Messiaen

Oliver Messiaen (1908 - 1992)

Messiaen's most famous piece for solo piano are the "Jesus Pieces"... The entire collection takes about 2 hours to perform in one sitting. The only two I'm listening to are regards 10 and 15. I begin in reverse. Regard 15, or "Le Baiser de l'Enfant-Jesus" is very slow and chordal. Like pretty much all of Messiaen's music, it is nearly all foreground and little background, and like Debussy, it is centered on production of specific sonorities. This usually runs the longest in the entire set, clocking in at about 12 minutes or so.

The 10th regard, or "Regard de l'Esprite de joie," is very much the complete oposite. This is fast Messiaen, which is very rhythmic, and driving, begining in the bass and working its way around. This is most difficult of the entire set, and comes as a complete shock in the set, being randomly difficult and scary compared to the rest.

The last Messiaen piece I am listening to is the "Mode de caluers et d'intensities." This is a pretty cool piece, for sure. It uses complete serialism, where each pitch is assigned a certain articulation, dynamic, duration, etc, and pitches appear in serial orders. Pretty cool - it's one of the only pieces to use complete serialism.