated symbols, raised to the ultimate symbolic ideal in that they are emancipated from grammatical on syntactical constructions. As is the case for almost all of his vocal works, Messiaen himself wrote the libretto; following Wagner’s music dramas and Debussy who set his own symbolist poetry in his four . The work borrows melodies from numerous traditional folksongs of the Andes as compiled in a book by Raoul d’Harcourt and his wife Marguerite Béclard. In addition to the French text, Harawi also uses Quechua words, some faux, some real, not for their semantic meaning, but for their sound, that is, their timbral and syllabic qualities. He would later reuse this practice in the Rechants and Saint François d’Assise. Despite these inspirations, his own musical style prevails.

L'Ascension

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Development#

The work’s earliest sketches (in short-score format) are described as dating from May of 1932 and were written in the composer’s residence, 13 villa Danube in Paris. He completed the work in Neuchâtel during July of that year and began orchestrating it in July of the following year in Monaco. At the time of writing, Messiaen had been teaching at the Schola Cantorum de Paris and had already published a handful of pieces, however, he was mostly known as an organist. He was appointed as titular organist of La Sainte-Trinité following the death of Charles Quef in 1931 and was a former pupil of Marcel Dupré, Charles-Marie Widor, and Paul Dukas. Messiaen had previously written two un-commissioned symphonic meditations and was also working on his third, Hymne au Saint Sacrement.

La Nativité du Seigneur

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Structure#

The work is in nine movements, each depicting an image or concept from the birth of Jesus. In publication (by Éditions Alphonse Leduc), the work was originally divided over four books; Book I consists of the first three movements, Book II of 4 and 5, Book III of 6, 7, and 8, and IV for 9 alone. A combined volume of the complete work was published in 2023. The work is one of the earliest of Messiaen’s compositions to feature elements that were to become key to his later compositions, such as the extensive use of the composer’s own modes of limited transposition, as well as the influence of birdsong, and the meters and rhythms of Ancient Greek and traditional Indian music. In 1967, Richard Franko Goldman wrote, “One is, indeed, tempted to say that the work is a masterpiece, and one of the great organ works of all time. It is certainly monumental and impressive, original and memorable, with or without the theoretical and mystical explanation the composer himself gives out.”

La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ

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Background#

On hearing “an old priest deliver a sermon on the light and the filiation”, Messiaen began ruminating on the transfiguration story in the 1940s. By the time he began to write the music, he had not composed vocal music for seventeen years, since his solo choral work Cinq rechants. Warmer tonal harmonies reappeared in this work, in contrast to the harmonies he had been using for other works of the period. Messiaen makes extensive use of birdsong throughout the piece, including the songs of the greater honeyguide, Alpine chough, accentor, superb starling, Baltimore oriole, rock thrush, blue mockingbird and peregrine falcon.

Les Corps glorieux

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Structure#

Les corps glorieux, divided into three books, consists of the following seven movements:

1. Subtilité des corps glorieux#

The Subtlety of the Bodies Glorious ’ is a single unharmonised melody based on a Gregorian antiphon. Each end of a phrase is repeated as an echo. Cornet registrations alternate between the Grand-Orgue, Positif and Récit manuals. The unchanging monophony of this movement, the simplest and purest musical form, symbolises the “subtilité”. The epigraph of this movement, added by the composer, reads translated: “An earthly body is being sown, a spiritual body is raised.” (1 Corinthians 15:44) “And they shall be as the angels of God in heaven.” (Matthew 22:30)

Livre d'orgue (Messiaen)

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Structure#

The work comprises seven movements:

Premiere#

The piece was premiered by Messiaen himself in 1952 for the inauguration of the organ in the Villa Berg in Stuttgart , though another source gives the date as 23 April 1953 . He later gave the French premiere on 21 March 1955 at the Sainte-Trinité in Paris, as part of the second season of Pierre Boulez’s Concerts du Domaine musical—the only time the Domaine musical put on a concert in a church . This performance, for which Boulez only prepared for around 50 people, was notable due to a considerably larger crowd arrived, blocking Messiaen’s entrance to the church.

