MESSIAENTrois Mélodies • Harawi

Hetna Regitze Bruun, SopranoKristoffer Hyldig, Piano

Photos: Søren MalmoseGraphics: www.mamagraphic.dk

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Olivier

MESSIAEN(1908-1992)

Trois Mélodies 7:311 No. 1 Pourquoi? (Why?) 2:122 No. 2 Le sourire (The Smile) 2:103 No. 3 La fiancée perdue (The Lost Bride To Be) 3:09

Harawi: Songs of Love and Death 57:484 No. 1 La ville qui dormait, toi (The town that slept, you) 2:355 No. 2 Bonjour toi, colombe verte (Good morning, green dove) 3:296 No. 3 Montagnes (Mountains) 3:367 No. 4 Doundou tchil 3:598 No. 5 L’amour de Piroutcha (The love of Piroutcha) 4:589 No. 6 Répétition planétaire (Planetary repetition) 5:500 No. 7 Adieu (Farewell) 7:30! No. 8 Syllabes (Syllables) 5:42@ No. 9 L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil

(The stair repeats, gestures of the sun) 6:40# No. 10 Amour oiseau d’étoile (Love bird of a star) 4:45$ No. 11 Katchikatchi les étoiles (Katchikatchi the stars) 2:02% No. 12 Dans le noir (In the dark) 6:44

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pourquoi il n’est plus touché par la beauté de la nature ;Le sourire compare l’effet d’un seul mot dit parquelqu’un que l’on aime à celui d’un baiser donné àl’âme, ce qui suscite un sourire tremblant. La fiancéeperdue débute alors que la fiancée évoque des imagesdes anges, des après-midi ensoleillées et le ventsoufflant parmi les fleurs ; cependant, l’atmosphère netarde pas à changer lorsque nous comprenons que lafiancée s’est éteinte et que le poète prie Jésus de luiaccorder le repos.

Lorsque Messiaen composa le cycle de mélodiesHarawi en 1945, il avait étudié les légendes et les chantsfolkloriques péruviens (le titre du cycle se réfère à untype spécifique de chant péruvien traditionnel traitantsouvent de la mort d’un amant). Il venait égalementd’écrire la musique de scène d’une production d’unepièce de Lucien Fabre fondée sur la légende celte deTristan et Iseut, dont l’amour ne pouvait s’accomplir quedans la mort. La santé mentale déclinante de son épouseClaire en faisait un concept particulièrement lourd desens pour Messiaen à cette époque. Il donna à Harawi lesous-titre de ‘Chant d’amour et de mort’ et cet ouvrageforme avec l’épique Turangalîla-symphonie (1946-1948) et les Cinq Rechants (1948) ce qu’il appela sa‘Trilogie de Tristan’.

L’héroïne de Harawi s’appelle Piroutcha, mais sonamant n’est jamais nommé. L’ouvrage est scindé endeux moitiés : les sept premières mélodies décrivent lecouple, leur amour et la mort qui les sépare dans Adieu.L’extase de cette première moitié est assombrie par lesténèbres et les présages de mort : Montagnes regorge deréférences à des couleurs sombres, et dans L’amour dePiroutcha, le jeune homme dit : ‘Coupe-moi la tête’. Lescinq autres mélodies dépeignent un monde plein d’uneimagerie surréaliste où les amants ont été réunis après lamort.

Les poèmes, que Messiaen écrivit lui-même, sont enfrançais, émaillés de mots de la langue andine Quetchua.Messiaen emploie les mots Quetchua non pas pour leursens sémantique, mais pour leur qualité sonore et leureffet onomatopéique. Les exclamations de Doundou

tchil dans la quatrième mélodie rappellent les sons desclochettes que portent aux chevilles les danseusespéruviennes, et les sauvages répétitions du mot ‘pia’dans Syllabes font allusion à une légende péruviennedans laquelle les cris d’alarme poussés par des singesdans les arbres sauvent un prince de la mort.

La mélodie entendue pour la première fois au débutde Bonjour toi, colombe verte est le ‘Thème de l’Amour’de l’ouvrage. On l’entend à nouveau dans Adieu, Dansle noir, et sous une forme modifiée dans la dernièresection de L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil ainsi que toutle long de Katchikatchi les étoiles. Cet air s’appuieprincipalement sur une chanson populaire péruvienne etapparaît aussi dans la musique de scène composée parMessiaen pour la pièce de Fabre.

L’amour de Messiaen pour les chants d’oiseaux et lanature et sa fascination pour les couleurs sont tous deuxmanifestes dans Harawi. La sombre imagerie deMontagnes s’allie à des gestes musicaux dramatiquespour évoquer la grandeur d’un paysage de montagnevaste et menaçant. A plusieurs endroits, Messiaenindique au pianiste de jouer ‘comme un oiseau’, commedans les sections de piano seul de Bonjour toi, colombeverte et dans les interjections éthérées d’Amour oiseaud’étoile. Le texte du compositeur contient également defréquentes références aux oiseaux, notamment avec lethème récurrent de la colombe verte, qui représente à lafois la jeune fille et la venue du printemps et prodigue unpeu de soulagement à l’atmosphère principalementsombre.

Messiaen spécifiait que Harawi devait être chantépar une ‘grande soprano dramatique’, et il était bienconscient des immenses difficultés vocales qu’il posait àla cantatrice. C’est Marcelle Bunlet, l’une de sessopranos préférées, qui créa l’ouvrage à Paris le 26 juin1946, accompagnée par le compositeur.

David McCleery

Version français : David Ylla-Somers

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Olivier Messiaen was born on 10th December 1908 inAvignon into a literary family. His father was aneminent translator of English literature and his mother,Cécile Sauvage, was a published poet. Messiaendisplayed a precocious musical talent from an early age,being accepted by the time he was eleven into the ParisConservatoire, where he studied piano, composition andorgan. After graduation he served as organist at theÉglise de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris from 1931 until hisdeath, and his own contribution to the organ repertoire isarguably greater than that of any other composer sinceBach.

In 1932 Messiaen married the violinist ClaireDelbos and they had a son five years later. DuringWorld War II he was captured while serving as amedical auxiliary and held as a prisoner of war atGörlitz in Silesia. It was there that he wrote one of hismost famous works, the Quatuor pour la fin de temps(Quartet for the End of Time), which was given its firstperformance in the camp by four of the prisoners. Afterhis release in 1941 Messiaen returned to Paris and tookup a Professorship at the Conservatoire. Towards theend of war Claire developed mental health problemsfollowing an operation. Her condition worsened steadilyand she was eventually hospitalised until her death in1959.

Messiaen had been fascinated by birdsong since histeenage years; he once described birds as ‘probably thegreatest musicians to inhabit our planet’. In 1953 hebegan travelling around France, meticulously notatingdifferent birdsong and using it in his music. By the1960s as his growing international reputation was takinghim further afield (including Japan, Iran, Argentina andAustralia), he extended concert trips to further hisbirdsong research, often accompanied by his secondwife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, whom he had marriedin 1961.

The late 1960s and 1970s were dominated by aseries of monumental works which embodied the ideas

and phenomena that inspired him most: the oratorio Latransfiguration de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1965-9)and the opera Saint-François d’Assise (1975-83) wereacts of devotion to his Roman Catholic faith, and theorchestral work Des Canyons aux étoiles... (1971-4) wasinspired by birdsong as well as the colours and majestyof the Bryce Canyon in Utah, which he visited in 1972.Messiaen retired from teaching in 1978, but continuedcomposing until shortly before his death.

