La Nativité du Seigneur

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.”

External links#

• La Nativité du Seigneur (with synchronised score), played by Olivier Latry