Olivier Messiaen
Un Sourire
Olivier Messiaen’s music was equally influenced by his deep spirituality and his interest in a wide range of musical sources — from plain chant to Indian ragas, serial techniques to birdsong. He entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of 11, studying organ and improvisation with Marcel Dupré and composition with Paul Dukas. He was principal organist at La Trinité Cathedral in Paris for nearly 40 years beginning in 1930, and he returned to the Conservatoire as a teacher starting in 1942; his students included Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.
One of his most famous pieces, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), a chamber work for piano, clarinet, violin, and cello, was written for himself and three musicians while they were prisoners of war in Germany in 1940; they premiered the piece in prison for their fellow captives. Appropriately for the circumstances, the piece is a musical treatment of the end of the world as prophesied in the Book of Revelations. Other works include the Turangalila-symphonie (1944), which makes use of Hindu rhythms and the Ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument; Catalog d’oiseaux (Catalog of the Birds, 1958), a piano work based on birdsongs transcribed by the composer; and St. Francis d’Assise (1983), his only opera, a four-hour work representing his myriad musical influences as well as his strongly mystical Catholic faith.
Un Sourire (A Smile) was Messiaen’s last commissioned work and his contribution to the celebrations of Mozart’s bicentenary in 1991. Explaining how the work honored Mozart, Messiaen wrote: “despite bereavements, sufferings, hunger, cold, incomprehension and the proximity of death, Mozart still smiled, his music also. That is why I allowed myself, in all humility, to call my act of homage ‘A smile.'” The short piece contrasts two very different themes, with the first section built on a slow, melodic phrase introduced by strings and oboe. The calm yet eerily unearthly chords demonstrate the composer’s deft technique with rich tonalities. This quiet “A” section is followed by the brusque “B” section, an angular, energetic passage by winds and percussion. The brittle rhythms are quite complex, consisting of irregular groupings of two or three 32nd notes. After a brief interlude, the “A” section returns and the two themes continue to alternate, each time in slightly longer and slightly slower form, until we are left with a final extended, ethereal chord — perhaps the “smile” of the title.