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From: edhall@randvax.UUCP (Ed Hall)
Newsgroups: net.music.classical
Subject: Re: Inspirational
Message-ID: <2431@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 20-Apr-85 16:58:17 EST
Article-I.D.: randvax.2431
Posted: Sat Apr 20 16:58:17 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 24-Apr-85 07:37:07 EST
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I have to agree with Linda Seltzer about Olivier Messiaen--and I'm
neither Catholic nor particularly Christian.  His music *is* inspiring
and refreshing!  I especially recommend ``Visions De L'Amen'', since it
is both very accessable and presents a mature development of many of the
highly original musical techniques Messiaen developed prior to WW-II:
chromatic modes, non-reversable rhythms, birdsong, bell sounds, theme
melodies, and so forth.  Far from making him stuffy and musically
conservative, Messiaen's Catholicism seems to have freed him to use
whatever means of expression his imagination invented.

Some of his later works can be unaccessable for most people; he was
probably the first composer to use serial methods for all aspects
of a piece (i.e. duration, loudness, and timbre as well as pitch),
and even his non-serial works can get thick-textured.  However, like
many modern composers, after the 1950's his style began to ``open up''
again.  Along with ``Et Expectato Resurrectionem Mortuorem'', I also
recommend ``La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ'',
a large-scale work for chorus and orchestra.

WARNING: Messiaen is not for everyone.  Igor Stravinsky said that
Messiaen's music belonged on ``the slag heap of art'', while Elliott
Carter said that he was ``vastly overrated, boring, and vulgar.''
His music can sound incredibly naive, like a C-major chord amongst
chromatic dissonance.  It takes an open mind, the ability to suppress
musical preconceptions.  ``Sophisticates'' beware!

		-Ed Hall
		randvax!decvax