#Messaien

[paul-archibald]

Music for Organ

Although it is one of the most complex of all musical instruments, the organ has the longest history and the largest and oldest repertoire of any instrument in Western music. From the earliest organs, first appearing in the 3rd century BC, through to the its most popular period during the Baroque era and its most important composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), the organ witnessed…

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: Fête des belles eaux: I. Premières fusées (First rockets) by Olivier Messiaen

[baeddel]

thoughts i've had while reading the Foucault biography by David Macey:

(1) Foucault was a bourgeois and his entry into the elite higher educational institutions involved a number of processes that were designed very specifically to select for the children of bourgeois, in a way that reminds me a lot of the recent post by gothhabiba (click). one example which particular concerns philosophy is that entering the highly competiitve ENS would require knowledge of philosophy (Kant etc.), which was only taught to highschool students at the fee-charging lycees. further, philosophy was taught at lycees by ENS graduates, who may also be on the comittee that selects ENS applicants. this—along with a few direct interventions of actual nepotism—is how Foucault got there in the first place, because some (FAMOUS) men (like Jean Hyppolite!) met him as a child and decided he was 'very intelligent'. the same story repeats when Foucault gets his first few academic posts, with recognizable names balancing the scales for him. this does not seem to be something special but rather how all applications were judged and posts filled. there is a more subtle example for which analysis would be possible, but the book doesn't offer enough information, which is in the explicit discussion about how the topics for the oral agregation (necessary for graduation) should be selected. Macey concludes the section by saying that "[t]he 1951 agrégation [when Foucault graduated] had been a ‘Malthusian’ process of elimination: fourteen candidates were successful, and five of them were normaliens [ENS students]."

(2) throughout his youth into his late 20s (ie. the part i've read so far), Foucault seems to only ever—with the exception of patients and prisoners he met at the clinic when he worked there—interact with other members of the French elite. even in the communist party he attends a special ENS chapter and so forth. this may simply be because only famous men leave information to posterity, so we know less about Foucault's non-elite associations, or even that Macey just has nothing to say about those relationships, but it is quite striking. the same is not true of Deleuze per François Dosse's dual biography of Deleuze & Guattari (i mean anyway we talk about him in the same breath as Guattari who was not part of this system at all).

(3) he loved serialist music and had a live-in romantic relationship with a serialist composer named Jean Barraqué who was taught by Oliver Messaien. isn't that cool? they would go drinking between classes, just like we did when we studied serialism... haah...

(4) the biography skips around in time quite a bit; when Foucault first meets someone who will become important to his life we get a sort of summary of their whole relationship in rapid diegesis which will reoccur in a slower, although still diegetic, pace later in the book. this reminds me a lot of the way the Norse Sagas are written; in his excellent introduction to the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, Jesse Byock remarks that the author makes clear that he is compiling fragmentary sources by "telling the audience when one sub-tale ends and another begins: ‘Here ends the tale of Frodi and now begins the story of Hroar and Helgi, the sons of Halfdan.’" the biography of course also does this by explicitly mentioning, either in the text or in a footnote, which sources (books, interviews, letters, personal correspondences) the story is compiled from. when i thought about the Sagas i had thought of it as producing a very strange literary effect, almost like a Brechtian distancing effect, freely dispensing of suspense to remind the reader of the structural components of the narrative, and i have written some stories which try to perform this idea. however, now i realize that we still do this quite often, only in that peculiar form of literature called the biography, where it appears quite natural and doesn't surprise the reader. i think one explanation for the strangeness in the Sagas is that the Sagas are primarily in mimesis, and the sudden episodes of diegesis during which the story and the plot become momentarily disimbricated are surprising to a modern reader.

(5) Foucault suffers a bitter quarrel with another gay man named Jean-Paul Aron he was previously friends with which they would never rapproach. the reason for this quarrel is, according to Macey, because "one of Aron’s young lovers fled and took refuge with Foucault." Macey discusses this entirely in terms of "sexual jealousy" and "envy"—i suppose Macey is heterosexual because oh my god. doesn't that sound like such a familliar story to us... the guy had to run away from his partner and go and live with someone else over it... and it caused scene drama for the rest of their lives... what was going on there?

