Messiaen

[jre58591]

i havent seen much talk about messiaen in these forums, so i thought id create a topic about the man. what do you think of his music? i personally love visions de l'amen, vingt regards, and des canyons aux étoiles. any opinions?

[phil13]

The only piece I have listened to by him is the Quartet for the End of Time. Half of it was great, half of it was awful, so I can't really give a balanced opinion.

I'm also not too familiar with any of his piano works, either. Maybe you can supply?

Phil

[jre58591]

The only piece I have listened to by him is the Quartet for the End of Time. Half of it was great, half of it was awful, so I can't really give a balanced opinion.

I'm also not too familiar with any of his piano works, either. Maybe you can supply?

Phil

the quartet for the end of time is not one of my favorite pieces. it is good, but not as good as the pieces i mentioned. a lot of his pieces, namely his catalogues de oiseaux and oiseaux exoties for piano and small orchestra, that mimic the sounds of birds. messiaen, in addition to an accomplished pianist and composer, was a professional ornithologist, which had an obvious influence in his works.  his music is not very tonal, but it isnt atonal. it just makes me "lose myself" when i listen to it. if you would like an upload, which piece would you want?

[ramseytheii]

Definitely Messiaen is one of the major piano composers of the 20th century.  His piano music is just as important as Bartok, Debussy, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Ligeti, whoever else, and also so unique.  He wrote some early Preludes in a more Debussy-ish idiom before his wild experiments in piano sonority set in.  I recommend Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus, a two-hour piano suite that is often excerpted (unlike other mammoth piano cycles OFTEN DISCUSSED ON THIS FORUM not mentioning any names).  The Catalogues d'oiseaux is a totally unique undertaking but more of an acquired taste.  It is all indivdual pieces with a combination of bird song, painstakingly transcribed by Messiaen and then transposed to fit the intervals of a modern-tuned piano, and "atmosphere" music.  Some of the pieces are very long, over 30 minutes.  He also has groundbreaking Etudes for piano, 4 of them, which are worth looking into.  The easiest to play is probably Ile de feu 1.  There are many organ works, some two piano works (Visions de l'Amen was recorded by Martha Argerich and Alexander Rabinovitch), and some piano-concerto like pieces mentioned in the previous posts.  Every orchestral piece of his I have heard has featured the piano in some way.

Walter Ramsey

[ahinton]

Definitely Messiaen is one of the major piano composers of the 20th century.  His piano music is just as important as Bartok, Debussy, Scriabin, Prokofiev, Ligeti, whoever else, and also so unique.  He wrote some early Preludes in a more Debussy-ish idiom before his wild experiments in piano sonority set in.  I recommend Vingt Regards sur l'enfant Jesus, a two-hour piano suite that is often excerpted (unlike other mammoth piano cycles OFTEN DISCUSSED ON THIS FORUM not mentioning any names).  The Catalogues d'oiseaux is a totally unique undertaking but more of an acquired taste.  It is all indivdual pieces with a combination of bird song, painstakingly transcribed by Messiaen and then transposed to fit the intervals of a modern-tuned piano, and "atmosphere" music.  Some of the pieces are very long, over 30 minutes.  He also has groundbreaking Etudes for piano, 4 of them, which are worth looking into.  The easiest to play is probably Ile de feu 1.  There are many organ works, some two piano works (Visions de l'Amen was recorded by Martha Argerich and Alexander Rabinovitch), and some piano-concerto like pieces mentioned in the previous posts.  Every orchestral piece of his I have heard has featured the piano in some way.

Walter Ramsey

Agreed absolutely. The early piano Préludes (8 of them), though obviously not mature Messiaen, are nevertheless very fine in their own right and far too often neglected in favour of the composer's later works; a little piece in similar mode from just after he wrote them and called - prosaically - "Sight Reading Piece No. 1"(! it was written as a conservatoire test piece) has recently come to light; I heard its première last year. The Quatre Études en Rhhythme are indeed interesting but they rather represent a path to which Messiaen was never to return. As to those "other mammoth piano cycles OFTEN DISCUSSED ON THIS FORUM (,) not mentioning any names", why not mention names when it's surely obvious to most readers that you are talking about the two cycles of 24 Preludes and Fugues that comprise Bach's Das Wohltemperierte Klavier...

Best,

Alistair

[mephisto]

Vingt regards.... is imo one of the greatest cycles ever comosed for the piano. I haven`t taken the time to appreciate the bird pieces yet.

[g_s_223]

He's also the greatest organ composer since Reger, and has made an indispensable contribution to that literature.

[ahinton]

He's also the greatest organ composer since Reger, and has made an indispensable contribution to that literature.

That statement is almost certainly beyond any argument - though, sadly, by no means everyone has the breadth of vision to appreciate both!

Best,

Alistair

[jre58591]

for those of you that havcent heard messiaen, here is a disk that has 3 tracks of messiaen on it, along with works by vine, respighi, and ligeti. these are extracts from his vingt regards sur l'enfant jesus.

https://www.megaupload.com/?d=UK9QLF0E

[elgreco]

He's also the greatest organ composer since Reger, and has made an indispensable contribution to that literature.

That statement is almost certainly beyond any argument - though, sadly, by no means everyone has the breadth of vision to appreciate both!

Best,

Alistair

Speaking of everyone's breadth of vision: would everyone (ever) accept Charles Tournemire (1870–1939) next to "St.Olivier" on the throne of the Greatest Organ Composer since Reger?