Messiaen lived and worked at a time when Westerncomposers were rejecting many of the styles that hadevolved over the previous three centuries and inventingnew ones. Although he himself was a musical innovator,he stood aside from his contemporaries, as his musicwas born of a deep religious faith and a wonder ofnature in an age when secularism and detachment weremuch more in vogue. As a teacher he was a majorinfluence on a new generation of ground-breakingcomposers, including Boulez and Stockhausen, butwhereas these composers aimed to break totally freefrom tradition, Messiaen’s sound-world always has ashimmering beauty that seems to be the naturalsuccessor to the ravishing harmonies of early twentiethcentury French composers, such as Debussy, who hadfirst awakened his own passion for music.

The Trois Mélodies were written when Messiaenwas only 22, and the influence of Debussy can be heardin the textures and harmonies. They are a musicalmemorial to his mother, who had died in 1927. Thesecond song is his only setting of a poem by his mother,and he wrote the texts of the first and third songshimself. In Pourquoi? (Why?), the poet wonders whythe beauty of nature no longer moves him; Le sourire(The Smile) likens the effect of a single word uttered bya loved one to being kissed on the soul, which bringsforth a trembling smile. La fiancée perdue (The LostBride To Be) opens as the bride evokes images ofangels, sunny afternoons and the wind blowing throughthe flowers; the mood soon changes, however, as we

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Olivier Messiaen naquit le 10 décembre 1908 enAvignon dans une famille littéraire. Son père était unéminent traducteur de littérature anglaise, et sa mère,Cécile Sauvage, publiait des poèmes. Tout enfant,Messiaen fit montre d’un talent musical précoce, et àonze ans il entrait au Conservatoire de Paris, où il étudiale piano, la composition et l’orgue. Après s’êtrediplômé, il devint organiste en l’Église de la Sainte-Trinité à Paris à partir de 1931, occupant ce postejusqu’à son décès, et sa contribution au répertoired’orgue est sans doute la plus importante de l’histoire dela musique depuis Bach.

En 1932, Messiaen épousa la violoniste ClaireDelbos, et cinq ans plus tard elle lui donna un fils. Il futcapturé pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale alorsqu’il avait été mobilisé et servait en tant qu’infirmier etil fut détenu à Görlitz, en Silésie. C’est là qu’il composal’une de ses œuvres les plus célèbres, son Quatuor pourla fin du temps, qui fut créé dans le stalag par quatreprisonniers de guerre. Libéré en 1941, Messiaen rentra àParis et accepta un poste d’enseignant au Conservatoire.Vers la fin de la guerre, sa femme se mit à présenter destroubles mentaux, séquelles d’une opération. Sacondition empira progressivement et elle finit par êtrehospitalisée jusqu’à sa mort, survenue en 1959.

Depuis son adolescence, Messiaen était passionnépar les chants d’oiseaux ; il décrivit un jour ces animauxcomme étant probablement ‘les plus grands musiciensqui existent sur notre planète’. En 1953, il commença àparcourir la France, retranscrivant méticuleusementdifférents chants d’oiseaux et les employant dans samusique. Dans les années 1960, alors que sa réputationinternationale grandissante le menait de plus en plusloin, au Japon, en Iran, en Argentine ou en Australie, ilaccrut ses tournées de concerts pour poursuivre sesrecherches de chants d’oiseaux, souvent accompagnépar sa seconde femme, la pianiste Yvonne Loriod, qu’ilavait épousée en 1961.

La fin des années 1960 et les années 1970 furentmarquées par une série d’œuvres monumentalesillustrant les idées et les phénomènes qui l’inspiraient leplus : l’oratorio La transfiguration de notre SeigneurJésus-Christ (1965-9) et l’opéra Saint-François d’Assise(1975-83) furent des actes de dévotion à sa foicatholique, et la pièce orchestrale Des canyons auxétoiles... (1971-4) lui fut inspirée par les chantsd’oiseaux ainsi que les couleurs et la majesté de BryceCanyon, dans l’Utah, qu’il visita en 1972. Messiaencessa d’enseigner en 1978, mais continua de composerjusque peu de temps avant sa mort.

Messiaen vécut et travailla à une époque où lescompositeurs occidentaux rejetaient bon nombre desstyles qui avaient évolué au cours des trois sièclesprécédents pour en inventer de nouveaux. Si Messiaenétait lui-même un novateur, il demeurait en marge de sescontemporains, car sa musique naissait d’une profondefoi religieuse et de son émerveillement envers la natureen un temps où la sécularité et le détachement étaientbeaucoup plus en vogue. En sa qualité d’enseignant, ilexerça une énorme influence sur une nouvellegénération de compositeurs précurseurs comme Boulezet Stockhausen, mais alors que ceux-ci cherchaient à selibérer de toute tradition, l’univers sonore de Messiaenprésente toujours une rayonnante beauté qui sembledécouler naturellement des ravissantes harmonies descompositeurs français du début du XXè siècle tels queDebussy, qui fut d’ailleurs le premier à éveiller sapassion pour la musique.

Les Trois Mélodies furent écrites alors queMessiaen n’avait que 22 ans, et on peut décelerl’influence de Debussy dans leurs textures et leursharmonies. Ils constituent un hommage à la mémoire desa mère, qui était morte en 1927. La seconde mélodie estla seule où il met en musique un poème de sa mère, et ilécrivit lui-même les textes de la première et de latroisième. Dans Pourquoi ?, le poète se demande

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realise the bride has been lost and the poet asks Jesus togrant her peace.

When Messiaen wrote the song cycle Harawi in1945, he had been studying Peruvian legend and folk-song (the title of the cycle refers to a particular type ofPeruvian traditional song, often dealing with the deathof a lover). He had also recently written the incidentalmusic for a production of a play by Lucien Fabre basedon the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde, whose lovecould only be fulfilled in death. His wife Claire’sdeteriorating mental health made this a particularlysignificant concept for Messiaen at this time. He gaveHarawi the subtitle ‘Songs of Love and Death’, and thiswork, together with the epic Turangalîla-symphonie(1946-1948) and Cinq Rechants (1948), form what hecalled his ‘Tristan trilogy’.

The heroine of Harawi is Piroutcha, though herlover is never named. The work is in two halves: thefirst seven songs depict the couple, their love, and theirparting through death in Adieu. Amid the ecstasy of thisfirst half, darkness and premonitions of death loom:Montagnes is full of references to dark colours, and inL’amour de Piroutcha the young man says ‘Coupe-moila tête’ (‘Cut off my head’). The remaining five songsdepict a world full of surrealist imagery where thelovers have been reunited after death.

The poems, which Messiaen wrote himself, are inFrench, interspersed with words in the AndeanQuetchua language. Messiaen uses the Quetcha wordsnot for their semantic meaning, but for their soundquality and onomatopoeic effect. The exclamations ofDoundou tchil in the fourth song evoke the sounds ofankle-bells worn by Peruvian dancers, and the wildrepetitions of the word ‘pia’ in Syllabes refer to aPeruvian legend in which the warning cries of monkeysin the trees save a Prince from death.