Livre du Saint-Sacrement

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Genesis and composition#

Livre du Saint Sacrement was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for its 1986 National Convention in Detroit, Michigan. Ray Ferguson, the convention program chair, was largely responsible for acquiring the commission in 1982-1984, with help from the eventual premiere organist, . Messiaen had been the organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris since 1931; by his own account, the Livre brought to summation his years of experience in improvising organ music for the liturgy.

Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité

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Structure#

The work comprises nine untitled meditations ranging from 3 to 10 minutes long each. A complete performance of the whole composition is around 75 minutes long. Prior to each movement, Messiaen describes the musical content and its symbolism.

Meditation No. 1#

The first piece presented in this composition is sometimes called “Le Père des étoiles” (The Father of Stars). It is long and varied, marked Lent at the beginning of the piece. Its structure can be broken down as follows: * Theme: The main melodic line presented is called “le Père des étoiles”, played and legato, with both hands in unison. * Variation I: The left hand on the Grand orgue and Positif plays the melody from the theme, while the right hand on the Récit plays a melodic counterpoint which is completely disconnected from the main melody. * Variation II: Main melody repeated again, this time on the pedal. The counterpoint, which consists of short, rapid chords, is played on the keyboard. * Langage communicable: “Par rapport aux Personnes qui procedent de lui, le Père se notifie ainsi: paternité et spiration; en tant que “Principe qui n’a pas de principe”, il se notifie ainsi: il n’est pas d’un autre: c’est là précisément la propriete d’innascibilité, désignée par le nom d’Inengendré” (Thus therefore the Father is known both by paternity and by common spiration, as regards the persons proceeding from Himself. But as the principle, not from a principle He is known by the fact that He is not from another; and this belongs to the property of innascibility, signified by the word “Unbegotten.”) The langage is played on the Positif and the counterpoint is played on the Grand orgue. The text is taken from Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica, Part I, question 33, article 4, conclusion. * The stars start turning. The main theme is presented again ostinato on the pedal, on a 10-note sequence. Meanwhile, the two hands play two different chord ostinatos: the right hand plays an 8-chord ostinato sequence and the left hand plays a 9-chord sequence. * Short crescendo sequence based on the rotating chords from the previous section, now contracted and transposed. * Langage communicable: the pedal proclaims the main word from the previous langage communicable: “L’inengendré” (the Unbegotten).

Messe de la Pentecôte

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External links#

*Louis Thiry playing «La Messe de Pentecôte» by Olivier Messiaen on the Sint-Bavokerk’s organ in Haarlem (Nederlands)

Monodie

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Background#

The Monodie was composed in 1963 at the request of Jean Bonfils, who was Messiaen’s assistant at the church of the Sainte Trinité, Paris, where he was the main organist. Its holograph manuscript states it was written ‘for harmonium’. It was written for Bonfils’ and Noémie Pierrot’s organ method book, Nouvelle méthode de clavier. Messiaen presumably did not have his own organ at La Trinité because of a major refurbishment, therefore being relegated to the choir organ. It was then published as a part of that book in 1963 by the Schola Cantorum. Musicologist Nigel Simeone alleges that Messiaen could have composed the Monodie as a part of a sight-reading examination at the Schola Cantorum. The piece was later republished posthumously by Éditions Alphonse Leduc in 1997, as most other short works that were lost, forgotten, or never intended for publication.

O sacrum convivium!

