Author: Louise Bessette

Release Date: 11-11-2008

Details: Product Description Birds, which he called “his first and greatest teachers” and “our little servants of ethereal joy,” always fascinated Messiaen. Studying with eminent ornithologists, who would become his friends, he learned to identify most of the birds of France by ear. His oeuvre contains over 300 bird songs, including 77 alone in Catalogue d’oiseaux. La Fauvette des jardins, inspired by the countryside where Messiaen spent many a pleasant summer, is a synthesis of his research in this field. Composed in the summer of 1970, this large-scale work—which Messiaen himself considered his best piece for piano—should have formed the centrepiece of a Catalogue d’oiseaux part two, describing both the immutability of the universe and the changeable character of nature. “But, instead of going back to an old fashioned or classical model, I tried to reproduce, in condensed form, the vibrant procession of the hours of the day and night.” Petites esquisses d’oiseaux, from 1985, are six miniature but magnificently honed sketches that are the quintessence of Messiaen’s particular style. “Birds are probably the greatest musicians that exist in the musical hierarchy of our planet.” From the Artist Music is a perpetual dialogue between space and time, between sound and colour, and this dialogue results in a unification: time is a space, sound is a colour, space is a complex of overlapping times, complexes of sound exist simultaneously as complexes of colours. The musician who thinks, sees, hears, and speaks using these fundamental concepts can, to a certain extent, approach the hereafter. (Olivier Messiaen)

UPC: 774204996024

EAN: 0774204996024

Languages: English

Binding: Audio CD

Item Note: from a library collection

Item Condition: UsedVeryGood