Tag: messiaen

Quartet for the End of Time

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

These two videos (each illustrating one movement from Olivier Messiaen’s A Quartet for the End of Time) are truly remarkable. They feature artist Zack Smithey, and were produced by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for an upcoming concert.

Listening to these pieces in the context of the video was interesting for me as it allowed me to see my own musical growth. I remember listening to the Quartet after reading Alex Ross’ The Rest is Noise, and not being able to follow it musically. This time I had no trouble (due in no small part to the fact that I have just finished an intensive music theory unit on Debussy’s harmony).

Olivier Messiaen

Matthew EilarLeave a comment

Alex Ross has a new post about the centennial of Olivier Messiaen. I had the privelage of seeing pianist Jeff Payne perform Messiaen’s masterpiece, Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus in a (I’m told) rare complete performance.

I found the experience completely disorienting. I found the lack of melody hard to deal with, and reminded me of what a terrible Philistine I am. I also had a huge moment of low self esteem when I was talking over the concert the day after with a friend of mine. He had heard and played many of Messiaen’s organ works, and heard much more harmonically in the piece than I did.

It has become another one of my Moby Dicks… there will be one day when I will hear more than a dense swirling of disjoined chords in that work.