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Composition#

The composition of the motet on a Latin text for the offertory of the mass was commissioned by a clergyman, Abbé Brun, and Messiaen presumably completed it within the first months of 1937, when he was 29. He was a faithful Catholic for life, and composed many works related to religious topics, but never wrote any other sacred compositions meant to be performed in Catholic liturgy. Even though it is very likely that this piece was performed the year of its completion (probably with organ accompaniment), the first known performance was early the next year, in a concert by Les Amis de l’Orgue, at Sainte-Trinité, Paris, on 17 February 1938, where Messiaen and other composers performed their own compositions. The score was published in June 1937, soon after its completion, by Éditions Durand. The piece ultimately became popular, but the initial 1000-copy printing took over 16 years to sell. It was reprinted 18 times between 1954 and 1991, with a total of over 138,000 copies in print.

Offrande au Saint Sacrement

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Background#

The Offrande was one of the works discovered by Yvonne Messiaen after the composer’s death, together with his Prélude. Since the piece was not meant to be published and was discarded, there are very few details available about its origin. Organist Olivier Latry has suggested that the work may be contemporary with Le banquet céleste (1928), since the second theme from the Offrande shows some common elements. A part of this composition was rearranged for the orchestral piece Le banquet eucharistique, which was presumably written in 1928 and is now considered to be lost. The piece was published by Éditions Alphonse Leduc in 2001.

Oiseaux exotiques

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Premiere#

This piece was first performed at the Théâtre du Petit Marigny by Yvonne Loriod and the ensemble Domaine musical, conducted by Rudolf Alberth.

Orchestral setting#

Piano, piccolo, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 B clarinets, clarinet in E, bass clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, and 6 percussionists playing glockenspiel, xylophone, chimes, cowbell, three gongs, snare drum, tam-tam, temple blocks, and wood block.

The work#

The birdsongs in this piece are from Asia and the Americas: the southern hill myna , the golden-fronted leafbird, the Baltimore oriole, the greater prairie chicken, the northern mockingbird, the catbird, the Indian robin, the white-crested laughingthrush, the american robin (played by the two clarinets), the Swainson’s thrush, the hermit thrush, the red-whiskered bulbul and the wood thrush.

Petites Esquisses d'oiseaux

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Analysis#

In the preface, Messiaen writes:

Premiere#

The piece was premiered at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris on 26 January 1987 by Yvonne Loriod. The duration is about 14 minutes.

Titles of the pieces#

The six movements are titled:

Recordings#

Recordings include: * Yvonne Loriod, piano (+ Préludes, Quatre Études de rythme) Erato Records 2292-45505-2/V ECD 71589, 1987-88 * Paul Kim, piano (+ Catalogue d’oiseaux, La Fauvette des jardins) Centaur Records CRC 2567/68/69, 2001 * Fredrik Ullén, piano Disque BIS-CD-1803, 2012 * Marie Vermeulin, piano Disque paraty 612118, 2013

Poèmes pour Mi

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History#

Messiaen composed the work at the Lac de Pétichet in the summer of 1936, setting his own poems. in mind, who was a notable singer of Brünnhilde at the time. by Marcelle Bunlet and the composer at the piano. It was published by Éditions Durand. The first performance of the orchestral version took place at the salle Gaveau in Paris on 4 June 1937. The soprano Marcelle Bunlet was accompanied by the orchestra of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conducted by Roger Désormière.

Prelude for Organ (Messiaen)

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History#

In 1919, Messiaen entered the Conservatoire de Paris, which was widely considered the most important musical school in the nation. He studied there until 1930. Based on the calligraphy of the manuscript, its location of Paris, style of composition, which reflects in some aspects the music of his organ teacher Marcel Dupré; and organ compass, scholars deduced that the work was composed in the second half of the 1920s. Messiaen had written a supposedly complete catalogue of his works in Technique de mon langage musical (1944). It therefore came as a surprise to Yvonne Loriod, who found the Prélude and Offrande au Saint Sacrement in boxes by the composer’s personal desk, to have discovered these pieces in 1997. She sent photocopies of these pieces to colleagues Naji Hakim, who succeeded Messiaen as titular organist of the great organ at the Église de la Sainte Trinité, and Olivier Latry, one of the titular organists of Notre-Dame de Paris. The piece was revealed publicly for the first time on the CD Inédits and was played by Hakim at the organ of the Église de la Sainte Trinité off a facsimile of the manuscript annotated by Loriod herself. It was published by Editions Alphonse Leduc (AL 29 914) in 2002 following the Offrande ’s publication the preceding year. Latry edited the music and wrote the preface, and Hakim edited the registration.

