Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'Oiseaux, VII (2/2)

Catalogue d'oiseaux (in 7 books), for piano, I/42 (1956-1958) First Book I. Le chocard des alpes II. Le loriot III. Le merle bleu Second Book IV. Le traquet stapazin Third Book V. La chouette hulotte VI. L'alouette-lulu Fourth Book VII. Le rousserolle effarvatte Fifth Book VIII. L'alouette calandrelle IX. La bouscarle Sixth Book X. Le merle de roche Seventh Book XI. La buse variable XII. La traquet rieur XIII. Le courlis cendré Håkon Austbø, piano Not until French composer Olivier Messiaen was in his mid-40s did his lifelong passion for ornithology manifest itself in his compositions with startling originality. Over the course of the mammoth, seven-book cycle Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds), the songs of 77 distinct birds unfold in a series of 13 movements totaling nearly three hours of solo piano music. Messiaen's love of nature, as displayed in the cycle (each movement not only has a title bird but also an actual French geographic region assigned to it), is nearly matched by his love of musical arch form. Both within movements and across books, Messiaen inscribes a rough symmetry: occasionally passages reoccur palindromically; more often blocks of sound mirror one another over a central axis. The first and last books both contain three movements, the third and fifth two apiece, and the second, fourth, and six books a single movement each. Catalogue d'oiseaux begins with "Le chocard des alpes" (the Alpine chough), not only depicting the bird, but also its ...