French Composer Olivier Messiaen Turns 100
Another Centennial Birthday for Modern Classical Music
Dec 20, 2008
You know that we are moving into another era when "modern" composers start celebrating their 100th birthdays. The year 2008 marked the 100th birthday of two groundbreaking, 20th-century composers, both looming large in the landscape of modern music.
Elliot Carter: A 100-Year-Old American Composer
Perhaps because he was alive to attend many of the events, Elliot Carter has stolen the spotlight, headlining many of the music festivals this year. He was celebrated worldwide at events such as the BBC Proms and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music.
He also commemorated his centennial birthday at Carnegie Hall with a performance of a piece of music he composed last year, demonstrating that age doesn't necessarily slow down creativity.
Olivier Messiaen: Composer of Quartet for the End of Time
Yet along with Elliot Carter, another composer also celebrates the 100-year mark. Just 16 years shy of being able to attend the festivities (he died in 1992), Oliver Messiaen should also be remembered, even if he can't show up at events to wave at the audience.
During World War II, the Frenchman Messiaen survived the German occupation of his country, but the experience, along with his Roman Catholic faith, had a lasting effect on his art: Quartet for the End of Time, his most famous work, was composed in a German internment camp in 1941 and describes the apocalypse.
In that piece and most of Messiaen's music, mysticism shrouds the modernism. His combination of complex mathematical rhythms, synesthesia and unresolved harmonies produced a music that appeals to both the rigorous and dreamy alike.
Musical Language: Greek Meter, Hindu Rhythms, Synaesthesia, Unresolved Harmonies
This unusual ability to appeal to multiple tastes is probably the reason why Messiaen, though overshadowed by Carter in this year of birthday festivities, still stands as a wider known composer. Messiaen himself drew inspiration from an eclectic source of materials.
He based many of his rhythms on Greek patterns of meter and Hindu rhythms, both of which lack the more Western concept of pulse. As a result, his music seems to creep forward rather than resembling a straight-forward walk with recurring, emphasized beats.
Messaien also relied heavily on synaesthesia, a neurological experience in which one sensory stimulus suggests other sensory experiences (i.e., seeing colors when hearing a sound). Like Scriabin, Messiaen believed that certain colors could be associated with particular chords or harmonies.
He thought of chords as fragments in a stained-glass window, to be arranged into a breathtaking picture. Like his rhythms, Messiaen's chords usually did not progress towards a final destination, but simply floated forward, unfolding gradually.
To hear a few samples of Messiaen's music, please visit Last.fm.
Sources
Eichler, Jeremy. "The Other 100th Birthday." December 14, 2008. The Boston Globe.
Wakin, Daniel. "Turning 100 at Carnegie Hall, With New Notes." December 12, 2008. The New York Times.
Olivier Messiaen website, Boston University Project.
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