Preludes (Messiaen)

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Table of contents#

There are eight preludes, which take about thirty-four minutes to play in full:

Quatre Études de rythme

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History#

The four pieces which the composer collectively termed Études de rythme are not a “cycle” like Messiaen’s earlier Vingt Regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (1944) or Visions de l’Amen (1943). Messiaen composed “Neumes rythmiques” and “Mode de valeurs et d’intensités” in 1949 (the latter at Darmstadt) and added the other two études in the following year, when he was at Tanglewood. The four movements were premiered on 6 November 1950 in Tunis (at that time under the French protectorate of Tunisia) by the composer himself, who shortly afterward made the first recording of the études. The French premiere was given in Toulouse on 7 June 1951 by Yvonne Loriod.

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

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Composition and first performance#

Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered World War II. He was drafted into the French army as a medical auxiliary. In June 1940, he was captured by the German army and imprisoned in Stalag VIII-A, a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany (now Zgorzelec, Poland). While in transit to the camp, Messiaen showed the clarinetist Henri Akoka, also a prisoner, the sketches for what would become Abîme des oiseaux. Two other professional musicians, violinist and cellist Étienne Pasquier, were among his fellow prisoners, and after he managed to obtain some paper and a small pencil from a sympathetic guard (, 1902–1989), Messiaen wrote a short trio for them; this piece later became the quartet’s Intermède. Later, he decided to write for the same trio with himself at the piano, developing it into its current state. The combination of instruments was unusual at the time, but not without precedent: Walter Rabl had composed for it in 1896, as had Paul Hindemith in 1938. The quartet was premiered at the camp on 15 January 1941 in front of about 400 prisoners and guards. Messiaen claimed that 5,000 people attended the performance and that the musicians had decrepit instruments, but those claims are now considered “somewhat exaggerated”. The cello was bought with donations from camp members. Several months later, Messiaen was released (with the help of Brüll) thanks to an entreaty by his former organ teacher and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, Marcel Dupré, as Messiaen scholar Nigel Simeone writes: Messiaen and Etienne Pasquier (cellist at the initial premiere) later recorded the quartet on LP for Club Français du Disc (1956), together with Jean Pasquier (violin) and André Vacellier (clarinet).

Réveil des oiseaux

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Origin and creation#

Réveil des oiseaux was commissioned by the German critic and musicologist Heinrich Strobel (1898–1970). It is a 28-minute work dedicated to the memory of ornithologist Jacques Delamain and was premiered at the Donaueschingen Festival on October 11, 1953. Yvonne Loriod was the piano soloist while the Orchestra of the Südwestfunk Baden-Baden was conducted by Hans Rosbaud. The orchestra ensemble included 3 flutes, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 1 English horn, 4 clarinets, 3 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 percussionists, 1 xylophone, 1 glockenspiel, 1 celesta, 8 violins I, 8 violins II, 8 violas, 8 cellos, 6 double basses, and a piano soloist.

