Messiaen employs a 'communicable language' in this work, a coded musical language where the composer's own explanations provide the key to comprehension.
Performer Biography
Hans-Ola Ericsson, the organist on this recording, is recording the complete organ music of Olivier Messiaen for BIS.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Olivier Messiaen's "Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité" are musical meditations on the Holy Trinity, one of Christianity's most important and difficult ideas to express.
Compositional Technique
Birdsong is a central element in these musical meditations, with Messiaen carefully noting down bird calls since childhood to give life and profile to his music.
Compositional Technique
The number 3 fascinated Messiaen, and many of his works, including these Méditations with nine (3 x 3) movements, feature structures related to this number.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Messiaen believed music could illustrate and express relationships beyond its own confines, contrasting with the radical aesthetic of autonomy that claims music is simply music.
Album & Artwork
The album's cover art features illustrations from Olof Rudbeck's 17th-century bird book, uniting two artists who shared a love for nature and birds.
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