Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences

Focusing on Messiaen’s relation to history - both his own and the history he engendered - the Messiaen Perspectives volumes convey the growing understanding of his deep and varied interconnections with his cultural milieux. Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences examines the genesis sources and cultural pressures that shaped Messiaen’s music. Messiaen Perspectives 2: Techniques Influence and Reception analyses Messiaen’s compositional approach and the repercussions of his music. While each book offers a coherent collection in itself together these complementary volumes elucidate how powerfully Messiaen was embedded in his time and place and how his music resonates ever more today. Messiaen Perspectives 1: Sources and Influences presents many new primary sources including discussion of Messiaen’s birdsong cahiers sketch and archival materials for his Prix de Rome entries and war-time Portique along with performance practice insights and theological inspiration in works as diverse as Visions de l’Amen Harawi Timbres-durées and the organ Méditations. The volume places the composer within a broader historical and cultural framework than has previously been attempted ranging from specific influences to more general contexts. As a centrepiece the book includes an examination of the impact of one of the greatest influences upon Messiaen Yvonne Loriod.