Olivier Messiaen

10 December 1908 – 28 April 1992

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Olivier Messiaen’s birth, the Conservatory Library is pleased to feature his autograph manuscript that was added to our collection during the past year.  It is the current entry in our Bibliorarities series.

Messiaen set the words “Il est Parti, A Bien Aimé, c’est pour nous,” in this quotation which corresponds to the first six bars of his 2nd Liturgie from the Trois petites Liturgies de la Présence Divine (1943-44), scored for piano solo, ondes martenot solo, celesta, vibraphone, percussion, women’s choir, and string orchestra. Messiaen completed the 2nd Liturgie in 1944.  The work received its first performance on 12th

April in Paris in 1945.

This incipit is inscribed to Boaz Piller, ‘a souvenir of Tanglewood, 14 August 1949.’  At the time, Piller was a contrabassoonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Messiaen was in residence at the summer home of the BSO, Tanglewood.

In addition to having recently completed the Liturgies, by 1949, Messiaen also completed his piano work, Mode de valeurs et d’intensités (during the Darmstadt summer course that particular year).  In the years that followed soon thereafter, Messiaen moved away from total serialism and toward a more evocative style employing the inspiration of birdsongs.

The antiquarian music dealer, Lisa Cox, described this manuscript as “rare and unusual … from a composer who was always reluctant to allow his autograph material into the public domain.”

16.5 cm. x 14 cm.

Purchased by the Oberlin Conservatory Library from Lisa Cox Music Ltd., June 2007.

- Information taken from Paul Griffith’s article on Olivier Messiaen in Grove Music Online and from the catalogue of Lisa Cox Music Ltd.