Saint François d'Assise

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Composition history#

Despite his studies of Mozart and Wagner operas and his famous fascination with Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande, Messiaen thought he would never compose an opera. When Rolf Liebermann, general manager of the Paris Opera, commissioned an opera from Messiaen in 1971 the composer refused. Messiaen changed his mind when Liebermann arranged that he be a guest at a dinner at the Elysée Palace, hosted by then French President Georges Pompidou; at the end of the dinner Pompidou said: “Messiaen, you will write an opera for the Opéra de Paris!”. In searching for subject matter, Messiaen pondered dramatizing either Christ’s Passion or his Resurrection. Feeling unworthy of either subject, he eventually chose to dramatize the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, which paralleled Christ’s chastity, humility, poverty, and suffering. Messiaen commented that Francis’s life “resembled Christ’s life the most” and that Francis, like Christ, was “a friend of the birds”. The process of writing the opera took its toll on the composer. Initially, Messiaen made rapid progress as the opera became the sole object of his musical attention. In search of inspiration, he had traveled to Italy, where he examined paintings and frescoes and paid his respects at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi. By 1977, he contacted the general manager of the Paris National Opera to say he was ready to play through an unorchestrated version of the opera. Messiaen could not envisage orchestrating the opera by 1980. Adding to the pressure on Messiaen was a leak on the radio that he was writing an opera about Saint Francis. This revelation transgressed Messiaen’s normal practice of secrecy when composing. Messiaen appealed for a deadline extension in 1979. The new date was agreed to be 1983; however, Messiaen’s health was beginning to deteriorate. In 1981 he had several periods of ill-health, and Messiaen once again doubted that he would finish according to plan. Messiaen began to suffer from depression, and by December 1981 he felt unable to go on. However, his doctor advised him to take daily walks to increase his well-being and he began to attend evening mass at the Sacre Coeur. This encouraged Messiaen to go on to complete the work. Completing it had left its mark on him, and he was convinced it would be his last composition.

Sept haïkaï

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History#

The set of Sept haïkaï were composed by Messiaen in 1962 after a trip to Japan while he was on honeymoon with his new second wife, Yvonne Loriod. They were influenced by the sounds of Indian rhythms, Gagaku, the music of the Noh theatre, and the birdcalls of Japan, which he had first incorporated in Chronochromie. Messiaen also used an underlying melodic-rhythmic structure similar to the isorhythms used by fourteenth century composers such as Vitry and Machaut. Sept haïkaï are dedicated to Loriod, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Yoritsune Matsudaira, Sadao Bekku, Mitsuaki Hayama, Fumi Yamaguchi, and “to the landscapes, to the music and to all the birds of Japan”. The suite premiered on 30 October 1963, conducted by Boulez, and with Loriod as the piano soloist, at the concerts of the Domaine Musical.

Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Composition and premiere#

The Trois Petites Liturgies were commissioned by Denise Tual, daughter of Henri Piazza, for the Concerts de la Pléiade in Paris and composed during World War II, between 15 November 1943, and 15 March 1944. Messiaen originally conceived the piece as a work for two pianos, as he had achieved success in that format previously with Visions de l’Amen. The two primary points of contention were “the quality and relevance of Messiaen’s commentaries” and the use of “unusual sounds” for expressing religious themes. Claude Rostand responded particularly vehemently at the premiere, describing the work as a “work of tinsel, false magnificence and pseudo-mysticism, this work with dirty nails and clammy hands, with bloated complexion and unhealthy flab, replete with noxious matter, looking about anxiously like an angel wearing lipstick.” In spite of this, critical opinion now judges the work to be one of Messiaen’s most accomplished yet undemanding, still rooted in tonality but foreshadowing his later experiments with birdsong, Hindu rhythms and plainchant. It remains a major work of the composer.

