Entre plumes et lumières

Featuring

Cassandre Marfin
Olivier Messiaen

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Composer's Artistic Vision

Olivier Messiaen's inspiration stemmed from three recurring themes: Catholic faith, love for nature and bird songs, and the relationship between sound and color.

Compositional Technique

Messiaen used a tape recorder and a musical notebook to transcribe bird songs, often returning to the same location at the same time for several days to capture their nuances.

Composer Biography

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992), a French composer, was a pianist and organist, serving as titular organist at the Église de la Trinité in Paris.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Messiaen claimed to have synesthesia, a condition where senses are intertwined, which influenced his use of precise color nuances in his compositions and teachings.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Messiaen considered himself as much an ornithologist as a composer, stating that the purest music is found in the sounds of nature.

Composer Biography

At 33, Olivier Messiaen became a harmony professor at the Conservatoire de Paris, where his students included Pierre Boulez, Iannis Xenakis, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Lalo Schifrin.