Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen about 1940 at the console of the Cavaillé-Coll-organ St.Trinité in Paris

Famously noted for having claimed that he saw colors when listening to music, Olivier Messiaen was born very early in the 20th century (1908) and was one of the last in a litter of bastard composers to be caught in the crossfire between a lingering romantic spirit and modernist aesthetics. This extremely vivid perception of musical tones and his fondness for birds and their songs were, doubtless, a great influence on his methodical choice for musical language. This includes his own compiled and defined modes of limited transposition. These existed before but he was the first to compile them and examine their boundaries and relationships exhaustively.
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Tags: 1956, classical music, Messiaen, messiaen plays olivier messiaen, modern, olivier, Olivier Messiaen, organ, organworks

Many different artists have sought to bring instrumentation that is unconventional to the genres they work in, be it metal, the folk music of a certain region, rap or European classical music of a certain period. Oftentimes, these unusual choices in instrumentation are made with the intention of bringing in an element of novelty to the music. In other cases, it has been done because the picture, concept or sound in the artist’s mind can only, to him, be portrayed by making use of an imported medium.
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Tags: 20th century, Debussy, Erik Satie, gimmick, Gnossienne, goatcraft, good taste, Gymnopédies, idiomatic piano, Machaut, Messiaen, minimalism, modernism, mystic, Nocturne, Olivier Messiaen, post-modernism, Sarabande, Satie, spiritual, Steven Osborne, Vingt Regards Sur L'enfant-Jésus

Olivier Messiaen plays Olivier Messiaen (1956)

Good Taste, not Gimmick