Last night, Kate and I attended a lecture on the music of Olivier Messiaen. I was drawn to it because Messiaen inspired many of the jazz musicians I've been studying, and I was interested in his theoretical notions. (How are modes and limited transpositions related, for instance? I may actually understand that now, and may write about it later.)
The lecture was sponsored by the Alliance Francaise, though it was delivered in English. It concluded with performance of a short piece for flute and piano entitled Le merle noir (The Blackbird). There were 30 people in the audience. We sat 3 feet from the flautist during the performance, and talked at length to the pianist afterwards about fingering techniques needed to play Messiaen.
Messiaen found much of his inspiration from bird songs. Here he gives some examples of how bird songs are rendered on the piano.
The pianist in the video is Yvonne Loriod, Messiaen's long-time collaborator, and finally, his second wife. His first wife suffered a brain injury during an operation toward the end of WWII, and was institutionalized for the rest of her life. She died in 1959, and Messiaen married Yvonne Loriod two years later.
Here's the entire piece:
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