Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen:

Music of Faith, Love, and Birdsong

Index to Classes:

(click on a class for details)

Class 1

Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant Jésus (selections)
Two-hour work for piano dedicated to Yvonne Loriod, his 19-year-old student at the time and later, his wife (1944).

Author's Note (translated) Messiaen's own introduction and comments on each of the twenty pieces (5 pages).

YouTube video (2:06:56). Steven Osborne in a complete live performance.

YouTube video (2:16:42) Kristoffer Hyldig in a complete live performance.

Visions de l'Amen (selections)
for two pianos in seven movements (1943)

Messiaen's own notes (translated) on each of the movements, in a CD booklet along with performer comments (6 pages).

To be continued in Class 2.

Class 2

Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Quartet for the end of time for piano, clarinet, violin and cello (1941)

Classical Notes webpage with the story of the quartet and musical details. Recommended.

Introduction and Comments Messiaen's own writings on each of the eight movements (translated) from the Tashi Quartet CD booklet (3 pages).

Messiaen's Indian rhythms explained and demonstrated with dance in a YouTube video (1:13:38). Visual quality is not too good, but it's worth seeing.

Lecture at the Library of Congress about the Quartet, in the context of Messiaen's approach to music: YouTube video (54:24)

A documentary about the quartet, a somewhat unusual YouTube video (30:06)

Class 3

Birdsong:

Le Merle Noir
for flute and piano (1952); YouTube video (6:00)

To hear the merle noir (blackbird) sing, click here.

Oiseaux Exotiques (excerpt)
for piano and small orchestra (1956)
Birdsong includes our cardinal and Baltimore oriole

For some examples of birdsong and his transcriptions, click here

Turangalîla-Symphonie (1949)

Video (26:30) . Rehearsal by Leonard Bernstein, prior to conducting the premiere (audio only). Also, a video about the Boston premiere (4:55).

Video (4:52) Conductor/composer Esa-Pekka Salonen discusses the music of Messiaen, with emphasis on Turangalîla

Messiaen's own notes (translated) on the 1991 "approved" version, from the booklet accompanying the CDs (5 pages).

Program Notes (6 pages) from Liverpool Philharmonic

Two videos explaining the Ondes Martenot, the unusual instrument used by Messiaen in this work (and a number of others):

YouTube video (13:51)

YouTube video (9:05)

YouTube video of a complete performance with Dutoit, Thibaudet and Claverie (1:19:06).

Class 4

Organ Works

Apparition de l'église éternelle (1932)

La Nativité du Seigneur (1935): Dieu parmi nous

Livre du Saint Sacrement (selections)
Collection of 18 pieces on the Eucharist (1986)

Messiaen Organ Works (63 pages; booklet page numbers 12-74): From a CD booklet, some history and descriptions of Messiaen's organ music, by Anders Ekenberg. There are 8 introductory pages, followed by descriptions of individual works.

Two short video tours of a pipe organ, and a long detailed one:

How Pipe Organs Work (4:20)

How a Organ Makes Music (5:34)

How to Play the Pipe Organ (42:18)

Class 5

Saint François d'Assise (selections)
Messiaen's only opera, a work of over four hours in three acts and eight tableaux (1983)

Interview with Messiaen about his opera Saint François (8 pages), extracted from Interview and Synopsis by Messiaen in liner notes (16 pages).

About the life of Saint François from CD booklet (2 pages).

Video of 1983 Paris premiere with José van Dam, and Seiji Ozawa conducting (4:00:58). Visual quality could be better, but it's a historic event. No subtitles.

Recollections of a singer in the premiere (8 pages).

Video of Act III London Dec. 1988, with Kent Nagano conducting the London Philharmonic (starts at 34:40, ends at 1:35:40).

YouTube Audio with score – live recording from 1998 Salzburg Festival with Jose van Dam, Dawn Upshaw, and Kent Nagano conducting. Click on each act below.

Act I (1:06:45)

Act II (1:47:30)

Act III (1:00:49)

Index to Other Materials (click to see details):

Background

Musical Analyses

Selected Books

Recordings of Interest

Class Presentations

Background

Who are you, Olivier Messiaen? 1961 Interview (3 pages).
The Power of Example. Tribute by Pierre Boulez on Messiaen's 70th birthday (2 pages).
Yvonne Loriod biography. It's impossible to think of Messiaen's piano music without Yvonne Loriod (4 pages).
Video portrait ("Messiaen at 80", from 0:27 to 34:40), followed by Act III of Saint François.
YouTube video documentary "Music of Faith" about Messiaen, including interviews with him (1:18:32). Video quality is not very good, but it's worth seeing, and best to turn on subtitles.

Musical Analyses

Composers and Their Music: Messiaen. Good overview of Messiaen's musical language: modes, rhythms, etc., but somewhat technical at times (12 pages).
The Charm of Impossibilities: Introduction by Messiaen to his treatise on his Musical Language (1 page)
Messiaen: Chapter in Orientations by Pierre Boulez (13 pages).
Saint Francis and Birds of Faith by Charles Peltz, on the faculty of the New England Conservatory (12 pages).

Selected Books (none required)

The life of Messiaen by Christopher Dingle, Cambridge University Press (2007). Recommended.
Messiaen by Peter Hill & Nigel Simeone, Yale University Press (2005).
The Messiaen Companion, edited by Peter Hill, Faber and Faber Ltd, (1994).
For the End of Time - The Story of the Messiaen Quartet by Rebecca Rischin, Cornell University Press (2003).
Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du Temps by Anthony Pople. Cambridge Music Handbooks, Cambridge University Press (1998). With detailed musical analyses.
Conversations with Olivier Messiaen - Claude Samuel, translated by Felix Aprahamian. Stainer & Bell (1976 English edition). A later 1994 version is prohibitively expensive.
The Reinvention of Religious Music - Olivier Messiaen's Breakthrough Toward the Beyond by Sander van Maas. Fordham University Press (2009).