Messiaen's Final Works

Christopher Dingle

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351558426
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Música

When Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) completed the vast opera Saint Frans dAssise in 1983, he was mentally and physically exhausted, and believed that this monumental work would be his final compositional statement. In fact, he completed seven further works, and these form the focus of the present study. Christopher Dingle suggests that, following the crisis provoked by the opera, Messiaen's music underwent a discernible change in style. He examines these seven works to identify characteristics of the composer's music, in particular an often overlooked aspect of his technique: harmony. Part I of the book begins with a brief historical survey before discussing Saint Frans dAssise as the work which defines everything that follows. Part II examines the series of miniatures that came after the opera and their links with lairs sur lAu-Del., his final masterpiece. lairs forms the subject of Part III of the book. Each movement is analysed in turn, before the work is considered as a whole and its hidden structure and motivic cohesion is revealed. Finally, Part IV considers the incomplete Concert and key stylistic features of the works of Messiaens final years.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Music Examples
• Music Examples Acknowledgement
• Notes on the Text
• Acknowledgements
• PART I FINAL WORKS
• PART II THE MINIATURES
• PART III ÉCLAIRS SUR L’AU-DELÀ…
• PART IV FINAL THOUGHTS?
• Appendix 1: Instrumentation of Messiaen’s Final Works
• Appendix 2: Transcriptions of Text from Cahiers
• Appendix 3: Birds Featured in Messiaen’s Post-Saint François Works
• Select Bibliography
• Discography
• Index