VOTD 1/19/2024

 Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur 'Enfant-Jésus (Argo)

Purchased at Jerry's Records from the Duquesne University collection

So it's back to Messiaen this morning. If you hunt through the history of this blog, you'd find that during the pandemic lockdown I bought a 32-CD collection of his music, and made blog postings for each disc (two for Turnagalîla, if memory serves). I could have pulled out a CD copy, but thought I'd spin the vinyl issue. It's spread over four LP sides.

I guess I've planted my flag in the pro-Messiaen camp, though I fully understand the criticisms of him. It's my understanding that in France, you're picking a fight if you are critical of him. I don't care for that, if true.

As someone who's involved more with "jazz" practice than anything else, I feel like Messiaen is an excellent person to study. I suggest other jazz musicians and composers study the 4 Ms: Miles, Monk, Mingus, Messiaen. It's a simple alliteration, but it holds up. Messiaen's ideas about rhythm and modes should be considered by any serious jazz composer. 

It's not as though there's a hint of jazz in his music, though. Heck, even his wind ensemble works don't include any saxophones, much to my disappointment. Messiaen never entirely loses the idea of melody, which may be one reason I enjoy his music as much as I do. Sometimes in particular movements of this piece, I just don't know where he's coming from or where he's going (not necessarily a bad thing); at other times, the writing is exquisitely beautiful. 

Someone added a newspaper clipping about Messiaen in this box. I assume it's from the New York Times. Under his picture, there's the line: "His is essentially the music of meditation". Well, I suppose that's true, and more obviously true of his keyboard music than his orchestral. Much of this is agitated and active though, not what most people would consider to be meditative. I think my definition of what "meditative" means might be a bit different than the writer's. I consider it to mean intensely focused concentration, which is hardly the same as relaxation and quietude. I try to achieve a kind of meditation when improvising.

In this way, isn't all music some form of meditation?