Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen, one of the true visionaries of music to have lived in recent memory, is celebrating his centennial .[well. posthumously] Messiaen, who was blessed with a form of synesthesia [which meant for him certain chords were actual colors, sort of like what was experienced during a Jerry Garcia solo during a Dead concert, as it were}Recently, his only opera, St Francis of Assisi was performed in London.Checking in at over 5 hours, it is not for the safe or non-adventurous. Messiaen, a noted ornithologist threw everything he had into this opera, and it rewards the patient with something that borders on the ecstatic. Messiaen, who for some reason was never adopted by the youthful avant-garde quite the way Stravinsky was {and later Stockhausen},perhaps due to his devout Roman Catholicism, was as wild and experimental, while still making beautiful music ,as anyone. I always, I know oddly, thought that the Grateful Dead were a neat match for Messiaen[though he abhored rock and jazz,sadly for him] Getting back to St Francis, Messiaen used elements of Hindu Raga,birdsong and often single string instruments to bring a vision of the saint alive. It is a singularly profound musical expierence,one that, yes, can actually be transcendental. Not often you can say that,sober, anyway.