The melody first heard at the opening of Bonjourtoi, colombe verte is the work’s ‘Thème de l’Amour’(‘love theme’). It can be heard again in Adieu, Dans lenoir, and in altered form in the last section of L’escalierredit, gestes de soleil and throughout Katchikatchi lesétoiles. The tune is closely based on a Peruvian folk-

song, and also appears in Messiaen’s incidental music toFabre’s play.

Messiaen’s love of birdsong, of nature and hisfascination with colour are all evident in Harawi. Thedark imagery of Montagnes combines with dramaticmusical gestures to evoke the grandeur of a vast,foreboding mountainous landscape. At several pointsMessiaen instructs the pianist to play ‘comme un oiseau’(‘like a bird’), such as the solo piano sections of Bonjourtoi, colombe verte and in the ethereal interjections inAmour oiseau d’étoile. Messiaen’s text also containsfrequent references to birds; in particular the recurringtheme of a green dove (‘colombe verte’), representingboth the girl and the coming of spring, provides relieffrom an otherwise dark atmosphere.

Messiaen specified that Harawi should be sung by a‘grande soprano dramatique’ and he was well aware ofthe great vocal demands he was placing on the singer.One of his favourite sopranos, Marcelle Bunlet, gave thepremière of the work in Paris on 26th June 1946,accompanied by the composer.

David McCleery

The music of Messiaen is overpowering and seductive.It delights the senses and challenges the mind, callingforth emotions both peaceful and violent. It dissolvestime into a floating state and creates a multidimensionalspace of subtle sounds, harmonic colours, and melodicmovement. The music of Messiaen encompasses greatcontrasts, from luscious harmonies to harsh cacophoniceffects. Simple melodies stand side by side withcomplex music in many layers. His music possessesdelicate nuances and provocative clashes, and tones thatrise to extreme heights and fall to bottomless depths.

Messiaen’s Trois Mélodies and the song cycleHarawi both deal with the loss of a beloved person. Thecomposer wrote the texts in conjunction with the music,establishing a coherent creative process. “I am not apoet”, Messiaen said. But his mother, Cécile Sauvage,was a poet. Before Olivier was born, she wrote thecollection of poems L’Âme en bourgeon (The Soul in

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Hetna Regitze Bruun

Hetna Regitze Bruun was born in Denmark and studied at the Royal Academy ofMusic in Copenhagen, where she obtained her diploma in solo singing. She alsostudied in the soloist class at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. She hasenhanced her singing skills at a number of master-classes with Margaret Price,Anne-Sofie von Otter, Philip Langridge, Andreas Schmidt and the pianists RudolfJansen, Helmut Deutsch and Malcolm Martineau. She has performed as a soloist innumerous Lieder concerts and oratorios in Denmark, England, Germany andBelgium in Northern Europe. She has also appeared at the Royal Opera House inCopenhagen and smaller opera houses in Denmark. In the British art film Feature,directed by Shezad Dawood, she had a lead rôle as Valkyrie. She has initiated,planned and sings in the young company Stand-up Opera, with its base inCopenhagen. Collaboration with the pianist Kristoffer Hyldig began at the RoyalAcademy in Copenhagen and they have worked together, with a mutual love forMessiaen’s music, for some years.

Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig

Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig was born in 1982 in Denmark. He studied at the RoyalDanish Academy of Music with Tove Lønskov and as a soloist with Steinway artistNiklas Sivelöv. He has already been very active in Danish music life for several yearsas a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, and has played with several of theDanish orchestras, conducted by Jean Thorel among others, won several prizes, mostrecently the special prize of the Jury in the EU piano competition 2009 in Prague, andreceived major Danish grants. Beside this he has recorded sound-tracks, and appearedon screen for Zentropa Films. Apart from his current teacher, Niklas Sivelöv, he hasbeen taught by Amalie Malling and Zara Piruman in Denmark as well as PninaSalzman, Volker Banfield, Pierre Réach, Bengt Forsberg, Malcolm Martineau,Rudolf Jansen, Anne Sofie von Otter and the piano duo Taal/Groethuysen. He hasperformed several of Messiaen’s pieces here, including his major piano compositions,Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus and Oiseaux Exotiques.

Bud), predicting her son’s future enthusiasm for musicand birdsong. Even though his mother was not a believer,Messiaen grew up as a convinced and devout Catholic.

Trois Mélodies (1930)

Cécile Sauvage died in 1927, forty years old, and threeyears later Messiaen wrote Trois Mélodies in memory ofher, enclosing her poem Le sourire (The Smile) betweentwo texts of his own. Messiaen’s setting of Le sourire isintimate and delicate as the poem, ”like a kiss on thesoul”. The first song, Pourquoi? (Why?), evolves fromingenuous simplicity to passionate expression,presenting the delights of nature, birds, light, water, sky,flowers, and lamenting their passing charm. The finalsong, La fiancée perdue (The Lost Bride To Be) is avivid image of Cécile as a young and innocent bride,and a serene prayer that Jesus may grant her mercy andrepose after death.

In these three mélodies, the 21-year old composerwas on his way from the French tradition of Debussyand Fauré to a musical language of his own. Hecoloured the songs with the harmonies of the octatonicmode of alternating semitones and tones, which headopted as one of his “modes of limited transpositions”.These modes were Messiaen’s important personaldiscovery. Out of the twelve notes in the chromaticscale, he selected patterns of 6, 8, 9 or 10 notes whichrepeat themselves after a limited number oftranspositions on the keyboard. These modes becamethe sources of Messiaen’s refined and powerfulmelodies and characteristic colourful harmonies.

Harawi: Songs of Love and Death (1945)

Harawi is a cycle of twelve songs, portraying anoverwhelming love that is fulfilled in death. Messiaendrew on several sources of inspiration for this work. Hestudied the folk-music of the Andes in a collection ofPeruvian folk-melodies. The Andes were unknown toMessiaen, but the grandeur of the French Alps had madea huge impact on him since his childhood. He admired

the operas of Richard Wagner, not least the love story ofTristan and Isolde. He was a great reader of the Frenchsurrealist poets Pierre Reverdy and Paul Éluard, and hestudied Hindu mythology and books of astronomy. As aFrench soldier in the Second World War, Messiaenexperienced the threat of death, and suffered hunger andcold as a prisoner of war. As a composer, he developedhis skill and technique in numerous works for orchestra,organ, piano and voice, in particular the modes oflimited transpositions and the additive rhythms, whichimpart a sense of flexible and floating time by avoidingfixed metre.

From his sources, Messiaen selects melodies,words, images and ideas in a very personal way. Harawiis a type of Peruvian folk-song, often dealing withunhappy or lost love, sometimes combined with alonging for death. Messiaen selects a few of these songs,adapts their melodies to his own modes and rhythms,and integrates them in the European myth of Tristan andIsolde, the story of irresistible love that leads to death.From song texts in the indigenous Quechua language, hepicks out onomatopoeic words such as toungou,mahipipas, kahipipas and doundou tchil, the latter animitation of the sound of ankle-bells in dance. He alsoadopts the Peruvian girl’s name Piroutcha, green as thecolour of hope, and the dove as a symbol of the beloved.

