ÜBER DIE INTERPRETATION DES ORGEL ZYKLUS LES CORPS GLORIEUX VON OLIVIER MESSIAEN
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF THE ORGAN CYCLE LES CORPS GLORIEUX OF OLIVIER MESSIAEN

Summary/Abstract: Olivier Messiaen was not only one of the most influential composers of the twentieth century, he was also one of the most religious musicians in the whole music history. In his organ cycle Les Corps glorieux (Seven Brief Visions of the Life of the Resurrected), composed in 1939, shortly before Europe was engulfed by the Second World War, Messiaen succeeded in creating a mystical description of the essence of the Christian religion. In this cycle he manages to use virtually the entire palette of his musical language, from polyrhythm derived from old Indian rhythms and ancient Greek metrics to monodies and polyphonic structures, derived from Gregorian plainchants of the Roman Liturgy.

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