Turangalîla-Symphonie

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Concept#

While most of Messiaen’s compositions are religious in inspiration, at the time of writing the symphony the composer was fascinated by the myth of Tristan and Iseult. Turangalîla forms the central work in his trilogy of compositions concerned with the themes of romantic love and death; the other pieces are Harawi for piano with soprano and Cinq rechants for unaccompanied trios of soprani, alti, tenors, and basses. It is considered one of the greatest musical compositions of the twentieth century, being described by its commissioner as ’the most important piece of classical music ever written since Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring ‘. A typical performance runs around 80 minutes in length. Messiaen once summarised the entire symphony as being “a love song; a hymn to joy.” The title of the work, and those of its movements, were a late addition to the project, chosen after Messiaen made a list of the work’s movements. He described the name in his letters from 1947 to 1948. He derived the title from two Sanskrit words, () and Lila (Hinduism) (), which he explained thus: :“Lîla” literally means play – but play in the sense of the divine action upon the cosmos, the play of creation, destruction, reconstruction, the play of life and death. “Lila” is also love. “Turanga”: this is the time that runs, like a galloping horse; this is time that flows, like sand in an hourglass. “Turanga” is movement and rhythm. “Turangalîla” therefore means all at once love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death. Messiaen described the joy of Turangalîla as “superhuman, overflowing, blinding, unlimited”. He revised the work’s orchestration in 1990.

Verset pour la fête de la Dédicace

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Verset was composed as a response to a commission by the Conservatoire de Paris. The piece would be used at the organ competitive examination which took place on June 13, 1961, at the Conservatoire. It was completed in Paris in December 1960 and was premiered at the examination. It was published that year by Éditions Alphonse Leduc.

Structure#

The piece is scored for solo organ and has a total duration of around 9 minutes. Messiaen used plainchant and birdsong extensively throughout the whole piece. The Verset starts with a monodic theme entitled Alleluia de la Dédicace, which he also used in the second movement of his Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité.

Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Structure#

There are 20 movements:

Thèmes#

Messiaen uses Thèmes or leitmotifs, recurring elements that represent certain ideas. They include: *Thème de Dieu (“Theme of God”) *Thème de l’amour mystique (“Theme of Mystical Love”) *Thème de l’étoile et de la croix (“Theme of the Star and of the Cross”) *Thème d’accords (“Theme of Chords”) For example, Messiaen has written that “The ‘Theme of Chords’ is heard throughout, fragmented, concentrated, surrounded with resonances, combined with itself, modified in both rhythm and register, transformed, transmuted in all sorts of ways: it is a complex of sounds intended for perpetual variation, pre-existing in the abstract like a series, but quite concrete and quite easily recognizable through its colours: a steely grey-blue shot through with red and bright orange, a mauve violet spotted with leather-brown and encircled by bluish-purple.”

Visions de l'Amen

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Movements#

There are seven movements:

Olivier Messiaen on Music Theory Print

Apparition de l'église éternelle

Film#

External links#

Catalogue d'oiseaux

Premiere#

Aim of the work#

Title of the pieces#

Recordings#

See also#

External links#

Concert à quatre

Composition#

Des canyons aux étoiles...

Instrumentation#

Diptyque (Messiaen)

History#

Éclairs sur l'Au-Delà...

Title#

Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

History#

Fête des belles eaux

Structure#

External links#

Harawi (Messiaen)

Analysis#

L'Ascension

Development#

La Nativité du Seigneur

Structure#

La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ

Background#

Les Corps glorieux

Structure#

1. Subtilité des corps glorieux#

Livre d'orgue (Messiaen)

Structure#

Premiere#

Livre du Saint-Sacrement

Genesis and composition#

Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité

Structure#

Meditation No. 1#

Messe de la Pentecôte

External links#

Monodie

Background#

O sacrum convivium!

Composition#

Offrande au Saint Sacrement

Background#

Oiseaux exotiques

Premiere#

Orchestral setting#

The work#

Petites Esquisses d'oiseaux

Analysis#

Premiere#

Titles of the pieces#

Recordings#

Poèmes pour Mi

History#

Prelude for Organ (Messiaen)

History#

Preludes (Messiaen)

Table of contents#

Quatre Études de rythme

History#

Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Composition and first performance#

Réveil des oiseaux

Origin and creation#

Saint François d'Assise

Composition history#

Sept haïkaï

History#

Trois Petites Liturgies de la présence divine

Composition and premiere#

Turangalîla-Symphonie

Concept#