Messiaen’s texts are surrealistic poems in the sensethat words, concepts and images combine and clash inan unusual and unexpected manner. Yet every text is asignificant contribution to the unfolding of the tragiclove story. These are the twelve songs of Harawi:

1. La ville qui dormait, toi (The town that slept, you)

The first song is a tender prelude to the cycle, sungextremely slowly, evoking memories of past,disappearing love. The beloved one is receding into adistant state of dream and sleep, inaccessible to thelover’s gaze. La violette double (the double violet) is asymbol of love, borrowed from the refrain of a Frenchfolk-song, in which a nightingale is sent as a messengerto the castle of love. Le plein minuit le banc (the “bank

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the top note of the whole song cycle in brilliantfortissimo. The bodily heartbeats of the beloved womanslow down and come to a standstill, but the presence ofdeath has released a celebration of the joy of love,mixing blissful memories with ecstatic anticipation ofparadisiac eternity.

10. Amour oiseau d’étoile (Love bird of a star)

A dream of love under the starry sky, full of gentlebirdsong, a union of earthly and celestial love. This songis inspired by a surrealist painting by Roland Penrose,Seeing is believing, which Messiaen had seenreproduced in an art journal. In the composer’s words:“Two male hands reaching out, then a woman’s headupside down, her hair spreading out upwards frombelow, her brow, her eyes, her face, her neck, and thenthe rest of the woman is missing, or rather, she iscontinued in the sky and the stars. This picture is thesymbol of the whole of Harawi”.

11. Katchikatchi les étoiles (Katchikatchi the stars)

A cosmic dance. Stars and atoms jump likegrasshoppers, katchikatchi in the Quechua language.Flashing images appear in the expanding universe, and,as desired in the dialogue between Piroutcha and herlover in the fifth song, a head is cut off, rolling in itsown blood.

12. Dans le noir (In the dark)

Death prevails. The green dove and the limpid pearlhave sunk into darkness. The love theme is recitedslowly and solemnly, interspersed with transparentpiano sounds which move endlessly without direction,symbolic of eternity. Distant memories of love fadeaway. The sleeping city remains, but she is not there.

Harawi bears no dedication, and the composer remainedsilent about the personal background of the work.Messiaen’s biography, however, seems to indicate thathe had his first wife, Claire Delbos, in mind whilecomposing the song cycle. She was a composer and agifted violinist. They married in 1932, and their sonPascal was born in 1937, but from 1943 she had shownsigns of mental disorder through a disease of the brain,and when the family spent the summer of 1945 togetherand Messiaen was composing Harawi, he was seriouslyworried about her state of health. In all probability,Harawi is Messiaen’s passionate farewell to the earthlylove he had enjoyed with Claire.

In his two earlier song cycles, Poèmes pour Mi(1936), and Chants de Terre et de Ciel (1938), Messiaenhad celebrated marital love and the infancy of his son.

After Harawi, Messiaen remained absorbed in theTristan myth. Harawi and his two subsequent works, theTurangalîla Symphony (1948) and Cinq Rechants for acappella choir (1949) are known as his Tristan Trilogy.

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at midnight”) hints at a scene in Act II of Wagner’sTristan und Isolde, where the lovers recline on a grassybank.

2. Bonjour toi, colombe verte (Good morning, green dove)

The story begins with a song of love in its fullest bloom.The young girl is greeted as a dove descending from thesky, clad in the green colour of hope, and as a limpidpearl, born out of the water. The lovers are so closelylinked to each other that they share a common shadow,and their love is celebrated by the joy of brilliantbirdsong. This song represents the main theme of love,which has its origin in a Peruvian song. The themereturns in songs Nos. 7 and 12.

3. Montagnes (Mountains)

The awe-inspiring grandeur of hard and massivemountains is depicted by the sharp rhythms of a shrillpiano, tumbling down in darkness to meet the singer inher low range, and the view into the depths of abyssesevokes feelings of chaotic vertigo, mirrored in therotating motion of soaring piano chords.

4. Doundou tchil

The young man performs a dance of courtship to therepeated syllables Doundou tchil, imitating the sound ofPeruvian ankle-bells. Catching sight of his belovedPiroutcha, he plunges into an ecstatic love song, whichmixes pet names, Quechua words, and the syllables ofincantation mapa nama. The dance then grows to aclimax, accompanied by rapid birdsong.

5. L’amour de Piroutcha (The love of Piroutcha)

A dialogue unfolds between the young girl and theyoung man. She sings a lullaby, inviting him to lull herin his arms, but he realises that their love can only befulfilled in death, and asks her to cut off his head.

6. Répétition planétaire (Planetary repetition)

A vision of a frightening universe, dramatized bycontrasts between agitated cries and monotonousrepetition in mysterious darkness. The love-deathtragedy grows to cosmic dimensions, culminating in adance of dizziness and fear, a nightmare of whirlwinds,winding stairs and a planet that devours everything in itsrotation. In the mysterious incantations, Messiaen addsthe word lila, a Sanskrit word signifying the play ofcreative and destructive forces in the universe.

7. Adieu (Farewell)

The love song to the green dove is slowed down to asolemn song of parting and grief, accompanied byfunereal bells and deep gong sounds. The lover recallsthe vanished bliss and the love potion, and takes leave ofhis beloved. She was once light and fruit, heaven andearth, but now a desolate angel deprived of love’sbreath. In the myth of Tristan and Isolde, the magicpotion evokes irresistible love which leads to death.

8. Syllabes (Syllables)

A lucid memory of the departed beloved, and longstretches of ecstatic dancing incantation: pia pia pia piapia pia pia doundou tchil... to conjure up a new life withher after death, unfolding and flowering in heaven.Messiaen inserted significant allusions in the text of thissong. The number five given to Piroutcha is the sacrednumber of the Hindu god Shiva, who has the power toconquer death, and the frenzied repetition of pia piapia... alludes to a Peruvian tale of a prince who is savedfrom mortal danger by the warning calls of monkeys.

9. L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil (The stair repeats,gestures of the sun)

A fantasy of overwhelming love face to face with death,and after death. Inventons l’amour du monde (Let usinvent the love of the world) is the key phrase, reaching

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the top note of the whole song cycle in brilliantfortissimo. The bodily heartbeats of the beloved womanslow down and come to a standstill, but the presence ofdeath has released a celebration of the joy of love,mixing blissful memories with ecstatic anticipation ofparadisiac eternity.

10. Amour oiseau d’étoile (Love bird of a star)

A dream of love under the starry sky, full of gentlebirdsong, a union of earthly and celestial love. This songis inspired by a surrealist painting by Roland Penrose,Seeing is believing, which Messiaen had seenreproduced in an art journal. In the composer’s words:“Two male hands reaching out, then a woman’s headupside down, her hair spreading out upwards frombelow, her brow, her eyes, her face, her neck, and thenthe rest of the woman is missing, or rather, she iscontinued in the sky and the stars. This picture is thesymbol of the whole of Harawi”.

11. Katchikatchi les étoiles (Katchikatchi the stars)

A cosmic dance. Stars and atoms jump likegrasshoppers, katchikatchi in the Quechua language.Flashing images appear in the expanding universe, and,as desired in the dialogue between Piroutcha and herlover in the fifth song, a head is cut off, rolling in itsown blood.

