Messiaen: Éclairs sur L'Au-delà Olivier Messiaen EMI Classics, 2004   Reviewed by Pedro Blas Gonzalez	Olivier Messiaen's music sets itself apart from most other late 20th century composers on at least two fronts: its warm tonality and its transcendent spiritual quality. Spanning the course of the major musical developments and trends of the 20th century, Messiaen's work showcases a divergent and varied spectrum of musical color. Having experienced all but the first and last eight years of the century, his compositions are a fine example of the variety of last century's musical influences and currents. Born in Avignon, he first studied organ under the tutelage of Marcel Dupré, musical theory with Maurice Emmanuel and later composition under Paul Dukas. In 1931 Messiaen became the organist at Paris' La Trinité church. Soon thereafter he became professor at the Ecole Normale de Musique and the Schola Cantorum. It is during this same period when Messiaen was in his late 20s and 30s that he composed some of his most extraordinary and innovative organ works: "Diptyque (Essai sur la vie terrestre et l'éternité religieuse" (1929); "Apparition de l'Église éternelle" (1931); "L'Ascension (4 Méditations)" 1933; "La Nativité du Seigneur (9 Meditations)" (1935) and "Les Corps glorieux (7 Visions de la vie des ressucités)" (1939). These early works are not only commensurate with the French organ tradition, they are also indicative of a musical genius that displays itself in the exemplary range and quality of pathos that it engenders. Messiaen's talent was not widely recognized until the advent of his work, Quatour pou la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), a piece that was written and that saw its premiere in January 1941. The Quartet was unveiled in Stalag VIIIA, in Görlitz, Germany while the composer was a prisoner of war during WWII. Appropriately titled to describe Messiaen's uncertain situation at the time, this work is instead a heartfelt exposition of what Messiaen describes as: "Essentially immaterial, spiritual and Catholic." Experiencing Quatour por la fin du temps on a clear and sunny day while witnessing an infinitely blue, umbrella sky does little justice to the sentiment of this work and the conditions where it germinated. It does, however, draw the listener "towards eternity in space or the infinite" as Messiaen suggests. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the fifth movement. With its excruciatingly slow and telegraphed piano leading a somber and melodic violin, one cannot help but be guided by Messiaen's vision of the apocalypse. But the latter is more akin to T.S. Eliot's notion of the end of time as a whimper more so than to four angry horsemen. Éclairs sur L'Au-delà, Messiaen's last musical creation, is an interesting anomaly: an orchestral work in no less than 11 movements. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in the summer of 1987, he completed it in 1991, shortly before his death at the age of 84. But most striking perhaps is that Éclairs sur L'Au-delà is a Dantesque compositional journey of supernatural transcendence that culminates in temporal death and spiritual resurrection. Another captivating aspect of this work is its mesmerizing attention, depiction and transcription of bird-son. Messiaen employed Indian and Greek rhythms, notably in his monumental Turangalîla Symphonie (1946-1948) -- a ten-movement piece where he makes use of the ondes martenot, an early electronic form of keyboard. Éclairs, on the other hand retains a strong impressionistic residue. While an unimpeded and direct grasp of immediate reality or aspects thereof are realized through an intuitive process, in musical terms this same understanding becomes one of the aims of impressionism. Despite Debussy's refusal to accept this moniker as the definitive label of his work, this early 20th century musical current nevertheless remains a strong example of aesthetic vision. Musical impressionism attempts to retain musically a momentary view of reality that may or may not exhibit any permanent qualities. Éclairs' many movements do not contain radical shifts in tempo -- opting instead to exhibit a measured harmonic grade that at times cannot evade being referred to as dreamlike. As a teacher at the Paris Conservatoire from 1942 to 1978, Messiaen enjoyed having pupils the likes of Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, Alexander Goehr and George Benjamin. Known as something of a maverick at the school -- never attending the school's committee meetings -- his presence created a lasting impression on his students regardless of their subsequent musical output. Éclairs' first movement, "Apparition du Christ glorieux." is rather horizontally static. It displays no abrupt changes, the piece is carried along in a subdued mood. This movement leaves us with a heightened sense of anticipation, without a doubt. The second movement, "La Constellation du Sagittaire" is more ethereal, the pitch becoming higher and higher throughout, as the work progresses, this, indicative of motion. Inquietude is the central temperamental staple of the third movement, "L'Oiseau-lyre et la Ville-Fiancée." As an avid ornithologist, this movement is a musical evocation of the typical song of the Lyrebird that so powerfully moved Messiaen. The short fourth movement, "Les É'lus marques du sceau" serves as a light interlude that is dominated by the bouncing quality of the Piccolo. "Demeurer dans l'Amour," the long fifth movement, is a showcase for strings -- its somber, slow tempo is a fine example of the tonal pathos that harmony evokes in Messiaen's work. The use of percussion in the sixth movement, "Les Sept Anges aux sept trompettes," brings the listener out of the languor imposed by the previous movement. Here, the rhythmic summing forth of the percussion is lead by the horn section. The seventh movement, "Et Dieu essuiera tout larme de leurs yeux," like the fifth, exudes a clear sense of the transcendence that the work as a whole strives for. "Les Etoiles et la Gloire," the eighth and longest of the 11 movements, is reminiscent of the properties of a tone poem in its segmentation and description of a magical landscape and natural phenomena: mainly the songs of birds. Counterbalancing the previous long movement, the ninth, "Plusieurs Oiseaux des arbres de Vie," is brief and light in tone. This playful movement brings together the songs of diverse birds as each enchants us with songs that cannot easily be consolidated into a single decipherable tempo. This movement is evocative of some of the atonal experiments of the early part of the 20th century. The tenth movement, "Le chemin de l'Invisible," brings together a fuller orchestral sound, especially in its use of horns and ending in dramatic fashion. The final movement, "Le Christ, lumière du Paradis," is gentle and harmonic. Its flowing strings are indicative of the sort of spiritual settlement and renewal that Messiaen describes in the liner notes, as quoted by Roger Nichols: "I try simply to imagine what will comes to pass, which I can sometimes perceive in "éclairs" (flashes or illuminations)." Balancing the disquietude brought about by the over abundance of atonal and avant-garde music in the second half of the 20th century, what Messiaen returns to music is no less than a vibrant tonal quality that reminds one of the value of music as a vital enterprise of the human condition. | February 2005   Pedro Blas Gonzalez is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Barry University in Miami, Florida. Amongst his intellectual pursuits is his interest in the relationship that exists between subjectivity, self-autonomy and philosophy.	These early works are not only commensurate with the French organ tradition, they are also indicative of a musical genius that displays itself in the exemplary range and quality of pathos that it engenders.