Olivier Messaien

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer and is regarded by many to be the most significant and influential musical figure of the mid-20th century. He enjoyed a successful career as a virtuoso performer, composer, teacher, and theoretician. His music features a mix of both Western as well as non-Western musical sources, using innovative sounds as well as vivid and colourful orchestration. His spirituality and fascination with nature (especially with birdsong) is reflected in many of his works, as well as his interest in non-Western musical traditions and his creative approach to sound and colour.

His devout Catholic faith has also resulted in religion-based themed works, such as Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus. Many of these works employ actual chant melodies as well as newly formed chant-inspired melodies. In addition, many non-Western musical sources have also proved to be inspirational an influential to him. In particular, he found the rhythmic pulse in ancient Greek poetry of interest to him, not to mention did he also enjoy exploring Indian classical music. Also, Messiaen saw rhythm not in the traditional sense as a division of time into of equal parts, but an accumulation of durations. This is evidenced in many of his works which are unmeasured and have bar lines only to indicate phrasing (functions much like the slur). Moreover, he drew from South American/Peruvian folk music (Harawi) and used traditional songs and birdsongs of Japan (Sept haikai). A particular characteristic in his works is the use of birdsong. During his lifetime, the composer liked to systematically research and transcribe birdsongs, which can be seen in pieces such as Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of birds) from Quator pour la fin du temps and La merle noir (for flute and piano). Messiaen once stated on why he did this: “I give birdsongs to those who dwell in cities and have never heard them.”

The impact of early Impressionist composers such as Debussy can be found especially in Messiaen’s early works like the eight piano preludes: parallel chord streams; added sixth, ninth, and aggregate chords; use of whole-tone, octatonic, and modal scales. The term “modes of limited transposition” can be traced back to Messiaen, and refer to symmetrical scales (or any scale type, for that metter) that can only be transposed once. Later works show the applications of serial principles and procedures to melodic and rhythmic elements, instrumentation, and dynamics. He thought of chords as representing different colours (chromethesia), personally describing them as resonance chords, rainbow, and stained glass effects, as seen in Chronochromie. Furthermore, he used nonretrogradable rhythms (also called rhythmic palindromes — rhythms that can be read the same forwards and backwards), and his music captures the essence of improvisation and explored keyboard virtuosity, seeing that he was also an accomplished organist.

Overall, it is easy to see why Messiaen is considered one of the most remarkable and outstanding composers of his time: his unique style, innovations and contributions largely speak for themselves.