don’t want to put anyone down, I’m just very curious, as I don’t understand it and want to learn how and why other people listen to this kind of music.
Very legitimate question, you may want to change the title of your thread to something more like what you are really asking.
No one who understand and appreciate Messiaen music will feel like you are “putting anyone down”. Merely that you are not there yet. Music is vastly more interesting and rich than just a mere way to have your feet tapping.
I hope many will take the time to learn and appreciate more sofisticated musical form accessible to us on our super musical hi fi system.
Recommended Recordings
Organ Music (La Nativité du Seigneur, etc.)
"La Nativité" and
"Apparition de l'Eglise Éternelle"/Calliope CAL9928Louis Thiry (organ)
"Diphyque" and
"Les Corps Glorieaux"/Unicorn-Kanchana DKPCD9004Jennifer Bate (organ)
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
"Quartet for the End of Time"/EMI CDC7474632Deinzer (violin), Gawrilov (clarinet), Palm (cello), A. Kontarsky (piano)
"Quartet for the End of Time"/RCA Gold SealKavafian (violin), Stolzman (clarinet), Sherry (cello), Serkin (piano)
Turangalîla-Symphony
Symphony "Turanglila"/CBS M2K42271Paul Crossley (piano), Murail (ondes martenot), Esa-Pekka Salonen/BBC Symphony Orchestra
Symphony "Turanglila"/EMI CDS7474632Peter Donohoe (piano), Murail (ondes martenot), Simon Rattle/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
Symphony "Turanglila"/Deutsche Grammophon 431781-2Yvonne Loriod (piano), Jeanne Loriod (ondes martenot), Myung-Whun Chung/Bastille Orchestra
Vingt Regards (piano)
20 Pieces "Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus"/London 430343-2John Ogdon (piano)
French composer and organist, one of the most influential teachers of this century. Messiaen was organist at the Sainte Trinite cathedral, and composed a large body of organ music. His harmonic idiom is always highly colorful, and rhythmically ingenius. He was able to unify the rhythmic intensity of
Igor Stravinsky with the dodecaphonic technique of
Arnold Schoenberg, being one of the first instructors to carefully analyze their music and pave the way for such students as
Pierre Boulez and
Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Messiaen was also one of the first composers to apply serial principles to rhythmic organization, though serial techniques are used only as one means among many in his arsenal. He had a predilection for cyclic forms, often using juxtaposed blocks of differing sonority in his larger works. His thematic material is drawn primarily from two sources: Catholic religious themes, and birdsong. To this is added an advanced feeling for modality, building on the work of
Charles Tournemire. Messiaen composed in every form of the time, though his concertos and symphonic works are not entitled as such. His music revels in naturalistic evocations and spiritual meditation. Finally, his Quartet for the End of Time, composed in a German prison camp, is one of the signature pieces of the mid-twentieth century
But little by little it opened up to me, and I really began to enjoy what was previously just noise.
Same for me, no one has to evolved or even change, so liking simpler form of music is perfectly legitimate, but part of music enjoyment and building a “better” music system is to allow me explore new horizon and expand my ability to enjoy different and often more complex musical forms. A little like a language, you need a little time to understand and appreciate the message, once you know more than 2 or 3 languages, it get easier and faster to learn more, once you speak a language it becomes difficult to figure why it sounded so foreign before, different language will also affect the way you think, making other culture easier to understand. My life is richer because of music.