12. Dans le noir (In the dark)

Death prevails. The green dove and the limpid pearlhave sunk into darkness. The love theme is recitedslowly and solemnly, interspersed with transparentpiano sounds which move endlessly without direction,symbolic of eternity. Distant memories of love fadeaway. The sleeping city remains, but she is not there.

Harawi bears no dedication, and the composer remainedsilent about the personal background of the work.Messiaen’s biography, however, seems to indicate thathe had his first wife, Claire Delbos, in mind whilecomposing the song cycle. She was a composer and agifted violinist. They married in 1932, and their sonPascal was born in 1937, but from 1943 she had shownsigns of mental disorder through a disease of the brain,and when the family spent the summer of 1945 togetherand Messiaen was composing Harawi, he was seriouslyworried about her state of health. In all probability,Harawi is Messiaen’s passionate farewell to the earthlylove he had enjoyed with Claire.

In his two earlier song cycles, Poèmes pour Mi(1936), and Chants de Terre et de Ciel (1938), Messiaenhad celebrated marital love and the infancy of his son.

After Harawi, Messiaen remained absorbed in theTristan myth. Harawi and his two subsequent works, theTurangalîla Symphony (1948) and Cinq Rechants for acappella choir (1949) are known as his Tristan Trilogy.

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at midnight”) hints at a scene in Act II of Wagner’sTristan und Isolde, where the lovers recline on a grassybank.

2. Bonjour toi, colombe verte (Good morning, green dove)

The story begins with a song of love in its fullest bloom.The young girl is greeted as a dove descending from thesky, clad in the green colour of hope, and as a limpidpearl, born out of the water. The lovers are so closelylinked to each other that they share a common shadow,and their love is celebrated by the joy of brilliantbirdsong. This song represents the main theme of love,which has its origin in a Peruvian song. The themereturns in songs Nos. 7 and 12.

3. Montagnes (Mountains)

The awe-inspiring grandeur of hard and massivemountains is depicted by the sharp rhythms of a shrillpiano, tumbling down in darkness to meet the singer inher low range, and the view into the depths of abyssesevokes feelings of chaotic vertigo, mirrored in therotating motion of soaring piano chords.

4. Doundou tchil

The young man performs a dance of courtship to therepeated syllables Doundou tchil, imitating the sound ofPeruvian ankle-bells. Catching sight of his belovedPiroutcha, he plunges into an ecstatic love song, whichmixes pet names, Quechua words, and the syllables ofincantation mapa nama. The dance then grows to aclimax, accompanied by rapid birdsong.

5. L’amour de Piroutcha (The love of Piroutcha)

A dialogue unfolds between the young girl and theyoung man. She sings a lullaby, inviting him to lull herin his arms, but he realises that their love can only befulfilled in death, and asks her to cut off his head.

6. Répétition planétaire (Planetary repetition)

A vision of a frightening universe, dramatized bycontrasts between agitated cries and monotonousrepetition in mysterious darkness. The love-deathtragedy grows to cosmic dimensions, culminating in adance of dizziness and fear, a nightmare of whirlwinds,winding stairs and a planet that devours everything in itsrotation. In the mysterious incantations, Messiaen addsthe word lila, a Sanskrit word signifying the play ofcreative and destructive forces in the universe.

7. Adieu (Farewell)

The love song to the green dove is slowed down to asolemn song of parting and grief, accompanied byfunereal bells and deep gong sounds. The lover recallsthe vanished bliss and the love potion, and takes leave ofhis beloved. She was once light and fruit, heaven andearth, but now a desolate angel deprived of love’sbreath. In the myth of Tristan and Isolde, the magicpotion evokes irresistible love which leads to death.

8. Syllabes (Syllables)

A lucid memory of the departed beloved, and longstretches of ecstatic dancing incantation: pia pia pia piapia pia pia doundou tchil... to conjure up a new life withher after death, unfolding and flowering in heaven.Messiaen inserted significant allusions in the text of thissong. The number five given to Piroutcha is the sacrednumber of the Hindu god Shiva, who has the power toconquer death, and the frenzied repetition of pia piapia... alludes to a Peruvian tale of a prince who is savedfrom mortal danger by the warning calls of monkeys.

9. L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil (The stair repeats,gestures of the sun)

A fantasy of overwhelming love face to face with death,and after death. Inventons l’amour du monde (Let usinvent the love of the world) is the key phrase, reaching

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Hetna Regitze Bruun

Hetna Regitze Bruun was born in Denmark and studied at the Royal Academy ofMusic in Copenhagen, where she obtained her diploma in solo singing. She alsostudied in the soloist class at the Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus. She hasenhanced her singing skills at a number of master-classes with Margaret Price,Anne-Sofie von Otter, Philip Langridge, Andreas Schmidt and the pianists RudolfJansen, Helmut Deutsch and Malcolm Martineau. She has performed as a soloist innumerous Lieder concerts and oratorios in Denmark, England, Germany andBelgium in Northern Europe. She has also appeared at the Royal Opera House inCopenhagen and smaller opera houses in Denmark. In the British art film Feature,directed by Shezad Dawood, she had a lead rôle as Valkyrie. She has initiated,planned and sings in the young company Stand-up Opera, with its base inCopenhagen. Collaboration with the pianist Kristoffer Hyldig began at the RoyalAcademy in Copenhagen and they have worked together, with a mutual love forMessiaen’s music, for some years.

Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig

Kristoffer Nyholm Hyldig was born in 1982 in Denmark. He studied at the RoyalDanish Academy of Music with Tove Lønskov and as a soloist with Steinway artistNiklas Sivelöv. He has already been very active in Danish music life for several yearsas a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist, and has played with several of theDanish orchestras, conducted by Jean Thorel among others, won several prizes, mostrecently the special prize of the Jury in the EU piano competition 2009 in Prague, andreceived major Danish grants. Beside this he has recorded sound-tracks, and appearedon screen for Zentropa Films. Apart from his current teacher, Niklas Sivelöv, he hasbeen taught by Amalie Malling and Zara Piruman in Denmark as well as PninaSalzman, Volker Banfield, Pierre Réach, Bengt Forsberg, Malcolm Martineau,Rudolf Jansen, Anne Sofie von Otter and the piano duo Taal/Groethuysen. He hasperformed several of Messiaen’s pieces here, including his major piano compositions,Vingt Regards sur L’Enfant-Jésus and Oiseaux Exotiques.

Bud), predicting her son’s future enthusiasm for musicand birdsong. Even though his mother was not a believer,Messiaen grew up as a convinced and devout Catholic.

Trois Mélodies (1930)

Cécile Sauvage died in 1927, forty years old, and threeyears later Messiaen wrote Trois Mélodies in memory ofher, enclosing her poem Le sourire (The Smile) betweentwo texts of his own. Messiaen’s setting of Le sourire isintimate and delicate as the poem, ”like a kiss on thesoul”. The first song, Pourquoi? (Why?), evolves fromingenuous simplicity to passionate expression,presenting the delights of nature, birds, light, water, sky,flowers, and lamenting their passing charm. The finalsong, La fiancée perdue (The Lost Bride To Be) is avivid image of Cécile as a young and innocent bride,and a serene prayer that Jesus may grant her mercy andrepose after death.

