2. Early Biography
December 10, 1908 Olivier Messiaen born. (Avignon, France)
1919/20 OM begins studies at the Paris Conservatoire.
OM receives awards in piano, harmony, organ,
1922-30
composition, music history
September, 1931 OM appointed titular organist of La Trinité.
June 22, 1932 OM and Claire Delbos marry.
OM begins compulsory military service (completed summer
Fall 1933
1934).
October 16, 1936 First American performance of OM's music
France declares war on Germany; OM called up for military
September, 1939
service.
June 15, 1940 OM captured by German forces in the fall of Verdun.
OM moved to a prisoner camp in Silesia, Germany (now
July 1940
Poland). (released in 1941)
August 25, 1944 Paris liberated from German occupation.
Source: http://oliviermessiaen.net/biography/chronology
3. Later Biography
July-August 1949 OM teaches a composition workshop at Tanglewood.
OM studies with ornithologist Jacques Delamain in Gardépée,
1952-58
France.
OM begins intensive birdsong research in the French
countryside using tape recorders and transcriptions.
1952-58
Hereafter, he would travel the world, collecting and
transcribing birdsongs
OM appointed Professor of Composition at the Paris
1966
Conservatoire.
OM elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de
December, 1966
France.
March 11, 1972 OM, YL begin American tour.
OM, YL visit Utah, including Bryce Canyon, Cedar Breaks and
May 1-10
Zion Lodge.
First performance of “Des Canyons Aux Etoiles” (“From the
1974
Canyons to the Stars”)
Celebrations and performances in honor of OM's 70th
1978 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.
4. 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
5. 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
6. 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
8. 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
