No other composer (in fact no other ornithologist) was ever so completely dedicated to the painstaking transcription, study, and musical application of birdsong.Īn early manifestation of Messiaen’s style oiseaux appeared in the famous Quartet for the End of Time, composed during his internment at Görlitz prisoner of war camp in the 1940s. However, even from early childhood, Messiaen firmly believed that the twittering language of the aerial creatures was much more than mere communication. “Listen to the birds! They are great teachers.” This pronouncement by Paul Dukas, composer of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and professor at the Paris Conservatoire, must have left quite an impression on his teenage student Olivier Messiaen. Orchestration: piccolo, flute, oboe, E-flat clarinet, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, bassoon, 2 horns, trumpet, percussion (glockenspiel, 3 gongs, snare drum, tam-tam, temple blocks, woodblock, xylophone), and solo pianoįirst Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: December 6, 1973, Zubin Mehta conducting, with pianist Peter Serkin
