Olivier Messiaen

Is there not something monastic and ascetic in this worshipper, this observer of a brightly opened sky of the Christian universe in which the bird angels rejoice?

I am referring to the Olivier Messiaen who shut himself away in his study – or studio, as we would say today – and pondered the secrets of the numerical mysticism of Indian rhythms, devised a system of continuous tone duration and the systematic organisation of the pitch range achieved by the Viennese Schoenberg School, reflected on the connections between the laws of musical and stellar motion, sought elements of a philosophy of music – in short, the scholar, the researcher Messiaen. For us, the triad of researcher, teacher and artist is united in Olivier Messiaen to form the image of a creative person of whom Rilke said in the first Duino Elegy: ‘Some stars you must feel within yourself’.