Olivier MessiaenComposer, Ornithologist, Innovator

Early BiographyDecember 10, 1908 Olivier Messiaen born. (Avignon, France)

1919/20 OM begins studies at the Paris Conservatoire.

1922-30 OM receives awards in piano, harmony, organ, composition, music history

September, 1931 OM appointed titular organist of La Trinité.

June 22, 1932 OM and Claire Delbos marry.

Fall 1933 OM begins compulsory military service (completed summer 1934).

October 16, 1936 First American performance of OM's music

September, 1939 France declares war on Germany; OM called up for military service.

June 15, 1940 OM captured by German forces in the fall of Verdun.

July 1940 OM moved to a prisoner camp in Silesia, Germany (now Poland). (released in 1941)

August 25, 1944 Paris liberated from German occupation.

Source: http://oliviermessiaen.net/biography/chronology

Later BiographyJuly-August 1949 OM teaches a composition workshop at Tanglewood.

1952-58 OM studies with ornithologist Jacques Delamain in Gardépée, France.

1952-58OM begins intensive birdsong research in the French countryside using tape recorders and transcriptions. Hereafter, he would travel the world, collecting and transcribing birdsongs

1966 OM appointed Professor of Composition at the Paris Conservatoire.

December, 1966 OM elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de France.

March 11, 1972 OM, YL begin American tour.

May 1-10 OM, YL visit Utah, including Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and Zion Lodge.

1974 First performance of “Des Canyons Aux Etoiles” (“From the Canyons to the Stars”)

1978Celebrations and performances in honor of OM's 70th birthday; OM retires from the faculty of the Paris Conservatoire.

June 1, 1978 OM's health begins to visibly decline.

April 27, 1992 OM dies, age 83.

The Music of Messiaen

• Influences• Debussy (whole-tone scale, OM mode 1)• Stravinsky (rhythm, color)

• Compositional Characterics• Color

• Heart of OM music. • Synesthesia• Notated colors in the score- not for the audience, but

for the conductor to aid in interpretation

The Music of Messiaen

• Compositional Characteristics (cont.)• Non-retrogradable rhythms (palindromic rhythms)

• Added value• Lengthening of individual notes or adding notes in the

music- no time signature/ barlines

The Music of Messiaen

• Birdsong• Collected birdsongs from all over the world• Transcribed into his music (first used- song of the

blackbird in a flute audition piece for the Paris Coservatoire)

• Modes• 7 modes used by OM• Uses these modes to avoid traditional harmonic

progressions

Messian’s Musical ModesWhole tone scale. 2 transpositions.

Four symmetrical overlapping groups

of three notes, each group

containing a half step followed by a

whole step. Outlines a Dim. 7 chord.

Three transpositions. OM FAV.4 groups. W-H-H.4 transpositions

2 symmetrical groups6 transpositions

Modes 5-7 grouped together by

Messiaen. Not used often because of

limitations.

Des Canyons Aux Etoiles

• “From the Canyons to the Stars”• Multi-movement symphony• Written on a 1971 commission by the

American Alice Tully for a work to celebrate the bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence.

• First performed in 1974

Bryce Canyon