(6) in discussing the homophobia of the official French Communist Party to which Foucault belonged until 1953 (which was explicitly homophobic) the principal example which Macey chooses is a case where they expelled a highschool teacher for propositioning a pupil. for Macey this seems to only have the dimension of homosexuality, and neither the power dynamics of teacher and pupil nor the fact that the pupil was presumably a child are mentioned at all. this biography was written in 1993. it made me think immediately of a number of other instances of an adult man having or attempting a sexual interaction with an underaged boy, being penalized or imprisoned in some way, and the response of, essentially, the legitimate gay movement was to call it homophobic. i don't remember his name, but there was one composer, i think an American, in the 40s or 50s, who was imprisoned for sleeping with a 17 year old boy, and people came to his defense and considered the prosecution homophobic; similarly this highly sympathetic article (click) on the GLBT Encyclopedia Project about NAMBLA (who's periodical Delany used to read and recommend, something which he gets and still responds to emails about today), which opens with mention of "a successful effort on the part of gay activists to thwart a move by then-Boston District Attorney Garret Byrne to ferret out patrons of teenage male prostitutes via an anonymous telephone tip line", paints a picture where NAMBLA were relatively mainstream until the mid-80s. while i suspect this article of being at least a little apologetic it does also talk about gay organizing around changing age of consent laws & a line on how unequal enforcement of the age of consent was a tool to enforce homophobia, listing some impressive names who engaged in this kind of activism like Kate Millet and Gayle Rubin. and we also have, very infamously, Foucault's own advocacy on precisely the same thing, around the time of the petition, signed by Foucault and virtually every other French radical intellectual, to abolish the age of consent.

what do you think? from here doesn't it all look like a catastrophic blunder, something we're ashamed to remember and frightened to talk about? even when we're coming from an anti-carcereal, reparative, critical kind of perspective, something about the kind of narratives, defenses and advocacy from back then on such issues leaves us feeling alienated. i tend to think of it like this: that there was a historical situation where 1. all forms of homosexuality were illegal, 2. homosexuality was primarily understood in society, by both the right and left, as a kind of pedophilia, and 3. the concept of the age of consent was being redefined, socially and legally, at that time. this third point is specifically what Foucault was discussing in that interview, but i was interested to see the same point come up in a Defunctland video (click)(!), because—get this—one of the songs performed by Disney's in-house rock band Halyx was called 'Jailbait', and he asks the writer about it. on relistening to the song she immediately laughs in embarassment and says "please! what was i thinking back then!" and she has to basically do her own kind of historical-juridicial-philological analysis to attempt an explanation (timestamp), saying that they had "just done this thing saying that if you're over 18..." and so forth. her song by that title was performed by a female singer, and watching the performance i got the feeling that the intention was sort of twofold; in the first case, to exploit the imaginary erotic power of forbidden love ("i want you, baby / but you're jailbait"), and, in the context of a live performance, make the teenage boys in the audience feel wanted. i am not sure if the same effect is intended in Motorhead's song by that title ("i don't even dare to ask your age"). by the 90s you didn't get songs like this anymore; Boogie Down Productions' '13 and Good' is both condemnatory and paranoid and explicitly names it "statutory rape."

this isn't really a good thread of argument; i am not comparing like evidence. and i'd like to investigate contrary examples from that period—the documentary on NAMBLA Chickenhawk for example shows lesbian groups attacking NAMBLA members at demonstrations, and Andrea Dworkin was famously critical of NAMBLA—but i am anyway kind of interpreting Macey's framing as a 'pagan survival' of an older approach to these issues when they arose in a very different polemical context.

[n4682]

loved your raut recs especially the violin concerto tysm :)))

general romantic / impressionist / modernist recs?

hey so sorry for responding late but i saw this and just kinda went a bit feral, so im sorry.

