Table of Contents

1. Messiaen in 1942: a working musician in occupied Paris Nigel Simeone; 2. Love, mad love and the Point Sublime: the Surrealist poetics of Messiaen's Harawi Robert Sholl; 3. Messiaen's journey towards asceticism Paul McNulty; 4. Forms of love: Messiaen's aesthetics of Éblouissement Sander van Maas; 5. Messiaen's mysterious birds Allen Forte; 6. Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux: a musical dumbshow? Jeremy Thurlow; 7. The impossible charm of Messiaen's Chronochromie Amy Bauer; 8. Composer as performer, recording as text: towards a 'manner of realisation' for Messiaen's music Andrew Shenton; 9. 'The art of the most intensive contrast': Olivier Messiaen's mosaic form up to its apotheosis in Saint François d'Assise Stefan Keym; 10. Two paths to paradise: reform in Messiaen's Saint François d'Assise Robert Fallon; 11. Messiaen and the twentieth century Arnold Whittall.

Promotional Information

A contributory volume on the work of the influential twentieth-century French composer, Olivier Messiaen.

About the Author

Robert Sholl is Senior Lecturer in Music at Thames Valley University and also lectures at King's College London.