In these three mélodies, the 21-year old composerwas on his way from the French tradition of Debussyand Fauré to a musical language of his own. Hecoloured the songs with the harmonies of the octatonicmode of alternating semitones and tones, which headopted as one of his “modes of limited transpositions”.These modes were Messiaen’s important personaldiscovery. Out of the twelve notes in the chromaticscale, he selected patterns of 6, 8, 9 or 10 notes whichrepeat themselves after a limited number oftranspositions on the keyboard. These modes becamethe sources of Messiaen’s refined and powerfulmelodies and characteristic colourful harmonies.

Harawi: Songs of Love and Death (1945)

Harawi is a cycle of twelve songs, portraying anoverwhelming love that is fulfilled in death. Messiaendrew on several sources of inspiration for this work. Hestudied the folk-music of the Andes in a collection ofPeruvian folk-melodies. The Andes were unknown toMessiaen, but the grandeur of the French Alps had madea huge impact on him since his childhood. He admired

the operas of Richard Wagner, not least the love story ofTristan and Isolde. He was a great reader of the Frenchsurrealist poets Pierre Reverdy and Paul Éluard, and hestudied Hindu mythology and books of astronomy. As aFrench soldier in the Second World War, Messiaenexperienced the threat of death, and suffered hunger andcold as a prisoner of war. As a composer, he developedhis skill and technique in numerous works for orchestra,organ, piano and voice, in particular the modes oflimited transpositions and the additive rhythms, whichimpart a sense of flexible and floating time by avoidingfixed metre.

From his sources, Messiaen selects melodies,words, images and ideas in a very personal way. Harawiis a type of Peruvian folk-song, often dealing withunhappy or lost love, sometimes combined with alonging for death. Messiaen selects a few of these songs,adapts their melodies to his own modes and rhythms,and integrates them in the European myth of Tristan andIsolde, the story of irresistible love that leads to death.From song texts in the indigenous Quechua language, hepicks out onomatopoeic words such as toungou,mahipipas, kahipipas and doundou tchil, the latter animitation of the sound of ankle-bells in dance. He alsoadopts the Peruvian girl’s name Piroutcha, green as thecolour of hope, and the dove as a symbol of the beloved.

Messiaen’s texts are surrealistic poems in the sensethat words, concepts and images combine and clash inan unusual and unexpected manner. Yet every text is asignificant contribution to the unfolding of the tragiclove story. These are the twelve songs of Harawi:

1. La ville qui dormait, toi (The town that slept, you)

The first song is a tender prelude to the cycle, sungextremely slowly, evoking memories of past,disappearing love. The beloved one is receding into adistant state of dream and sleep, inaccessible to thelover’s gaze. La violette double (the double violet) is asymbol of love, borrowed from the refrain of a Frenchfolk-song, in which a nightingale is sent as a messengerto the castle of love. Le plein minuit le banc (the “bank

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Olivier Messiaen naquit le 10 décembre 1908 enAvignon dans une famille littéraire. Son père était unéminent traducteur de littérature anglaise, et sa mère,Cécile Sauvage, publiait des poèmes. Tout enfant,Messiaen fit montre d’un talent musical précoce, et àonze ans il entrait au Conservatoire de Paris, où il étudiale piano, la composition et l’orgue. Après s’êtrediplômé, il devint organiste en l’Église de la Sainte-Trinité à Paris à partir de 1931, occupant ce postejusqu’à son décès, et sa contribution au répertoired’orgue est sans doute la plus importante de l’histoire dela musique depuis Bach.

En 1932, Messiaen épousa la violoniste ClaireDelbos, et cinq ans plus tard elle lui donna un fils. Il futcapturé pendant la Deuxième Guerre mondiale alorsqu’il avait été mobilisé et servait en tant qu’infirmier etil fut détenu à Görlitz, en Silésie. C’est là qu’il composal’une de ses œuvres les plus célèbres, son Quatuor pourla fin du temps, qui fut créé dans le stalag par quatreprisonniers de guerre. Libéré en 1941, Messiaen rentra àParis et accepta un poste d’enseignant au Conservatoire.Vers la fin de la guerre, sa femme se mit à présenter destroubles mentaux, séquelles d’une opération. Sacondition empira progressivement et elle finit par êtrehospitalisée jusqu’à sa mort, survenue en 1959.

Depuis son adolescence, Messiaen était passionnépar les chants d’oiseaux ; il décrivit un jour ces animauxcomme étant probablement ‘les plus grands musiciensqui existent sur notre planète’. En 1953, il commença àparcourir la France, retranscrivant méticuleusementdifférents chants d’oiseaux et les employant dans samusique. Dans les années 1960, alors que sa réputationinternationale grandissante le menait de plus en plusloin, au Japon, en Iran, en Argentine ou en Australie, ilaccrut ses tournées de concerts pour poursuivre sesrecherches de chants d’oiseaux, souvent accompagnépar sa seconde femme, la pianiste Yvonne Loriod, qu’ilavait épousée en 1961.

La fin des années 1960 et les années 1970 furentmarquées par une série d’œuvres monumentalesillustrant les idées et les phénomènes qui l’inspiraient leplus : l’oratorio La transfiguration de notre SeigneurJésus-Christ (1965-9) et l’opéra Saint-François d’Assise(1975-83) furent des actes de dévotion à sa foicatholique, et la pièce orchestrale Des canyons auxétoiles... (1971-4) lui fut inspirée par les chantsd’oiseaux ainsi que les couleurs et la majesté de BryceCanyon, dans l’Utah, qu’il visita en 1972. Messiaencessa d’enseigner en 1978, mais continua de composerjusque peu de temps avant sa mort.

Messiaen vécut et travailla à une époque où lescompositeurs occidentaux rejetaient bon nombre desstyles qui avaient évolué au cours des trois sièclesprécédents pour en inventer de nouveaux. Si Messiaenétait lui-même un novateur, il demeurait en marge de sescontemporains, car sa musique naissait d’une profondefoi religieuse et de son émerveillement envers la natureen un temps où la sécularité et le détachement étaientbeaucoup plus en vogue. En sa qualité d’enseignant, ilexerça une énorme influence sur une nouvellegénération de compositeurs précurseurs comme Boulezet Stockhausen, mais alors que ceux-ci cherchaient à selibérer de toute tradition, l’univers sonore de Messiaenprésente toujours une rayonnante beauté qui sembledécouler naturellement des ravissantes harmonies descompositeurs français du début du XXè siècle tels queDebussy, qui fut d’ailleurs le premier à éveiller sapassion pour la musique.

Les Trois Mélodies furent écrites alors queMessiaen n’avait que 22 ans, et on peut décelerl’influence de Debussy dans leurs textures et leursharmonies. Ils constituent un hommage à la mémoire desa mère, qui était morte en 1927. La seconde mélodie estla seule où il met en musique un poème de sa mère, et ilécrivit lui-même les textes de la première et de latroisième. Dans Pourquoi ?, le poète se demande

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realise the bride has been lost and the poet asks Jesus togrant her peace.

