Lasting close to two hours, with 18 movements, Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement is the composer's longest and most monumental work for organ. It is also his last organ work, so it represents his final thoughts on the instrument that was central to his career as a composer and a performer. Many of its movements are based on his improvisations at Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris, which his wife recorded, and which he then worked into finished compositions. It incorporates the breadth of the Messiaen's inspirations and ...
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Lasting close to two hours, with 18 movements, Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement is the composer's longest and most monumental work for organ. It is also his last organ work, so it represents his final thoughts on the instrument that was central to his career as a composer and a performer. Many of its movements are based on his improvisations at Église de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris, which his wife recorded, and which he then worked into finished compositions. It incorporates the breadth of the Messiaen's inspirations and techniques: chant, birdsong, his devout Catholicism, his exotic modalities with their synesthetic associations with color, his dramatically abrupt juxtaposition of disparate elements, and his unique rhythmic systems. The 18 movements are divided into three sections; the first four are meditations in preparation for Communion, the next seven based on events in Jesus' life, and the last seven based on the mysteries of the sacrament. The formal scheme may not be immediately apparent to...
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