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When the great French composer Olivier Messiaen died in 1992, the musical world had lost one of its most distinctive presences. Not only one of the most individual and influential composers this century, but an artist who, in contrast to many contemporaries, raised his sights above the difficulties of human existence, choosing instead to convey the mysteries of his religious faith. <\/p>
The elder son of literary parents, Messiaen was born in Avignon in 1908, grew up in Grenoble, but inhabited a world of fairy tales. <\/p>
From the age of seven Messiaen taught himself piano, devouring advanced repertoire and singing through entire operas by Gluck<\/a><\/strong>, Mozart<\/a><\/strong> and Wagner<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p> At the age of ten, the bombshell of Debussy<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Pell\u00e9as<\/em><\/a><\/strong> was added to the list. A year later Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire where his teachers included Paul Dukas and Marcel Dupr\u00e9. The latter had suggested using unorthodox musical scales and so Messiaen discovered a set of highly personal modes. Along with a radical approach to time and rhythm, these modes formed the rich building blocks of Messiaen\u2019s musical language from his earliest published piece, the organ work Le banquet c\u00e9leste<\/em>, to the engaging visions of his last completed work, \u00c9clairs sur l\u2019au-del\u00e0\u2026<\/em><\/p> Messiaen claimed to have been born a believer, but it was his improvisational skill that led him to the organ. In 1931, he accepted a post at the church of La Sainte Trinit\u00e9, a position he would hold for six decades. In 1932, he married the violinist Claire Delbos and over the next seven years Messiaen carved a career as an organist-composer. Four devotional works dominate the latter part of the decade, La nativit\u00e9 du Seigneur <\/em>(1935) and Les corps glorieux <\/em>(1939) for organ and the song cycles Po\u00e8mes pour Mi<\/em> (1936\/7) and Chants de terre et de ciel<\/em> (1938). <\/p>