When Messiaen wrote the song cycle Harawi in1945, he had been studying Peruvian legend and folk-song (the title of the cycle refers to a particular type ofPeruvian traditional song, often dealing with the deathof a lover). He had also recently written the incidentalmusic for a production of a play by Lucien Fabre basedon the Celtic legend of Tristan and Isolde, whose lovecould only be fulfilled in death. His wife Claire’sdeteriorating mental health made this a particularlysignificant concept for Messiaen at this time. He gaveHarawi the subtitle ‘Songs of Love and Death’, and thiswork, together with the epic Turangalîla-symphonie(1946-1948) and Cinq Rechants (1948), form what hecalled his ‘Tristan trilogy’.

The heroine of Harawi is Piroutcha, though herlover is never named. The work is in two halves: thefirst seven songs depict the couple, their love, and theirparting through death in Adieu. Amid the ecstasy of thisfirst half, darkness and premonitions of death loom:Montagnes is full of references to dark colours, and inL’amour de Piroutcha the young man says ‘Coupe-moila tête’ (‘Cut off my head’). The remaining five songsdepict a world full of surrealist imagery where thelovers have been reunited after death.

The poems, which Messiaen wrote himself, are inFrench, interspersed with words in the AndeanQuetchua language. Messiaen uses the Quetcha wordsnot for their semantic meaning, but for their soundquality and onomatopoeic effect. The exclamations ofDoundou tchil in the fourth song evoke the sounds ofankle-bells worn by Peruvian dancers, and the wildrepetitions of the word ‘pia’ in Syllabes refer to aPeruvian legend in which the warning cries of monkeysin the trees save a Prince from death.

The melody first heard at the opening of Bonjourtoi, colombe verte is the work’s ‘Thème de l’Amour’(‘love theme’). It can be heard again in Adieu, Dans lenoir, and in altered form in the last section of L’escalierredit, gestes de soleil and throughout Katchikatchi lesétoiles. The tune is closely based on a Peruvian folk-

song, and also appears in Messiaen’s incidental music toFabre’s play.

Messiaen’s love of birdsong, of nature and hisfascination with colour are all evident in Harawi. Thedark imagery of Montagnes combines with dramaticmusical gestures to evoke the grandeur of a vast,foreboding mountainous landscape. At several pointsMessiaen instructs the pianist to play ‘comme un oiseau’(‘like a bird’), such as the solo piano sections of Bonjourtoi, colombe verte and in the ethereal interjections inAmour oiseau d’étoile. Messiaen’s text also containsfrequent references to birds; in particular the recurringtheme of a green dove (‘colombe verte’), representingboth the girl and the coming of spring, provides relieffrom an otherwise dark atmosphere.

Messiaen specified that Harawi should be sung by a‘grande soprano dramatique’ and he was well aware ofthe great vocal demands he was placing on the singer.One of his favourite sopranos, Marcelle Bunlet, gave thepremière of the work in Paris on 26th June 1946,accompanied by the composer.

David McCleery

The music of Messiaen is overpowering and seductive.It delights the senses and challenges the mind, callingforth emotions both peaceful and violent. It dissolvestime into a floating state and creates a multidimensionalspace of subtle sounds, harmonic colours, and melodicmovement. The music of Messiaen encompasses greatcontrasts, from luscious harmonies to harsh cacophoniceffects. Simple melodies stand side by side withcomplex music in many layers. His music possessesdelicate nuances and provocative clashes, and tones thatrise to extreme heights and fall to bottomless depths.

Messiaen’s Trois Mélodies and the song cycleHarawi both deal with the loss of a beloved person. Thecomposer wrote the texts in conjunction with the music,establishing a coherent creative process. “I am not apoet”, Messiaen said. But his mother, Cécile Sauvage,was a poet. Before Olivier was born, she wrote thecollection of poems L’Âme en bourgeon (The Soul in

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pourquoi il n’est plus touché par la beauté de la nature ;Le sourire compare l’effet d’un seul mot dit parquelqu’un que l’on aime à celui d’un baiser donné àl’âme, ce qui suscite un sourire tremblant. La fiancéeperdue débute alors que la fiancée évoque des imagesdes anges, des après-midi ensoleillées et le ventsoufflant parmi les fleurs ; cependant, l’atmosphère netarde pas à changer lorsque nous comprenons que lafiancée s’est éteinte et que le poète prie Jésus de luiaccorder le repos.

Lorsque Messiaen composa le cycle de mélodiesHarawi en 1945, il avait étudié les légendes et les chantsfolkloriques péruviens (le titre du cycle se réfère à untype spécifique de chant péruvien traditionnel traitantsouvent de la mort d’un amant). Il venait égalementd’écrire la musique de scène d’une production d’unepièce de Lucien Fabre fondée sur la légende celte deTristan et Iseut, dont l’amour ne pouvait s’accomplir quedans la mort. La santé mentale déclinante de son épouseClaire en faisait un concept particulièrement lourd desens pour Messiaen à cette époque. Il donna à Harawi lesous-titre de ‘Chant d’amour et de mort’ et cet ouvrageforme avec l’épique Turangalîla-symphonie (1946-1948) et les Cinq Rechants (1948) ce qu’il appela sa‘Trilogie de Tristan’.

L’héroïne de Harawi s’appelle Piroutcha, mais sonamant n’est jamais nommé. L’ouvrage est scindé endeux moitiés : les sept premières mélodies décrivent lecouple, leur amour et la mort qui les sépare dans Adieu.L’extase de cette première moitié est assombrie par lesténèbres et les présages de mort : Montagnes regorge deréférences à des couleurs sombres, et dans L’amour dePiroutcha, le jeune homme dit : ‘Coupe-moi la tête’. Lescinq autres mélodies dépeignent un monde plein d’uneimagerie surréaliste où les amants ont été réunis après lamort.

Les poèmes, que Messiaen écrivit lui-même, sont enfrançais, émaillés de mots de la langue andine Quetchua.Messiaen emploie les mots Quetchua non pas pour leursens sémantique, mais pour leur qualité sonore et leureffet onomatopéique. Les exclamations de Doundou

tchil dans la quatrième mélodie rappellent les sons desclochettes que portent aux chevilles les danseusespéruviennes, et les sauvages répétitions du mot ‘pia’dans Syllabes font allusion à une légende péruviennedans laquelle les cris d’alarme poussés par des singesdans les arbres sauvent un prince de la mort.

La mélodie entendue pour la première fois au débutde Bonjour toi, colombe verte est le ‘Thème de l’Amour’de l’ouvrage. On l’entend à nouveau dans Adieu, Dansle noir, et sous une forme modifiée dans la dernièresection de L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil ainsi que toutle long de Katchikatchi les étoiles. Cet air s’appuieprincipalement sur une chanson populaire péruvienne etapparaît aussi dans la musique de scène composée parMessiaen pour la pièce de Fabre.

L’amour de Messiaen pour les chants d’oiseaux et lanature et sa fascination pour les couleurs sont tous deuxmanifestes dans Harawi. La sombre imagerie deMontagnes s’allie à des gestes musicaux dramatiquespour évoquer la grandeur d’un paysage de montagnevaste et menaçant. A plusieurs endroits, Messiaenindique au pianiste de jouer ‘comme un oiseau’, commedans les sections de piano seul de Bonjour toi, colombeverte et dans les interjections éthérées d’Amour oiseaud’étoile. Le texte du compositeur contient également defréquentes références aux oiseaux, notamment avec lethème récurrent de la colombe verte, qui représente à lafois la jeune fille et la venue du printemps et prodigue unpeu de soulagement à l’atmosphère principalementsombre.