Alberto Ginastera

Piano Sonata No. 1 (Terence Judd [pfte.])

Piano Sonata No. 2 (Fernando Viani [pfte.])

Piano Concerto No. 1 (Sergio Tiempo [pfte.], Gustavo Dudamel [cond.] w/ Los Angeles Philharmonic)

Guitar Sonata (Aniello Desiderio [gtr.])

Harp Concerto (Nancy Allen [hrp.], Enrique Bátiz [cond.] w/ Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México)

Alfred Schnittke

Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Gidon Kremer [vln.], Tatiana Grindenko [vln.], Heinrich Schiff [cond.] w/ Chamber Orchestra of Europe)

Concerto Grosso No. 2 (Oleg Kagan [vln.], Natalia Gutman [vcl.], Gennady Rozhdestvensky [cond.] w/ USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra)

Cello Concerto No. 1 (Natalia Gutman [vcl.], Gennady Rozhdestvensky [cond.] w/ USSR Ministry of Culture Symphony Orchestra)

String Quartet No. 3 (Kronos Quartet)

Dmitri Shostakovich

Symphony No. 1 (there was a great recording but when i went to check the recording on yt it wasnt there and it sucks cause it was great)

Symphony No. 5 (Evgeny Mravinsky [cond.] w/ Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra)

Symphony No. 7 (Yevgeny Svetlanov [cond.] w/ USSR State Symphony Orchestra)

Symphony No. 9 (Rudolf Barshai [cond.] w/ WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne)

Symphony No. 15 (this one too dissapeared)

String Quartet No. 9 (Fitzwilliam Quartet)

Violin Concerto No. 1 (David Oistrakh [vln.], Dmitri Mitropoulos [cond.] w/New York Philharmonic)

Maurice Ravel

Violin Sonata No. 2 (Viktoria Mullova [vln.], Bruno Canino [pfte.])

Sonata for Violin and Cello (Jean-Jacques Kantorow [vln.], Philippe Muller [vcl.]

Introduction and Allegro, for Harp, Flute, Clarinet, and String Quartet (Skaila Kanga [hrp.], Academy of St. Martin in the fields)

Alborada del Gracioso (Fritz Reiner [cond.] w/Chicago Symphony Orchestra)

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Samson François [pfte.], André Cluytens [cond.] w/Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire)

Piano Concerto in G (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli [pfte.], Ettore Gracis [cond.] w/Philharmonia Orchestra)

La Valse (solo piano version) (Seong Jin-Cho [pfte.])

Valses Nobles et Sentimentales (Louis Lortie [pfte.])

Franz Liszt

honestly too many to list here (hehe, liszt here) but heres just some of the ones (marked with Searle numbers)

S.126i, S.139, S.145, S.173, S.174i, S.177, S.178, S.206, S.216, S.217, S.242 (especially no. 20), S.244/12 + 15 + 19, S.252, S253, S.254, S.388, S.390i, S.392, S.393, S.394, S.400, S.409a, S.412iii, S.413, S.418, S.420 (hehe funny number), S.464 (yes i prefer the arrangements, fight me), S.513a, S.558/4 + 12, S.695c, S.697i (not the Busoni version), S.700

Other Composers

Bela Bartók - Piano Concerto No. 2 (György Cziffra [pfte.], Marco Rossi [cond.] w/Budapest Symphony Orchestra)

Olivier Messaien - Le Banquet Céléste (Gillian Weir [org.])

Samuel Barber - Piano Concerto (John Browning [pfte.], George Szell [cond.] w/Cleveland Orchestra]

Kaikhosru Sorabji - Sequentia Cyclica on Dies Irae (Johnathan Powell [pfte.])

Ferrucio Busoni - Piano Concerto (Marc-André Hamelin [pfte.], YL Male Voice Choir [chor.], Osmo Vänskä [cond.] w/Lahti Symphony Orchestra)

Sergei Rachmaninoff - Sonata No. 2 (Nikolai Lugansky [pfte.])

