1. Biography - Ian le Prévost

Born in Avignon in 1908, Olivier Messiaen was to become one of the most individual composers of the twentieth century, developing a harmonic and melodic language that was, for some, to come to be regarded as the epitome of the bond that exists between music and spirituality. Regarded by many as France's greatest living composer, for sixty years he was at the forefront of a period in which music and its language was to change more quickly and fundamentally than in any other period in history; Messiaen was a chief protagonist in that period, both as a composer and as a teacher. His works are richly varied, but underlying all is a deep spirituality that is rooted in his ardent Christian beliefs and his deep love for nature, which he regards as God's masterpiece. His later music is inspired by the sounds of nature, and, in particular, birdsong, which he regarded as the most natural of all music.

His father, Pierre, was renowned as a translator of Shakespeare's plays; his mother, to whom he felt a close affinity, was the poet Cécile Sauvage.

Living what he described as a solitary childhood, surrounded by poetry or stories of enchanted worlds, Messiaen did not understand why he felt drawn towards music. The family had a piano, which he began to play, and he would often spend his time experimenting with good harmonies and melodies; he even wrote canons.

With the outbreak of war in 1914, and the call-up of Pierre Messiaen, the family went to stay at Grenoble, in the Dauphiné mountains, a constant source of inspiration throughout his life as a composer. During these years, he started piano lessons, playing pieces that he bought from the town's large music shop, Deshairs. He would take any opportunity to get musical scores, receiving them as presents, but also saving money to buy them. One work that he bought and loved immensely, was Grieg's Peer Gynt; influenced by folklore, its appeal was its flowing melodic lines, which gave him his love of melody. His music teacher, who earned his living by giving lessons, never let him pay. When, at the age of eleven, Messiaen left him to go to Paris, he was given a score of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande, which he described as a revelation:

Debussy's music is like water. Water is still and doesn't move, but if you throw a stone in, there is an immediate shock wave around the stone and the water starts moving. Debussy's music is like that. There are sudden pauses and all of a sudden it moves. It was the pauses that struck me.

In 1919, his father was appointed a teacher at the lycée Charlemagne in Paris, where Messiaen's musical education continued, joining the Paris Conservatoire that same year, where he studied until 1930. Although he took organ with the renowned Marcel Dupré, piano with Georges Falkenburg, and history with Maurice Emmanuale, he regarded the training received from Paul Dukas as essential to his achievements as a composer. Dukas taught him form and structure, but, more importantly, orchestration, and it was whilst he was in that class that he wrote his first major compositions, the Huit Préludes pour Piano.

Messiaen gave Dupré much credit for his lifelong interest in the organ as both a composer and a performer, and, at the age of 22, he became organist at the Paris Church of La Trinité, where he was to remain for the rest of his life. His first major composition for organ, L'Ascension, written in 1934, was an adaptation of an earlier work for orchestra. In four movements, it portrays the mystery of Christ's ascension into Heaven; one movement of the orchestral suite, Alléluia sur la trompette, alléluia sur la cymbale became transplanted by Transports de joies, which was to become one of Messiaen's most famous organ works.

The advent of war in Europe was to seriously disrupt Messiaen's life as a musician, but also led to the composition of one of his most appealing works; whilst serving as an orderly in a French army hospital he was captured by the Germans and held prisoner for a year. There he suffered terrible deprivations - food was scarce and prisoners were provided with just enough to keep them alive. He gave a lecture to the camp's priests' section on the colours of the Apocalypse and was, in particular, struck by the Angel of the Apocalypse that announces the end of time. This event heralded his Quatuor pour la fin du temps for other musicians in the camp who were incarcerated with him: a violinist, Henri Leboulaire, a clarinettist, Henri Acoca and a famous cellist, Etienne Pasquier. With himself as pianist, the first performance took place in the Stalag. Messiaen described the first performance as 'horrible' - the piano keys stuck, the cello had only three strings and the clarinet had a jammed key. 'It was a horrible performance and the people there knew nothing about music, but since we were all companions of misfortune, they were enthusiastic… it was a moment of deliverance for those unhappy hungry people.'