Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner So Messiaen.

Concerning vingt regard sur l'enfant de jesus,

What are they comparable to? In terms of sound?

Henri Dutilleux, maybe...

Dutilleux and Messiaen have similar ways of thinking about structure and symmetrey I think, and would be the closest match, but Dutilleux's music is a lot more..airy and dreamy than Messiaen's on the whole. Messiaen = Messiaen :p

Hmm I see. Well I haven't heard any of either composers music so...

I think if you took Debussy and Boulez (his later music, not the early serialist pieces), Messiaen would fall somewhere in the middle.

I tried listening but it sounds atrocious.

Best Wishes

I can buy that. I have always thought that Dutilleux is like the lovechild of Debussy, Ravel and Bartok..

its an aquired taste. messiaen is my fav composer.

btw there's an excellent performance of the dutilleux sonata on the kennedy center's millenium stage broadcast by a young performer named Kimberly Kong. she won 2nd place in this year's mtna senior high competition.

Messiaen is unique.

And, one of the top 20th-century composers.

I should add that it is very helpful for anyone unfamiliar with Messiaen to read his Technique de mon langage musical (Alphonse Leduc & Co, Paris) to get an understanding of the musical structures involved.

Here is a very interesting web page which uses MIDI examples to illustrate some of the key features of Messiaenic composition: Malcolm Ball\'s page .

It features quite a few examples from 'La Nativité du Seigneur', which I performed several years ago...

What did you listen to?

quartet fo end of time & vingt reg #6.

Must have been the recording you posted.

Is it worth spending money on? Judging from the comparisons you guys make it sounds like it is, but he doesn't sound very tonal judging by the samples I've heard. Atonal's cool occasionally but I was hoping Messiaen would be more tonal. Hmm decisions decisions.

Hey man, like, free your mind!

(no, I'm not smoking what you think) :p

PS:

Ha! You have no idea.... calculate the cost of going to France for classes on Messiaen! The cost for a CD or piece of sheet music doesn't sound so bad.

Messiaen's music is very tonal. Not major-minor tonality though, mind you.

Yeah, the sixth regard is a little difficult to take at first. It makes more sense in the context of the whole cycle. Try listening to #10, you might like it. It's fun to listen to (very jazzy at times).

Give the quartet another listen, especially the fifth and eighth movements. It's one of his more accessible pieces, I promise it will grow on you if you read the program notes and spend some time with it.

Responding to another post in this thread - much of Messiaen's music through 1945 IS tonal, just not in the same way that Chopin or Scraibin is. Often, the basis of his harmony and melody are tritones and the octatonic scale. To oversimplfy, his harmony works something like jazz harmony. If you play very far "out" of a key, you actually end up playing tops of 11th and 13th chords. Take a look at Vinght Regard #15, "La baiser de l'Enfant-Jesus." It defines Messiaen's harmonic style at that time in his life.

Hey man, like, free your mind!

Haha nice.


Well it sounds like I should try it. So I will