Thread: Olivier Messiaen

We are less than a month from Olivier Messiaen's 100th birthday. His music is, for me, a recent discovery, which has become almost an addiction by now. I hope responses to this guestbook will give me more to think about regarding his music.

Well, it depends what you are looking for. If it is works to try, then the Turangalila Symphony is an obvious choice, as is the wonderful Trois Petites Liturgies. A slightly later work which has to me a perfect harmony in its form, is Chronochromie.

Thanks, Lang, for the response. Coincidentally, I just listened to Turangalila Symphony again this morning. What a wonderful thing it is!
What I was looking for in posting this was to learn how people feel about Messiaen's music, their responses to his music in general, as well as to specific works.
His music seems to have strong responses (positive or negative), and I am hoping for some dialogue to enrich my experience of his music, feeling that I can learn as much from the negative responses as from the positives.
For instance, I will start with your reference to "the wonderful Trois Petites Liturgies" when I listen to them (something I haven't heard yet). Thanks.
My favorite of his works - that I have heard so far - is Éclairs sur L'au Delà. In fact, of all his birds, my favorite is the third movement, L’Oiseau-lyre et la Ville-fiancée.

Try to listen to Quatuor pour la fin du temps, probably you should know it by now. It looks like angels screaming... very deep and intense music.

Of course, Elaryad, I have listened to the Quatuor, my first Messiaen piece... probably the most powerful music I had ever heard. Each movement took me deeper into the work.

But, believe me, I'll always associate your remark, "It looks like angels screaming..." with it everytime I hear it.

By the way, trying to get a friend of mine interested in Messiaen's music, I came up with all eight movements of the Quatuor on YouTube - a rather motley assortment of Messiaenists - but in case anyone would be interested -

1
First part of Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time". Recorded 30 November 1991. This is a short excerpt from the DVD http://tinyurl.com/oybus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-r59Iyx6-0

2
ensemble s21
Jorge Montes, violín
Carlos García Amigo, violonchelo
Vicente López Puig, clarinete
Julio Mourenza, piano

01/IV/2008 | Santiago de Compostela
Auditorio do cGac
www.ensemble-s21.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjZ3HAIfGwo

3
Todd Brunel performs the third movement of Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps ("Quartet for the end of time"). The third movement is for solo clarinet and is called: III. "Abîme des oiseaux" (Abyss of birds), @ Outpost 186 Hampshire, Cambridge, MA, Nov 16, 2007.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA-mrWcRBAs


4
Synesthetic sand-fantasy for the music of Messiaen
Nash Ensemble
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtOE-4Lvmlg

5
www.chatterchamber.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT6QsMDGHaQ

6
Messiaen - Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (mov. 6)

Davide de Ascaniis - violino
Damiano Scarpa - violoncello
Francesco Spendolini - clarinetto
Daniele Rinaldo - pianoforte
(live @ Festival Dino Ciani, 2008)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5hTUXteDjw

7
From my chamber music diploma concert at the Malmö Academy of Music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw_NpqKnJSE

8
Kyung-Wha Chung plays the 8th Mov. of Messiaen quartet for the End of Time (for piano, violin, cello and clarinet). Recorded live in New York in 1984.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQiH0csUPP0

Originally Posted by msegers

What I was looking for in posting this was to learn how people feel about Messiaen's music, their responses to his music in general, as well as to specific works.
His music seems to have strong responses (positive or negative), and I am hoping for some dialogue to enrich my experience of his music, feeling that I can learn as much from the negative responses as from the positives.

Ok - what do I get from Messiaen's music? First and foremost a sense of perfect form. Messiaen tends to use monolithic shapes for his structures, if that makes sense, and the structure to me is very apparent in the music itself. For me that is exemplified in Chronochromie, where the structure is one of the main elements of the music. Secondly the sensuality. No one, apart from Strauss, has written music with such an erotic undercurrent. And thirdly, the mysticism. I am an atheist, and so the Catholic mysticism with which his work is imbued means very little to me in general, but Messiaen manages to communicate his sense of the eternal mysteries and also his wonder at the natural world, which are things that I can understand and appreciate.

Happy 100th Birthday, Olivier Messiaen!

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ay.html?cat=33

By the way, deep bows to Lang for his comments. I especially appreciate his comments on the sensuality of Messiaen. (Some commentators leave me feeling that I must have a dirty mind to think such a thing.)

Also, I believe that not being Catholic gives me a freedom in approaching Messiaen's work. There is so much of his mysticism that is not specifically Catholic, the "sense of the eternal mysteries and also his wonder at the natural world" (quoting Lang), that we can all partake of his little-c catholic, universal, spirituality.

Originally Posted by msegers

Happy 100th Birthday, Olivier Messiaen!

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ay.html?cat=33

By the way, deep bows to Lang for his comments. I especially appreciate his comments on the sensuality of Messiaen. (Some commentators leave me feeling that I must have a dirty mind to think such a thing.)

Oh no, not at all. If you can ever hear a live performance of the Cinq Rechants, you will hear an orgasm portrayed in music. Unfortunately the recorded versions of this tend to be a little inhibited, but I did hear a live performance by the John Aldiss Choir where everybody in the audience felt like a cigarette following the solo soprano's climax.

Is it today? Happy birthday, Olivier. Hope you are among the birds.

Originally Posted by Lang

If you can ever hear a live performance of the Cinq Rechants, you will hear an orgasm portrayed in music. Unfortunately the recorded versions of this tend to be a little inhibited, but I did hear a live performance by the John Aldiss Choir where everybody in the audience felt like a cigarette following the solo soprano's climax.

I don't usually quote a previous post - feel that it just takes up room in the forum. But Lang's comment deserves repetition. I feel sure that Messiaen must be joining me in laughter.

I haven't been exposed to his works other than Quartet for the End of Time, but I like that work alot. It is in my top ten. Definitely one of the great chamber works of the C20th. As people may already know, it also had an interesting history, most of it being composed while Messiaen was a prisoner of war. I like this music because he had a unique style that could not be replicated. It is not only profoundly spiritual but also very dramatic and trance-inducing in parts. He pushes the instruments to the extreme, especially the violin and the cello. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to go beyond the chamber works of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc.

I really get into Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Lots of fun to listen to, and to play! Turangalila is a blast too, literally.

I absolutely adore Chronochromie. The Epode is stunning.

This is an amazing video! :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QdgUJss9BU