Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. His many distinguished pupils included Iannis Xenakis, George Benjamin, Alexander Goehr, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Myung-whun Chung and Yvonne Loriod. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called modes of limited transposition.
About Olivier Messiaen in brief
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (December 10, 1908 – April 27, 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called modes of limited transposition. He wrote music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, vocal music, as well as for solo organ and piano. His innovative use of colour, his conception of the relationship between time and music, and his use of birdsong are among the features that make his music distinctive. His many distinguished pupils included Iannis Xenakis, George Benjamin, Alexander Goehr, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Myung-whun Chung and Yvonne Loriod, who became his second wife. His style absorbed many global musical influences such as Indonesian gamelan. His music was inspired by diverse influences ranging from Japanese music, the landscape of Bryce Canyon in Utah and the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He also experimented with the use of novel electronic instruments developed in Europe during his lifetime. He died in Grenoble, France, where he had a house built south of the Dauphiné where he composed most of his music. He was the elder of two sons of Cécile Sauvage, a poet, and Pierre Messieen, a teacher of English from a farm near Wervicq-Sud who translated the plays of William Shakespeare into French.
His mother published a sequence of poems, L’âme en bourgeon, the last chapter of Tandis que la terre tourne, which address her unborn son. He later said this sequence of poem influenced him deeply and he cited it as prophetic of his future artistic career. In 1918 his father returned from the war and moved to the family moved to Nantes, Nantes. He continued to compose music until his death in 1992 at the age of 80. He is survived by his wife, Yvette, and their two children, Philippe and Yvette. He had a son, Philippe, with whom he had two daughters, and a son-in-law, Philippe-Paul. He taught himself to play the piano having already taught himself the recent music of Maurice Debussy and Ravel. He said he perceived colours when he heard certain musical chords ; combinations of these colours, he said, were important in his compositional process. He described the thunder and thunder of Nantes as ‘a thunderbolt and thunder and a thunderbolt, which gave me a love of melody.’ He also said that the Norwegian folk song, Mélisande et Mélisandes, was his favourite piece of music, which he described as ‘beautiful and thunderous and thundering’ He died of cancer in Paris in 1992, aged 80, after a long battle with lung cancer. He left behind a wife and two children. His works include:
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