''Messe de la Pentecôte'' ("

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...

Mass") is an

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

composed by

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...

in 1949–50. According to the composer, it is based on twenty years of improvising at Église de la Sainte-Trinité, where Messiaen was organist since 1931. Messiaen himself wrote that the work "corresponds almost exactly with the length of a low Mass, and its sections are intended to match with those of the service. The music shows different aspects of the mystery of Pentecost, the Feast of the Holy Spirit." The work was never officially premiered; Messiaen included it discreetly in the celebration of the Eucharist on the Pentecost Sunday of 1951. The work is in five movements: # ''Entrée (Les langues de feu)'' - Entrance # ''Offertoire (Les choses visibles et invisibles)'' - Offertory # ''Consécration (Le don de Sagesse)'' - Consecration # ''Communion (Les oiseaux et les sources)'' - Communion # ''Sortie (Le vent de l'Esprit)'' - Recessional The first movement uses "irrational values" applied to Greek rhythms. A motif from the fifth movement, labelled ''le vent'' ("the wind"), will reappear in '' Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité'' as "Le Souffle de l'Esprit" (The Breath of the Spirit). There is an "imaginary" birdsong in bars 50–57 of the second movement. This passage is derived from the lines for flute and clarinet in ''Jardin du sommeil d'amour'' in ''

Turangalîla-Symphonie The ''Turangalîla-Symphonie'' is the only symphony by Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992). It was written for an orchestra of large forces from 1946 to 1948 on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky in his wife's memory for the Boston Symphony Orches ...

''; Messiaen described these as melodic "garlands" that resemble birdsong in slow-motion. Several more bird songs are found in the fourth movement. Here, they are based on observation, and some of the species can be identified: a nightingale (mm. 201–205) and a blackbird (identical to the birdsong phrase from ''Ile de Feu 1'').Hill, Simeone 2007, p. 25.

Notes

References

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External links

Louis Thiry playing «La Messe de Pentecôte» by Olivier Messiaen on the Sint-Bavokerk's organ in Haarlem (Nederlands)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Messe de la Pentecote Compositions by Olivier Messiaen Compositions for organ 1950 compositions Pentecost