Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist, teacher, and ornithologist whose music is distinguished by his deep devotion to Catholicism, exoticism, and nature. At the age of 11 he entered the Paris Conservatoire, studying organ and improvisation with Marcel Dupré and composition with Paul Dukas. In 1930, he became the principal organist at La Trinité Cathedral in Paris, a post he held for more than 40 years. His distinguished teaching career is marked by appointments in Darmstadt (1950-1953), his famous courses in harmony and analysis at the Paris Conservatoire beginning in 1947, and his appointment as professor of composition there in 1966. His impressive list of students includes Boulez, Stockhausen, and his second wife, keyboardist Yvonne Loriod, among many others.
In synthesizing an individual style, Messiaen discovered in the music of Debussy the properties of "exotic" modes such as the whole-tone and diminished scales, calling them "modes of limited transposition." The inherent symetricalities of these modes enabled Messiaen to create progressions and melodies free of the tonic-dominant polarity of traditional tonal music, while remaining independent of the twelve-tone system as well. Messiaen was gifted with a strong sense of "synaesthesia" or hearing in colors. He often described his music in terms of "color progressions," also equating key signatures and collections (sets) of pitches with specific colors. At an early age, Messiaen developed a strong interest in rhythm, particularly fostered by Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. His rhythmic investigations ranged from Gregorian chant, to ancient Greek poetic meters, to Indian raga, to gamelan music. He soon left regular metric divisions behind, although repetition remained an integral part of his rhythmic vocabulary. All of these elements are explained in great detail in his 1944 publication, Technique de mon langage musical (Technique of my musical language).
In 1940, while a prisoner of war of the Germans, Messiaen composed Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time). The quartet's unique instrumentation of piano, clarinet, violin, and cello was written for, and premiered by Messiaen and three fellow inmates while in detention; it became one of the great chamber works of the twentieth century. Messiaen was one of the first composers to apply serial techniques to parameters other than pitch (such as duration, register, and dynamics) in Mode de valeurs et d'intensités (1949) for solo piano. His interest in plain chant and rhythm led him to the ancient Greeks and Hindus, where he discovered processes such as nonretrogradable, additive, and subtractive rhythms. The Turangalila-symphonie of 1948 is the most synthetic of his early works. It features rich orchestration, imaginative use of tonal colors, Hindu rhythms, and a formal scheme that unfolds in large, block-like structures. Also of note here is one of the earliest uses of the Ondes Martenot, an electronic instrument capable of producing eerie glissandi, as well as monophonic melodies. Messiaen had a deep love of birdsong, and spent much time in the wild making extensive transcriptions, many of which would surface in his works, most notably in an arresting orchestral passage in Chronochromie (1960) and the monumental Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalog of the Birds) (1958) for solo piano. His large body of organ music, composed primarily during his tenure as organist at the Sainte Trinite Cathedral, is highly idiomatic, colorful in harmony and registration, and rhythmically ingenious. From 1950, his Messe de la Pentecote (Mass of the Pentecost) is a collection of improvisations that he shaped into a composition. His only opera, St. Francis d'Assise, was completed in 1983.
© TiVo
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Olivier Messiaen, Vol. 4/7: Turangalila, Symphonie pour piano, ondes Martenot et orchestre (1948)
Classical - Released by ISIS on Jun 3, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Olivier Messiaen, Trois Petites Liturgies De La Présence Divine
Classical - Released by Classical.com Music on Feb 16, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Visions de l'Amen
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Dec 26, 1003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Olivier Messiaen - Chamber Music
Chamber Music - Released by Danacord Records on Jan 16, 2015
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Musique Sacrée
Gabriel Fauré, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Johann Sebastian Bach, Olivier Messiaen, Georg Friedrich Händel
Classical - Released by Classic Records on Jun 2, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Catalogue d'oiseaux (Mono Version)
Yvonne Loriod, Olivier Messiaen
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1970
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen (Mono Version)
Olivier Messiaen, Yvonne Loriod
Chamber Music - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Olivier Messiaen: Turangalîla-Symphonie
Sinfonieorchester Des Südwestfunks, Ginette Martenot, Yvonne Loriod
Symphonic Music - Released by wergo on Oct 1, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Historic Recordings
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Mar 24, 2021
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The New Goll-Organ of Marktkirche Hannover
Ulfert Smidt, Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis-Claude Daquin, César Franck, Max Reger, Olivier Messiaen
Classical - Released by Rondeau Production on Sep 12, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
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Messiaen: Messe de la Pentecôte (À l'orgue de la Sainte-Trinité de Paris)
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on May 10, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Œuvres complètes pour orgue, vol. 7 (Au grand orgue de l'église de la Trinité de Paris) (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Messe de la Pentecôte & Le banquet céleste (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Olivier Messiaen, Turangalîla-Symphonie
Classical - Released by Classical.com Music on Feb 16, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Olivier Messiaen: Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (Album of 1957)
Olivier Messiaen, Jean Pasquier, Etienne Pasquier, André Vacellier
Classical - Released by Firebird on Sep 30, 2021
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Messiaen: La Nativité du Seigneur, extraits (Au grand orgue de l'église de la Trinité) (Collection trésors, mono version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Livre d'orgue, I/38
Classical - Released by SWR Mediaservices GmbH on Feb 16, 2018
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Appel interstellaire
Asko Schönberg, Olivier Messiaen, Jan Harshagen
Classical - Released by Asko Schönberg on Apr 16, 2024
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Œuvres complètes pour orgue, vol. 1 (Au grand orgue de l'église de la Trinité de Paris) (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Français de notre temps, vol. 4 (Mono Version)
Literature - Released by BNF Collection on Jan 1, 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo