Olivier Messiaen


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[details ←] Analyses of the Piano Works of Maurice Ravel

[details ←] Danse pour clarinet et piano, clarinet, piano,

[details ←] Danse pour violon et piano, violin, piano,

[details ←] Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps - Quartet For The End of Time, clarinet, violin, piano, cello,

[details ←] Quatuor pour la fin du Temps , clarinet, violin, piano, cello,

[details ←] 20 Regards sur l’Enfant-Jesus, piano,

[details ←] O Sacrum Convivium (O Sacred and Holy Feast), organ, , choral, vocal,

[details ←] Preludes pour piano, piano,

[details ←] Ile de Feu No. 1 (Rhythmic Etude No. 1), piano,

[details ←] Turangalila Symphonie (Version 1990)

[details ←] Merle Noir, piano, flute,

[details ←] Technique Of My Musical Language / Textes et Musique Reunis (English version)

[details ←] Fantaisie (Violin), violin, piano,

[details ←] Rain Tree Sketch II, piano,

[details ←] Ascension, organ,

[details ←] Apparition de d’Eglise Eternelle (score), organ,

[details ←] Banquet Celeste, organ,

[details ←] Nativite Du Seigneur Volume 3 (Meditations 6-7 et 8), organ,

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Emmanuel Pahud - Paris
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See also:
Jeune France (Young France)
French composers
Modern composers
Organists
Born: 10 December 1908 — Avignon — France
Died: 27 April 1992 — Paris — France
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News for Messiaen

Music



(Contribution by G. Messiaen <gerald.messiaen(at)cec.eu.int>)

Most of his compositions were explicitly religious and divided between characteristic styles of extremely slow meditation, bounding dance and the objective unfolding of arithmetical systems. They include the orchestral L’ascension (1933), the organ cycles La nativité du Seigneur (1935) and Les corps glorieux (1939), the song cycles Poèmes pour Mi (1936) and Chants de terre et de ciel (1938), and the culminating work of this period, the Quatuor pour la fin du temps for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1941).

His next works were based largely on his own adaptations of birdsongs: they include Réveil des oiseaux for piano and orchestra (1953), Oiseaux exotiques for piano, wind and percussion (1956), the immense Catalogue d’oiseaux for solo piano (1958) and the orchestral Chronochromie (1960). In these, and in his Japanese postcards Sept haïkaï for piano and small orchestra (1962), he continued to follow his junior contemporaries, but then returned to religious subjects in works that bring together all aspects of his music. These include another small-scale piano concerto, Couleurs de la cité céleste (1963), and the monumental Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for wind and percussion (1964). Thereafter he devoted himself to a sequence of works on the largest scale: the choral-orchestral La Transfiguration (1969), the organ volumes Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité (1969), the 12-movement piano concerto Des canyons aux étoiles... (1974) and the opera Saint François d’Assise (1983).

For piano, organ: the Visions de l’amen (1943) and the Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus (1944), followed by an exuberant triptych on the theme of erotic love: the song cycle Harawi (1945), the Turangalîla symphonie with solo piano and ondes martenot (1948) and the Cinq rechants for small chorus (1949). Meanwhile the serial adventures of Boulez and others were also making a mark, and Messiaen produced his most abstract, atonal and irregular music in the Quatre études de rythme for piano (1949) and the Livre d’orgue (1951).


(contributed by Crescenzo G. Fonzo <foxtrot76(at)aol.com>)

Messiaen works for organ include:

Le Banquet Celeste, Diptyque, Apparition de l’Eglise Eternelle, L’ Ascension, La Nativité du Seigneur, Les Corps Glorieux, Messe de la Pentecôte, Livre d’Orgue, Méditations sur le Mystère de la Sainte Trinité V, Livre du St. Sacrament.

He is also well known for the following vocal and instrumental works:

Quartor pour la fin du Temps, Le Merle Noir, Couleurs de la Cité Celeste, Et Expecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum, O Sacrum Convivium, Catalogue d’Oiseaux, Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus, and the Opera Saint François d’Assise.

Some of his other works:

Chant des Déportes, La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ (for choir and orchestra).

Life

(Contribution by G. Messiaen <gerald.messiaen(at)cec.eu.int>)

He studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1919-30) with Dukas, Emmanuel and Dupré, and taught there (1941-78) while also serving as organist of La Trinité in Paris.

During the war he found himself surrounded by an eager group of students, including Boulez and Yvonne Loriod, who eventually became his second wife.


Olivier Messiaen was one of the most innovative major 20th Century Composers. Student of Dukas and Dupré at the Paris Conservatory, Messiaen’s style incorporates Gregorian Chant, onomatopoeic elements, colouristics, bird songs, and a highly personal modal technique utilizing complex rhythms from ancient and Oriental cultures.

He was "organiste titulaire" at la Trinité in Paris from 1931 until his death in April, 1992. He was succeeded by Organist/Composer Naji Hakim in 1993.

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Concerts

[Submit concert announcements for Olivier Messiaen.]
28 November 2009: Palazzo del Principe,Sala degli Argenti ,Genoa-Italy Contemporary piano music recital, Ljuba Moiz, piano

Events

[Submit an event (date and year) for Olivier Messiaen.]
21 April 1945: Premiere of Trois Petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine, in Paris, France.
2 December 1949: Premiere of Messiaen's Turangalîlâ Symphony, in Boston, USA, with Leonard Bernstein conducting.
23 April 1953: Premiere of Livre d'Orgue, Stuttgart, Germany, with Messiaen at the organ.
11 October 1953: Premiere of Réveil des Oseaux, in Donaueschingen, Germany.
28 November 1983: Premiere of Saint François d'Assise, in Paris, France.
26 November 1988: Premiere of Un Vitrail et des Oiseaux, in Paris, France.
17 November 1989: Premiere of La Ville d'en-Haut, in Paris, France.

Contributions by: foxtrot | gmessiaen |

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