Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992) was a major French composer and organist whose music exerted a strong influence on contemporary music after the Second World War. Grounded in his Catholic faith, his distinctive musical language brings together birdsong, rhythms inspired by India and ancient Greece, modes of limited transposition, and richly colored harmonies. Representative works include Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, the Quartet for the End of Time, and the Turangalîla-Symphonie. Among his piano works, the monumental cycle Catalogue d’oiseaux is especially important, alongside Canteyodjaya, Fantaisie Burlesque, and La Fauvette des Jardins. In these works, birdsong and a sense of natural time are transformed into highly refined rhythmic structures and vivid sonorities.