''Apparition de l'église éternelle'' (''Apparition of the eternal church'') is a work for organ, written by the French composer

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

in 1932. The piece is in

arch form In music, arch form is a sectional structure for a piece of music based on repetition, in reverse order, of all or most musical sections such that the overall form is symmetric, most often around a central movement. The sections need not be re ...

, beginning in pianissimo () and building up to a fortississimo () climax featuring a C major chord, and then receding back to pianissimo. Richly colored chords alternate with open fifths, on top of a throbbing bass which repeats a simple rhythmic pattern. Programmatically, the piece describes the appearance of the eternal church, which then fades away. This imagery has been compared to

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

's description of the

inferno Inferno may refer to: * Hell, an afterlife place of suffering * Conflagration, a large uncontrolled fire Film * ''L'Inferno'', a 1911 Italian film * ''Inferno'' (1953 film), a film noir by Roy Ward Baker * ''Inferno'' (1980 film), an Italian ...

. Messiaen described the piece by quoting from the hymn Cœlestis urbs Jerusalem: "Scissors, hammer, suffering, and tests, tailoring and polishing the elected persons, living stones of the spiritual edifice", stating that the throbbing bass depicts the incessant work of construction. He also wrote the following poem:

Made out of living stone, Made out of heavenly stone, It appears in heaven: It is the Lamb's bride! It is the heavenly church Made out of heavenly stone Which is the chosen's souls. They are in God, and God is in them For heavenly eternity!

Like Messiaen's early organ piece Le Banquet Céleste, the piece is in extremely slow tempo, and can take up to 10 minutes to perform.

Film

Filmmaker and musician

Paul Festa Paul Festa is an American writer, filmmaker, and violinist. Born and raised in San Francisco, he currently resides there with his husband James Harker. Writing Festa's essays have appeared in ''The New York Times Book Review'', the ''Los Angele ...

created the film ''

Apparition of the Eternal Church Apparition may refer to: Supernatural *Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience * A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy *Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear ...

'' which captures the responses of 31 artists and writers to the piece. It is also featured during the elevator scene in

Pedro Costa Pedro Costa (born 30 December 1958) is a Portuguese film director. He is best known for his sequence of films set in Lisbon, which focuses on the lives of the impoverished residents of a slum in the Fontainhas neighbourhood. Biography After comp ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

film ''

Horse Money ''Horse Money'' ( Portuguese: ''Cavalo Dinheiro'') is a 2014 Portuguese film directed by Pedro Costa. It premiered in August 2014 at the Locarno International Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Direction. Horse Money is the fourth film ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apparition de l'eglise eternelle 1932 compositions Organ compositions by Olivier Messiaen