Messiaen spécifiait que Harawi devait être chantépar une ‘grande soprano dramatique’, et il était bienconscient des immenses difficultés vocales qu’il posait àla cantatrice. C’est Marcelle Bunlet, l’une de sessopranos préférées, qui créa l’ouvrage à Paris le 26 juin1946, accompagnée par le compositeur.

David McCleery

Version français : David Ylla-Somers

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Olivier Messiaen was born on 10th December 1908 inAvignon into a literary family. His father was aneminent translator of English literature and his mother,Cécile Sauvage, was a published poet. Messiaendisplayed a precocious musical talent from an early age,being accepted by the time he was eleven into the ParisConservatoire, where he studied piano, composition andorgan. After graduation he served as organist at theÉglise de la Sainte-Trinité in Paris from 1931 until hisdeath, and his own contribution to the organ repertoire isarguably greater than that of any other composer sinceBach.

In 1932 Messiaen married the violinist ClaireDelbos and they had a son five years later. DuringWorld War II he was captured while serving as amedical auxiliary and held as a prisoner of war atGörlitz in Silesia. It was there that he wrote one of hismost famous works, the Quatuor pour la fin de temps(Quartet for the End of Time), which was given its firstperformance in the camp by four of the prisoners. Afterhis release in 1941 Messiaen returned to Paris and tookup a Professorship at the Conservatoire. Towards theend of war Claire developed mental health problemsfollowing an operation. Her condition worsened steadilyand she was eventually hospitalised until her death in1959.

Messiaen had been fascinated by birdsong since histeenage years; he once described birds as ‘probably thegreatest musicians to inhabit our planet’. In 1953 hebegan travelling around France, meticulously notatingdifferent birdsong and using it in his music. By the1960s as his growing international reputation was takinghim further afield (including Japan, Iran, Argentina andAustralia), he extended concert trips to further hisbirdsong research, often accompanied by his secondwife, the pianist Yvonne Loriod, whom he had marriedin 1961.

The late 1960s and 1970s were dominated by aseries of monumental works which embodied the ideas

and phenomena that inspired him most: the oratorio Latransfiguration de notre Seigneur Jésus-Christ (1965-9)and the opera Saint-François d’Assise (1975-83) wereacts of devotion to his Roman Catholic faith, and theorchestral work Des Canyons aux étoiles... (1971-4) wasinspired by birdsong as well as the colours and majestyof the Bryce Canyon in Utah, which he visited in 1972.Messiaen retired from teaching in 1978, but continuedcomposing until shortly before his death.

Messiaen lived and worked at a time when Westerncomposers were rejecting many of the styles that hadevolved over the previous three centuries and inventingnew ones. Although he himself was a musical innovator,he stood aside from his contemporaries, as his musicwas born of a deep religious faith and a wonder ofnature in an age when secularism and detachment weremuch more in vogue. As a teacher he was a majorinfluence on a new generation of ground-breakingcomposers, including Boulez and Stockhausen, butwhereas these composers aimed to break totally freefrom tradition, Messiaen’s sound-world always has ashimmering beauty that seems to be the naturalsuccessor to the ravishing harmonies of early twentiethcentury French composers, such as Debussy, who hadfirst awakened his own passion for music.

The Trois Mélodies were written when Messiaenwas only 22, and the influence of Debussy can be heardin the textures and harmonies. They are a musicalmemorial to his mother, who had died in 1927. Thesecond song is his only setting of a poem by his mother,and he wrote the texts of the first and third songshimself. In Pourquoi? (Why?), the poet wonders whythe beauty of nature no longer moves him; Le sourire(The Smile) likens the effect of a single word uttered bya loved one to being kissed on the soul, which bringsforth a trembling smile. La fiancée perdue (The LostBride To Be) opens as the bride evokes images ofangels, sunny afternoons and the wind blowing throughthe flowers; the mood soon changes, however, as we

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Olivier

MESSIAEN(1908-1992)

Trois Mélodies 7:311 No. 1 Pourquoi? (Why?) 2:122 No. 2 Le sourire (The Smile) 2:103 No. 3 La fiancée perdue (The Lost Bride To Be) 3:09

Harawi: Songs of Love and Death 57:484 No. 1 La ville qui dormait, toi (The town that slept, you) 2:355 No. 2 Bonjour toi, colombe verte (Good morning, green dove) 3:296 No. 3 Montagnes (Mountains) 3:367 No. 4 Doundou tchil 3:598 No. 5 L’amour de Piroutcha (The love of Piroutcha) 4:589 No. 6 Répétition planétaire (Planetary repetition) 5:500 No. 7 Adieu (Farewell) 7:30! No. 8 Syllabes (Syllables) 5:42@ No. 9 L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil

(The stair repeats, gestures of the sun) 6:40# No. 10 Amour oiseau d’étoile (Love bird of a star) 4:45$ No. 11 Katchikatchi les étoiles (Katchikatchi the stars) 2:02% No. 12 Dans le noir (In the dark) 6:44

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MESSIAENTrois Mélodies • Harawi

Hetna Regitze Bruun, SopranoKristoffer Hyldig, Piano

Photos: Søren MalmoseGraphics: www.mamagraphic.dk

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8.554090

8.554824 8.570993

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8.554478-79

Messiaen’s song cycles Trois Mélodies (1930) and Harawi (1945) were both inspired by the loss ofa loved one: the Mélodies are a memorial to his mother who had died three years previously, andHarawi was written shortly after his wife Claire Delbos had begun to suffer from the long illnessthat would ultimately lead to her death. But far from resorting to misery, the shimmering beautyof Messiaen’s music leaves the listener with a sense of hope and transcendence. DDD

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MESSIAEN(1908-1992)

Trois Mélodies • Harawi

Recorded at Mantziusgården, Birkerød, Denmark, on 5th, 7th, 8th, 10th and 11th June, 2008With thanks to Juhl-Sørensen Pianos, Augustinus Fonden, GRAMEX, Solistforeningen af 1921

Producers: Torsten Jessen and Tove Lønskov • Engineer: Torsten JessenMastered by Jan Eliasson (AudioPlanet Sound Refinery) • Publishers: Editions Durand (tracks 1-3);

Editions Leduc (tracks 4-15) • Booklet notes: David McCleery and Erik ChristensenCover painting by Anne Sophie Malmberg (www.annesophiemalmberg.com)

Playing Time65:19

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Hetna Regitze Bruun, Soprano • Kristoffer Hyldig, Piano

Trois Mélodies (1930) 7:311 No. 1 Pourquoi? 2:122 No. 2 Le sourire 2:103 No. 3 La fiancée perdue 3:09

Harawi: Songs of Love and Death (1945) 57:484 No. 1 La ville qui dormait, toi 2:355 No. 2 Bonjour toi, colombe verte 3:296 No. 3 Montagnes 3:367 No. 4 Doundou tchil 3:598 No. 5 L’amour de Piroutcha 4:589 No. 6 Répétition planétaire 5:500 No. 7 Adieu 7:30! No. 8 Syllabes 5:42@ No. 9 L’escalier redit, gestes de soleil 6:40# No. 10 Amour oiseau d’étoile 4:45$ No. 11 Katchikatchi les étoiles 2:02% No. 12 Dans le noir 6:44