Marc-André Hamelin - 12 Études in All the Minor Keys (Marc-André Hamelin [pfte.])

Eugène Ysaÿe - Sonata No. 5 for Solo Violin (Hilary Hahn [vln.])

Oren Boneh - Sprout (Lung-Yi Huang [gzhn.] w/ C-Camerata Taipei)

Karol Szymanowski - Violin Concerto No. 1 (Lydia Mordkovitch [vln.], Vassily Sinaisky [cond.] w/ BBC Philharmonic Orchestra)

aaaand i think im going to end the list there because this took WAY too long

[antigonegone]

Vendredi soir, au TCE, j’ai découvert Andreï Korobeinikov, avocat, pianiste et compositeur de jazz, un artiste russe fabuleux. Au programme un choix de fantasiestücke opus 12 de Schumann, la sonate n° 4 de Scriabine, des extraits des 20 regards sur l’enfant Jésus de Messaien, les opus 77, 129 et 111 (la dernière sonate en 2 mouvements) de Beethoven. Et pour clore le concert, 3 Encore, Scriabine et Rachmaninov. Merci Françoise pour cette découverte. Ps : ce pianiste rare joue à la maison de la radio mardi et jeudi, le clavier bien tempéré, chaque session sera retransmise en direct sur FM. Pas d’autre choix que de l’écouter…

[woodfrogs]

im becoming an olivier messaien-head. there arent enough messaien enjoyers on this website

[werewolvesandaccordions]

Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of conservative Catholics or other Christians who find the flamboyancy of some composer’s self expression to be offensive and unsuitable etc. So what interests me so much about Messiaen is how his intense and serious traditional Catholic devotion both inspired and justified a stark unique peronsal Modernist style that takes a lot after sources other than the European classical tradition. That’s why this early organ masterpiece has Christmas music unlike any Victorian carol harmonies you’ve heard before. The suite is in his early style with post-Debussy harmonies, but it includes a lot of devices and ideas that he would use to a greater and greater extent until they become the basis of all his compositional thought. This work is about different aspects of the Nativity scene, and its nine movements correspond with nine months of pregnancy (and nine is a special number for Christianity, 3 x 3, a numerical allusion to the Trinity). And typical of Messiaen, his subjects go beyond immediate images and assumptions (for example, we don’t have a musical depiction of the animals or the star, nor is this like a programatic retelling of the whole story from pregnancy to manger etc.). “The Virgin and Child” is soft and contemplative, and is a representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The middle section is more active and is supposed to be her joy in being a mother, and in the birth of the Savior. “The Shepherds” opens with the expected pastorale mood, the softness of their gaze on the newborn, before they head back into their fields and play joyful music on their flutes. The flutes mix with birdsong and I would assume represent man and nature rejoicing. “Eternal Designs” (or Purposes) evokes the idea of the fulfillment of God’s plan for humankind, and is a slow meditation on eternity and the Mystery of life. “The Word” refers to Jesus as being the Incarnate “Word” (Logos) of creation, the order of nature, and here Messaien uses Indian rhythms (turangalila [which will be the title of a later masterpiece] and sarasa) to create a flourish of notes and a descending bassline significing the awesome power of God descending down to “our” plane of existance. “The Children of God” is in two parts, the first is like a toccata rushing in full of excitement, while the second is another meditation. Being right in the middle of the work, it solidifies the main thematic concept of juxtaposign exctatic joy and serene contemplation. “The Angels” acts as another toccata, using rapid notes to signify the shimmering and ethereal angels, which ultimately evaporates back into the aether with a final trill. Now, the title “Jesus Accepts His Suffering” may seem out of place in a Christmas themed work, but I’m guessing that Messiaen wanted to emphasize the “eternal” aspect of it all, and the “eternal purpose” of God becoming man, to die and defeat death. It is the darkest and most somber of the set. But the tone shifts more peaceful with “The Magi”, an impressionistic painting of the ‘Three Kings’ / “Magi” on their camels, following the star as the Zoroastrian prophecy foretold. It is another study in harmonic color. “God Among Us” had been described by one reddit user as borderline “prog-rock” in its modulations and sheer power. It’s a summarization of the full suite, and complete with an insane toccata falling into a delicious coda that exploits the most radiant and glorious sounds the organ can produce. Movements: La Vierge et l’Enfant Les Bergers Desseins éternels Le Verbe, Les Enfants de Dieu Les Anges Jésus accepte la Souffrance Les Mages Dieu parmi nous

mikrokosmos: Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of…

[tinas-art]

Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of conservative Catholics or other Christians who find the flamboyancy of some composer’s self expression to be offensive and unsuitable etc. So what interests me so much about Messiaen is how his intense and serious traditional Catholic devotion both inspired and justified a stark unique peronsal Modernist style that takes a lot after sources other than the European classical tradition. That’s why this early organ masterpiece has Christmas music unlike any Victorian carol harmonies you’ve heard before. The suite is in his early style with post-Debussy harmonies, but it includes a lot of devices and ideas that he would use to a greater and greater extent until they become the basis of all his compositional thought. This work is about different aspects of the Nativity scene, and its nine movements correspond with nine months of pregnancy (and nine is a special number for Christianity, 3 x 3, a numerical allusion to the Trinity). And typical of Messiaen, his subjects go beyond immediate images and assumptions (for example, we don’t have a musical depiction of the animals or the star, nor is this like a programatic retelling of the whole story from pregnancy to manger etc.). “The Virgin and Child” is soft and contemplative, and is a representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The middle section is more active and is supposed to be her joy in being a mother, and in the birth of the Savior. “The Shepherds” opens with the expected pastorale mood, the softness of their gaze on the newborn, before they head back into their fields and play joyful music on their flutes. The flutes mix with birdsong and I would assume represent man and nature rejoicing. “Eternal Designs” (or Purposes) evokes the idea of the fulfillment of God’s plan for humankind, and is a slow meditation on eternity and the Mystery of life. “The Word” refers to Jesus as being the Incarnate “Word” (Logos) of creation, the order of nature, and here Messaien uses Indian rhythms (turangalila [which will be the title of a later masterpiece] and sarasa) to create a flourish of notes and a descending bassline significing the awesome power of God descending down to “our” plane of existance. “The Children of God” is in two parts, the first is like a toccata rushing in full of excitement, while the second is another meditation. Being right in the middle of the work, it solidifies the main thematic concept of juxtaposign exctatic joy and serene contemplation. “The Angels” acts as another toccata, using rapid notes to signify the shimmering and ethereal angels, which ultimately evaporates back into the aether with a final trill. Now, the title “Jesus Accepts His Suffering” may seem out of place in a Christmas themed work, but I’m guessing that Messiaen wanted to emphasize the “eternal” aspect of it all, and the “eternal purpose” of God becoming man, to die and defeat death. It is the darkest and most somber of the set. But the tone shifts more peaceful with “The Magi”, an impressionistic painting of the ‘Three Kings’ / “Magi” on their camels, following the star as the Zoroastrian prophecy foretold. It is another study in harmonic color. “God Among Us” had been described by one reddit user as borderline “prog-rock” in its modulations and sheer power. It’s a summarization of the full suite, and complete with an insane toccata falling into a delicious coda that exploits the most radiant and glorious sounds the organ can produce. Movements: La Vierge et l’Enfant Les Bergers Desseins éternels Le Verbe, Les Enfants de Dieu Les Anges Jésus accepte la Souffrance Les Mages Dieu parmi nous

mikrokosmos: Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of…

[dariaandjanelanefanboy]

Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of conservative Catholics or other Christians who find the flamboyancy of some composer’s self expression to be offensive and unsuitable etc. So what interests me so much about Messiaen is how his intense and serious traditional Catholic devotion both inspired and justified a stark unique peronsal Modernist style that takes a lot after sources other than the European classical tradition. That’s why this early organ masterpiece has Christmas music unlike any Victorian carol harmonies you’ve heard before. The suite is in his early style with post-Debussy harmonies, but it includes a lot of devices and ideas that he would use to a greater and greater extent until they become the basis of all his compositional thought. This work is about different aspects of the Nativity scene, and its nine movements correspond with nine months of pregnancy (and nine is a special number for Christianity, 3 x 3, a numerical allusion to the Trinity). And typical of Messiaen, his subjects go beyond immediate images and assumptions (for example, we don’t have a musical depiction of the animals or the star, nor is this like a programatic retelling of the whole story from pregnancy to manger etc.). “The Virgin and Child” is soft and contemplative, and is a representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The middle section is more active and is supposed to be her joy in being a mother, and in the birth of the Savior. “The Shepherds” opens with the expected pastorale mood, the softness of their gaze on the newborn, before they head back into their fields and play joyful music on their flutes. The flutes mix with birdsong and I would assume represent man and nature rejoicing. “Eternal Designs” (or Purposes) evokes the idea of the fulfillment of God’s plan for humankind, and is a slow meditation on eternity and the Mystery of life. “The Word” refers to Jesus as being the Incarnate “Word” (Logos) of creation, the order of nature, and here Messaien uses Indian rhythms (turangalila [which will be the title of a later masterpiece] and sarasa) to create a flourish of notes and a descending bassline significing the awesome power of God descending down to “our” plane of existance. “The Children of God” is in two parts, the first is like a toccata rushing in full of excitement, while the second is another meditation. Being right in the middle of the work, it solidifies the main thematic concept of juxtaposign exctatic joy and serene contemplation. “The Angels” acts as another toccata, using rapid notes to signify the shimmering and ethereal angels, which ultimately evaporates back into the aether with a final trill. Now, the title “Jesus Accepts His Suffering” may seem out of place in a Christmas themed work, but I’m guessing that Messiaen wanted to emphasize the “eternal” aspect of it all, and the “eternal purpose” of God becoming man, to die and defeat death. It is the darkest and most somber of the set. But the tone shifts more peaceful with “The Magi”, an impressionistic painting of the ‘Three Kings’ / “Magi” on their camels, following the star as the Zoroastrian prophecy foretold. It is another study in harmonic color. “God Among Us” had been described by one reddit user as borderline “prog-rock” in its modulations and sheer power. It’s a summarization of the full suite, and complete with an insane toccata falling into a delicious coda that exploits the most radiant and glorious sounds the organ can produce. Movements: La Vierge et l’Enfant Les Bergers Desseins éternels Le Verbe, Les Enfants de Dieu Les Anges Jésus accepte la Souffrance Les Mages Dieu parmi nous

mikrokosmos: Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of…

[hushilda]

Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of conservative Catholics or other Christians who find the flamboyancy of some composer’s self expression to be offensive and unsuitable etc. So what interests me so much about Messiaen is how his intense and serious traditional Catholic devotion both inspired and justified a stark unique peronsal Modernist style that takes a lot after sources other than the European classical tradition. That’s why this early organ masterpiece has Christmas music unlike any Victorian carol harmonies you’ve heard before. The suite is in his early style with post-Debussy harmonies, but it includes a lot of devices and ideas that he would use to a greater and greater extent until they become the basis of all his compositional thought. This work is about different aspects of the Nativity scene, and its nine movements correspond with nine months of pregnancy (and nine is a special number for Christianity, 3 x 3, a numerical allusion to the Trinity). And typical of Messiaen, his subjects go beyond immediate images and assumptions (for example, we don’t have a musical depiction of the animals or the star, nor is this like a programatic retelling of the whole story from pregnancy to manger etc.). “The Virgin and Child” is soft and contemplative, and is a representation of Mary and the infant Jesus. The middle section is more active and is supposed to be her joy in being a mother, and in the birth of the Savior. “The Shepherds” opens with the expected pastorale mood, the softness of their gaze on the newborn, before they head back into their fields and play joyful music on their flutes. The flutes mix with birdsong and I would assume represent man and nature rejoicing. “Eternal Designs” (or Purposes) evokes the idea of the fulfillment of God’s plan for humankind, and is a slow meditation on eternity and the Mystery of life. “The Word” refers to Jesus as being the Incarnate “Word” (Logos) of creation, the order of nature, and here Messaien uses Indian rhythms (turangalila [which will be the title of a later masterpiece] and sarasa) to create a flourish of notes and a descending bassline significing the awesome power of God descending down to “our” plane of existance. “The Children of God” is in two parts, the first is like a toccata rushing in full of excitement, while the second is another meditation. Being right in the middle of the work, it solidifies the main thematic concept of juxtaposign exctatic joy and serene contemplation. “The Angels” acts as another toccata, using rapid notes to signify the shimmering and ethereal angels, which ultimately evaporates back into the aether with a final trill. Now, the title “Jesus Accepts His Suffering” may seem out of place in a Christmas themed work, but I’m guessing that Messiaen wanted to emphasize the “eternal” aspect of it all, and the “eternal purpose” of God becoming man, to die and defeat death. It is the darkest and most somber of the set. But the tone shifts more peaceful with “The Magi”, an impressionistic painting of the ‘Three Kings’ / “Magi” on their camels, following the star as the Zoroastrian prophecy foretold. It is another study in harmonic color. “God Among Us” had been described by one reddit user as borderline “prog-rock” in its modulations and sheer power. It’s a summarization of the full suite, and complete with an insane toccata falling into a delicious coda that exploits the most radiant and glorious sounds the organ can produce. Movements: La Vierge et l’Enfant Les Bergers Desseins éternels Le Verbe, Les Enfants de Dieu Les Anges Jésus accepte la Souffrance Les Mages Dieu parmi nous

mikrokosmos: Messiaen – La Nativité du Seigneur (1935) If you came across a religious work by a very devout composer, you may expect the music to be generally conservative, ‘safe’, and maybe even ‘dull’ in the desire to adhere to a respect for sacred music tradition. I’m kind of thinking about the typical response of…

[deborahdeshoftim5779]

TwoSetViolin demonstrate the evolution of French music. Excellent work here-- one must remember they are both professional concert violinists. It rather annoys me that Wikipedia list them as “Youtubers”. They both have degrees and have played in Australian orchestra’s. 

[jgthirlwell]

09.29.18 The astonishingly talented Pamelia Stickney (pka Pamelia Kurstin) completed her residency at The Stone with arrangements of compositions by Messaien, Bach, Boulanger, Stravinsky and herself and others performed by Pamelia on theremin (and piano on one piece), Stuart Popejoy on piano, Danny Tunick on mallets and Sarah Bernstein on violin.

[n4682]

im gonna be honest the closest thing to a cryptid in music form that exists is the pipe organ

it's actually mindbogglingly complex

for starters, the actual thing usually has three keyboards or "manuals" and a pedalboard. however, some organs have up to four or even five manuals.

then there are the different registrations. because of course they can produce a lot of different tones.

i watched an introductory video on how to register an organ and it was 90 minutes long. there is that much to it.

and its also a logistical nightmare to play because theres a lot more coordination involved than most other instruments.

go listen to Olivier Messaien's Le Banquet Céleste to see what i mean, its a very unique showcase of what i mean

anyways did you know that i really want to play a pipe organ?

[kerloaz]

[un-nmd]

Recent listening—

Olivier Messaien, Vingt regards sur l'enfant-Jésus (1944) Robert/Clara, Barenboim/du Pré, Chopin/Sand, the Mahlers, and hey, Britten/Pears, why not?—likewise Messaien/Loriod as muse and musette, angel and prophet, these pairwise “definitions” blurred and shifting, each half-erased into the other’s substance, indistinguishable. This was, is, Turangalîla recrystallised, shorn of all orchestral pomp and vaguery so as to clarify its mystic figures, e.g. compare the Symphonie’s Joie du Sang des Étoiles with the tenth contemplation, de l'Esprit de joie, and its “air de chasse”—and hear the same ecstasy pierced through both. And compositionally Turangalîla and the Vingt regards both involve the exploration, throughout the work’s length, of a set of themes, and but so consider the latter’s Thème de Dieu as a consonant sibling of the former’s statue theme—though one is no doubt more menacing, both are equally monumental.

