Le Merle Noir by Olivier Messiaen

Performed at my degree recital at the University of Maryland, Dec. 2, 2007.

Olivier Messiaen was commissioned by the Paris Conservatory to compose this work, which means "blackbird," as an audition piece for prospective students. Known for transcribing bird calls and incorporating them into his works, this is one of Messian's early pieces devoted entirely to birdsong. While actively observing birds, it was only just after this piece that he started actually transcribing what he heard. Le Merle noir contains wide, angular intervals, rapid strings of pitches, and several short, repeated notes help to characterize its bird-like nature, namely in the cadenzas.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• flute
• Messiaen
• le
• merle
• noir
• ellie
• falaris

[ejflute3]

That's a good point. I got the performance professionally recorded in addition to this video, so maybe I'll superimpose the audio on the video soon.

[marian444]

Excellent !

[crowe]

Beautiful.

[FabFlutes]

I question the interpretation.

[jastanger]

I can't say I echo the sentiments about the recording quality. It's a nice performance and an adequate documentation of the performance. It really is not an audio recording worth qualifying further. Can still enjoy the performance, though.

[texasinger2]

Thank you for the very nice recording of this piece :). It is good to hear a good recording since I am soon performing the work.