Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences

Christopher Dingle is Reader in Music at Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He is the author of Messiaen’s Final Works (2013), the acclaimed biography, The Life of Messiaen (2007), and co-editor of Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art & Literature (2007). He is also editor of The Cambridge History of Music Criticism (forthcoming). Robert Fallon is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. He writes on contemporary classical music and relationships between music and nature, with a special focus on the work and thought of Olivier Messiaen.

• Introduction; I: Sources; Perspectives on Sources; 1: Olivier Messiaen and the Prix de Rome as Rite of Passage; 2: Olivier Messiaen and Portique pour une fille de France; 3: Formal Genesis in the Sketches for Visions de l'Amen 1; 4: From Music for the Radio to a Piano Cycle: Sources for the Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus; 5: My Collaboration with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod on Harawi; 6: Olivier Messiaen's Timbres-durées; 7: From Réveil des oiseaux to Catalogue d'oiseaux: Messiaen's Cahiers de notations des chants d'oiseaux, 1952–59; 8: In the Beginning Was The Word? An Exploration of the Origins of Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité; I: Intermède; 9: Yvonne Loriod as Source and Influence; II: Influences; Perspectives on Influences; 10: Messiaen and Mozart: A Love without Influence?; 11: Messiaen and the Romantic Gesture: Contemplations on his Piano Music and Pianism; 12: Messiaen and the Problem of Communication; 13: Messiaen and Art Sacré; 14: Messiaen, the Cinq Rechants and ‘Spiritual Violence'; 15: Messiaen in Retrospect

'Both Dingle (Birmingham Conservatoire, UK) and Fallon (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) are lifelong devotees of Messiaen, having researched him extensively and published on his life and work. This is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and invaluable source of information for anyone interested in the composer. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals.' Choice 'These twenty-nine essays, over two volumes, make a valuable contribution to our understanding of Messiaen the composer. From mechanized composition to music inspired by mountains and bird songs, from questions of influence in Canada, Italy, and Spain to aesthetic convergence with the likes of Ohana, Xenakis, and the spectralists, the authors explore new terrain that compels us to rethink Messiaen’s musical legacy.’ Jann Pasler, University of California, USA ’An erudite and fascinating collection of essays which offer bold new perspectives on one of the towering, and enigmatic, figures of European musical modernism.’ Mark Carroll, University of Adelaide, Australia ’This pair of volumes ... raises the level of insightful scholarship to new heights. The editors and publishers must be congratulated on the production of these handsome volumes, replete with extensive musical illustrations of high quality, surely a compliment to the perfectionist philosophy of their extraordinary subject’. The Musical Times ’Dingle and Fallon have done a masterful job in compiling and editing twenty-nine chapters that present interesting new views on Messiaen’s music and its sociocultural contexts.’ Music Theory Spectr