Olivier Messiaen - Catalogue d'oiseaux: Le traquet stapazin (Black-eared Wheatear)

Le traquet stapazin (Black-eared Wheatear)
from Catalogue d'oiseaux (Catalogue of Birds), Book II

A composition for solo piano by French composer and ornithologist Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992), based on his careful observation of birdsong - in this case, the song of the black-eared wheatear (Oenanthe hispanica), a small migratory bird found primarily in Spain, Portugal and north Africa.

Pianist: Håkon Austbø

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Olivier
• Messiaen
• Catalogue
• d'oiseaux
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• birds
• Le
• traquet
• stapazin
• black-eared
• wheatear
• flycatcher
• thrush
• Oenanthe
• hispanica
• oiseau
• bird
• birdsong
• French
• France
• Håkon
• Austbø
• solo
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• contemporary
• twentieth-century
• modern
• classical
• music

[egyptroxs]

How does this sound anything like a bird.

[musicanth]

@egyptroxs It's not supposed to replicate birdsong exactly - it's art, not imitation. But if you really can't hear any resemblance, maybe you should get new speakers.

[MaestroTJS]

@musicanth It's more like snippets of birdsong surrounded by inane and evil-sounding chords.

Messiaen was messed in the head to think he was doing a fair job of presenting an artistic version of nature or, in other works, the religious spirit. But I'm sure I could never convince his equally messed-up supporters of that.

[musicanth]

@MaestroTJS If you lack the musical understanding and/or soundness of mind to appreciate Messiaen's art, I feel very sorry for you.

[MaestroTJS]

@musicanth Oh? Then please do educate me and the rest of us ignorant plebians on what we're missing. In the meantime, I'll prepare myself for the usual ineffectual modern-art arguments you will likely present me.

For your own part, you could possibly juxtapose, say, Bach's Gloria from his Mass in b minor to Regard de l'esprit de joie by Messiaen and tell me who more accurately portrays divine joy--if you can understand that concept at all (and maybe you can't).

[musicanth]

@MaestroTJS I don't owe you an education or an explanation. All I'm saying is that I enjoy Messiaen's music, and I'm sorry that you do not.

You gain nothing by coming back here just to stir up arguments and insult others who enjoy this music, so feel free to move along to a different video.

[AdrianHWH]

The melody is built of mediterranean birdsong. If you isolate it you still need to recognize these birds from that area. Difficult if you don't live there or even worse if you've never been there.

[kfcohea]

@MaestroTJS

I love "representative: art too and I'm not crazy about a lot of so called "modern" art but Messiaen is different for me. Although I don't like all he did. I'm playing his Vocalise and the more I play it the more I love it. In a period of Picasso's life you couldn't tell a women from a lamp stand but it wasn't representative art. It was expressional art. You like it or you don't. Like all art. If you don't, don't listen. But above all don't be an amateur critic.

[Necessity4fun]

This is funny I liked!!!And I can hear a resemblance of birds.

[alanjknig]

As I understand it, Messiaen wrote the birdsongs within the parameters of the modes(scales) that he set out from which to compose. Then, the chords come from the pitches of the birdsong (in the mode) for the particular bird.Of course, this gets very far from the original sonically. Time wise, the birds re-iterate at their own "tempo" but emit their song motivically as occurrences without conforming to any steady beat or development. I feel that "catalog" was practice in writing this--innovation.

[MaestroTJS]

@DarkZekeX I was told not to spam this video, so I won't go into great detail. (PM me if you wish.)

It could be that this is an insensitive performer, but have you been out in nature and listened to birds singing? I have yet to encounter that much dissonance and unbelievably harsh fortissimos while listening to birds or any other creatures. There's more to portraying birds than getting their melodies and rhythms right--like setting a mood maybe. At times it seems successful, though.

[DarkZekeX]

@MaestroTJS how is he messed up? Because its different? What are your standards?

[tylerknowlton]

I love Messiaen!

[MaestroTJS]

@musicanth Although I threw out the first insult, you did counter by saying I lacked musical understanding, etc.. Surely you must realize than an opinion like mine is not isolated when listening to music like this. So in my mind, while you don't "owe" anyone anything, if you wish them to appreciate this like you and others do, it might be to your benefit to provide a bit of analysis. But I can understand if you don't; not everyone is interested in polemicizing.