Olivier Messiaen
Livre d'orgue (Messiaen)
Livre d'orgue ("Organ book") is a work for organ by the French composer Olivier Messiaen, composed in 1951–52. A major work of Messiaen, its place in Messiaen's output can be compared to that of
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.
Further reading#
- Trawick, Eleanor. 1991. “Serialism and Permutation Techniques in Olivier Messiaen’s Livre d’orgue”. Music Research Forum 6:15–35.
- Weir, Gillian. 1995. Organ Music II. In The Messiaen Companion, edited by Peter Hill, 352–91. London: Faber and Faber. (cloth); (pbk).
- Composer
- Olivier Messiaen