Olivier Messiaen

10 dec 1908 (Avignon) - 28 apr 1992 (Clichy)

Books about Olivier Messiaen and his music

Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone Messiaen
Yale University Press, 2005; ISBN 0300109075; 450 pages
The French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–92) is a musician about whom most remains to be discovered. More than a decade after his death our knowledge of Messiaen is largely conditioned by what he said about himself in lectures and interviews, in his work as a teacher, and in the monumental seven-volume treatise that encompassed the whole of his composing world. But Messiaen’s public documents conceal as much as they reveal, seldom explaining why a work was written or what complexities went into its making. The composer was similarly reticent about his private life. This is the first book to explore the world that Messiaen was at pains to keep hidden. Based upon unprecedented access to Messiaen’s private archive granted to the authors by the composer’s widow, Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen, Peter Hill and Nigel Simeone trace the origins of many of Messiaen’s greatest works and place them in the context of his life, from his years at the Paris Conservatoire and his passionate first marriage to Claire Delbos through the immense achievements of his final decades. Price indication: $ 45.00

Anthony Pople and Julian Rushton Messiaen: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
Cambridge University Press, 1998; ISBN 0521585384; 128 pages
This book is about one musical work, the popular Quartet for the End of Time by the great French composer Olivier Messiaen. Like virtually all of his works, the Quartet combines the striking technical achievement of Messiaen's rich and attractive musical style with a deeply felt theological inspiration. Anthony Pople's book provides an introduction to Messiaen's style through an examination of this great work, showing how it came to be composed while Messiaen was a prisoner-of-war and premiered under extraordinary conditions in Stalag VIIIA in 1941. He gives an in-depth assessment of each of its eight movements. Price indication: $ 20.99

Audrey Ekdahl Davidson Olivier Messiaen and the Tristan Myth
Praeger Publishers, 2001; ISBN 0275973409; 160 pages Price indication: $ 93.95

Siglind Bruhn Messiaen's Language of Mystical Love (Studies in Contemporary Music and Culture)
Garland Publishing, 1998; ISBN 0815327471; 288 pages
These new essays written specifically for this volume explore the various aspects of Olivier Messiaen's spiritually committed musical language, drawing on his own remarks in subheadings and prefaces, his biblical and theological citations, his allusions to works of visual art, and on the language spoken directly by the musical tropes themselves. Price indication: $ 95.00

Madeleine Hsu Olivier Messiaen, the Musical Mediator: A Study of the Influence of Liszt, Debussy, and Bartok
Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996; ISBN 0838635954; 183 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 48.00

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