'He had his music move with a singleness of purpose, even while it drew on a range of sources (chant and late Romantic orchestral sound, birdsongs and irregular rhythmic patterns) with no attempt at synthesis. As a teacher he instructed many of the most prominent composers of the next two generations.' The musicologist Paul Griffiths gives a brief general description of Messiaen's music as follows: He was alone, too, among major 20th-century composers in his joyously held Catholic faith, which again was unswerving, however much he came to value non-European cultures, especially Indian and Japanese. The sources of his music may be traced on the one hand to the French organ tradition and on the other to the innovations of Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartók, but right at the start of his career he found a modal system that has a completely individual sound, and to this he remained true, even when he vastly extended the possibilities of his style after World War II. According to Grove Music Online, Messiaen 'was a musician apart. He was a composer, organist, and renowned teacher, and one of the most significant French musicians of his generation.
Olivier Messiaen was born in Avignon, France on December 10, 1908, and so in 2008 we celebrate his centennial.
