Table of Contents

1. The burgeoning artist: 1908–1931; 2. Le jeune français: 1931–1939; 3. Occupying time: 1939–1945; 4. Songs of love and death: 1945–1948; 5. For now we see through a glass darkly: 1949–1952; 6. A natural retreat: 1951–1959; 7. The statue remains on its pedestal: 1960–1969; 8. A passion for opera: 1970–1983; 9. Tous les oiseaux des étoiles: 1984–1992.

Promotional Information

An accessible study of the life and works of the twentieth-century composer Olivier Messiaen.

About the Author

Christopher Dingle is Assistant Course Director (BMus) at Birmingham Conservatoire. In addition to the acclaimed biography The Life of Messiaen (CUP), he is author of Messiaen's Final Works (Ashgate, forthcoming), and co-editor with Nigel Simeone of Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art & Literature (Ashgate, 2007). He is the organiser of the Messiaen 2008 International Centenary Conference at Birmingham Conservatoire, having conceived and organised the watershed Messiaen 2002 Conference at Sheffield University. His research interests also include the history and function of Music Criticism and Twentieth Century performance practice. He is on the review panel for BBC Music Magazine and contributes regularly to Tempo.

Reviews

'The best parts of this absorbing book are those where Dingle relates the music to Messiaen's religious faith and to the many difficulties he faced during his life ... many of the author's judgments on the music itself have made me want to go back and listen to works I know - or thought I knew.' BBC Music Magazine 'Christopher Dingle is a seasoned Messiaen insider with a good feel for narrative pacing, and for how much speculation can be risked alongside authentic documentary material.' Gramophone '... this neatly assembled and marvellously readable volume in the Cambridge Musical lives series. ... surprises with several new investigative strands and more than satisfies with a cogent and entertaining commentary ... a thoroughly researched, beautifully executed display if lightly-handled scholarship that makes one feel simultaneously admiring of such an all too rare facility and thoroughly envious of it.' Classical Music