About the Book
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 2: Techniques, Influence and Reception explores Messiaen’s imprint on recent musical life. The first part scrutinizes his compositional technique in terms of counterpoint, spectralism and later piano music, while the second charts ways in which Messiaen’s influence is manifest in the music and careers of Ohana, Xenakis, Murail and Quebecois composers. The third part includes case studies of Messiaen’s reception in Italy, Spain and the USA. The volume also includes an ornithological catalogue of Messiaen’s birds, collates information on the numerous `tombeaux’ pieces he inspired, and concludes with a Critical Catalogue of Messiaen’s Musical Works.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction, Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon; Part I Techniques: Perspectives on techniques, Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon; Sacred machines: fear, mystery and transfiguration in Messiaen’s mechanical procedures, Christopher Dingle; La fauvette des jardins and the `spectral attitude’, Roderick Chadwick; Aspects of compositional organization and stylistic innovation in Petites Esquisses d’oiseaux, David Kopp; Messiaen’s counterpoint, Christoph Neidhöfer; Intermède 1; A catalogue of Messiaen’s birds, Robert Fallon. Part II Influence: Perspectives on influence, Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon; Messiaen and Ohana: parallel preoccupations or anxiety of influence?, Caroline Rae; The Messiaen-Xenakis conjunction, Anne-Sylvie Barthel-Calvet; From France to Quebec: Messiaen’s transatlantic legacy, Heather White Luckow; Messiaen and the spectralists, Marilyn Nonken; Intermède II; The tombeaux of Messiaen: at the intersection of influence and reception, Robert Fallon. Part III Reception: Perspectives on reception, Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon; The reception of Olivier Messiaen in Italy: a historical interpretation, Raffaele Pozzi; Three decades of Messiaen’s music in Spain: a brief survey, 1945-1978, Germán Gan-Quesada; Placing Mount Messiaen, Robert Fallon; Genesis and reception of Olivier Messiaen’s Traité de rythme, de couleur, et d’ornithologie, 1949-1992: toward a new reading of the composer’s writings, Jean Boivin; Appendix: a critical catalogue of Messiaen’s musical works, Christopher Dingle and Robert Fallon; Select bibliography; Discography; Index.
About the Author :
Christopher Dingle is Reader in Music at Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He is the author of Messiaen's Final Works (2013), the acclaimed biography, The Life of Messiaen (2007), and co-editor of Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art & Literature (2007). He is also editor of The Cambridge History of Music Criticism (forthcoming). Robert Fallon is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Carnegie Mellon University, USA. He writes on contemporary classical music and relationships between music and nature, with a special focus on the work and thought of Olivier Messiaen. Christopher Dingle, Robert Fallon, Roderick Chadwick, David Kopp, Christoph Neidhofer, Caroline Rae, Anne-Sylvie Barthel-Calvet, Heather White Luckow, Marilyn Nonken, Raffaele Pozzi, German Gan-Quesada, Jean Boivin.
Review :
'Both Dingle (Birmingham Conservatoire, UK) and Fallon (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) are lifelong devotees of Messiaen, having researched him extensively and published on his life and work. This is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and invaluable source of information for anyone interested in the composer. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals.' Choice 'These twenty-nine essays, over two volumes, make a valuable contribution to our understanding of Messiaen the composer. From "mechanized composition" to music inspired by mountains and bird songs, from questions of influence in Canada, Italy, and Spain to aesthetic convergence with the likes of Ohana, Xenakis, and the spectralists, the authors explore new terrain that compels us to rethink Messiaen's musical legacy.' Jann Pasler, University of California, USA 'An erudite and fascinating collection of essays which offer bold new perspectives on one of the towering, and enigmatic, figures of European musical modernism.' Mark Carroll, University of Adelaide, Australia 'This pair of volumes ... raises the level of insightful scholarship to new heights. The editors and publishers must be congratulated on the production of these handsome volumes, replete with extensive musical illustrations of high quality, surely a compliment to the perfectionist philosophy of their extraordinary subject'. The Musical Times
'Both Dingle (Birmingham Conservatoire, UK) and Fallon (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) are lifelong devotees of Messiaen, having researched him extensively and published on his life and work. This is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and invaluable source of information for anyone interested in the composer. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty/professionals.'
Choice
`These twenty-nine essays, over two volumes, make a valuable contribution to our understanding of Messiaen the composer. From “mechanized composition” to music inspired by mountains and bird songs, from questions of influence in Canada, Italy, and Spain to aesthetic convergence with the likes of Ohana, Xenakis, and the spectralists, the authors explore new terrain that compels us to rethink Messiaen’s musical legacy.’
Jann Pasler, University of California, USA
`An erudite and fascinating collection of essays which offer bold new perspectives on one of the towering, and enigmatic, figures of European musical modernism.’
Mark Carroll, University of Adelaide, Australia
`This pair of volumes … raises the level of insightful scholarship to new heights. The editors and publishers must be congratulated on the production of these handsome volumes, replete with extensive musical illustrations of high quality, surely a compliment to the perfectionist philosophy of their extraordinary subject’.
The Musical Times