Alban Berg, Piano Sonata (1910) No wonder Gershwin did balk before Berg for even in the Op. 1 we find those distant kin of the dominant seventh that came to characterise le Jazz hot and the 30s showtunes that were to follow: ninths straight, flat, sharp, raised elevenths, etc. (tritones abundant) and but plus the obligatory Second Viennese complexity. And then formwise you could reveal without too much effort a sonata-allegro proper with first and second subject, though over a harmony that does to Tristan what Tristan did to cadential resolution—where Wagner defied catechism by witholding arrival until Isolde’s Liebestod, three hours after the Tristan chord was posed, Berg here, with a chord of his own (C#-G-B-F#, see measure 1.1), defies Wagnerian extenuation and crafts not temporal distance but extreme harmonic distance, a drawing far, far out, even beyond harmony itself, before returning and resolving C#-G-B-F# to a B-minor in mock excuse for the otherwise utterly useless key signature, comical against the forest of accidentals and deviant spellings of basic triads—a parody that was to foreshadow Boulez’s attempt to “destroy the first-movement sonata form” (given the nature of the Deuxième sonate, the violence of phrase here is apt, if not still wanting).

Richard Strauss, Ein Heldenleben (1898) Horn players owe much to, for one, Joseph Leutgeb, for whom Mozart wrote his four seminal horn concertos, and for another, whomsoever it was that coaxed the young Brahms into learning the natural horn—and for a third take Franz Strauss, perhaps fourth in the hierarchy of musically renowned Strausses, but yet father to (I would argue) the first, and also a horn player, this being one of the reasons the son Richard wrote so favourably for the instrument in compositions not just limited to the two concertos, for particularly in the tone-poems there unfolds line after line of sublime horn figures both in tutti and in solo, and Ein Heldenleben is no exception, e.g. the opening motif tracing E-flat major up two octaves and a third (precisely the range and tonality of the opening to Das Rheingold—shuddering drone in the primeval depths, Wagner’s very own Creation) before leaping a resplendent fifth (you could, perhaps should, play it on one harmonic, you know, let loose the F-side’s brazen upper register)—how many do you need; what numbers will suffice for this chilling tutti? As many as Don Juan? Or six horns? Eight?

Alexander Scriabin, Prométhée / Le poème du feu (1910) Was the (comparatively) tamer Poème de l'extase merely a flexing of the mystic vice that was yet metastasising headwards, the madness advacing synapse by synapse over the Russian’s mind? From those glittering motifs to these sinuous trails so wicked, indulgent, languishing, daemonic; a thoroughly Romantic treatment of dissonance left unresolved and begging for a full 20 or so minutes, to close on an F#-major sonority, this sole consonance robbed by all preceding of any harmonic meaning; a resolution that should have carried all the gratification of a V-I but which context-less, key-less, was only more sound, brighter-timbred, yes, but still only noise—and this was Scriabin’s atonality (kin with Debussy, Bartók).

Igor Stravinsky, Agon (1957) Well it hardly sounds like “art music” in the Teutonic sense but of course Stravinsky had long since outgrown the lineage that drew from Sebastian Bach to Ludwig van to Wagner to early Schoenberg to (and this perhaps the greatest leap) Schoenberg proper. No, the Russian cosmopolitan’s aesthetic was to keep aloof, study from without, gaze from distant vantages (both cultural and physical), e.g. from Paris examining his homeland folk, from California examining Europe itself. It was cubism in music, though there was yet one perspective he had still to include in his palette, and not until dodecaphony had become history (”SCHOENBERG IS DEAD”) did the chameleon enter his third, and final phase.