Olivier Messiaen — O sacrum convivium!
SATB choir (1937)

“I understand completely your desire to renew the liturgy and your horror of recent hymns—which I share! Unfortunately, I believe my music to be much too complex to be of use to you: it can only be played on the piano, on the organ, and above all by an orchestra, and is intended only for an initiated élite. I think it would be unsingable by a congregation and also by young children.”

Olivier Messiaen (1964)

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) was a bit of an enigma. He was a celebrated composer and organist, and an enthusiastic ornithologist. He loved to travel and the places he visited often influenced the music he wrote. He was a dedicated catholic, which also had a significant impact on his compositional output. He entered the Paris conservatoire at age 11 and studied with Paul Dukas amongst others. He was appointed organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris, in 1931, a post he held for 61 years until his death.

At the outbreak of World War II, Messiaen was drafted into the French army as a medical auxiliary rather than an active combatant due to his poor eyesight. He was captured at Verdun and imprisoned at Stalag VIII-A, where he met clarinetist Henri Akoka, cellist Étienne Pasquier and violinist Jean le Boulaire. He wrote a trio for them, which he gradually developed into a more elaborate and ambitious work, Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time). The work was first performed in January 1941 to an audience of prisoners and prison guards, with the composer playing a poorly maintained upright piano and the trio playing poor quality instruments available in the camp. The title's "end of time" alludes to the Apocalypse, and to the way that Messiaen, through rhythm and harmony, used time and the modes of limited transposition in a manner completely different from his predecessors and contemporaries, thus highlighting his individualistic style and musical character.

O sacrum convivium is a short, unusually structured 35 bar motet for SATB choir written in 1937. Messiaen composed the work at the request of a clergyman, Abbé Brun. Messiaen himself was a devoted catholic and much of his music is directly linked to his religious beliefs without necessarily setting or referring to specific pieces of liturgical text. Indeed, this is the only piece that Messiaen wrote specifically for liturgical use.

Messiaen’s music is often categorized as being 'difficult' to listen to or make sense of and in some ways, it seems that he felt this way too. This work is uncharacteristically simple for the composer of such extended masterpieces as Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time), La transfiguration de notre seigneur Jésus-Christ (The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ) and Saint-François d'Assise (Saint Francis of Assissi).

Analysts argue over whether the work is truly in the key of F-sharp major as it first appears, or in one of Messiaen’s own modes of limited transposition. Modes of limited transposition are particular modes or scales that have a specific set of criteria relating to their symmetry and the repetition of their intervallic groups. They can be transposed to all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, but at least two of these transpositions must result in the same pitch classes or intervallic relationships, thus their transpositions are limited. Messiaen compiled and published these modes in his book La technique de mon langage musical (The Technique of my Musical Language). Cases for both analytical approaches could be made. Interestingly, Messiaen is believed to have said that F-sharp major was his favourite key because it expresses the “mystical experience of superhuman love”.

This 35-bar piece is scored for four-part mixed chorus. Messiaen said that four unspecified solo voices could also be a suitable scoring for the piece, along with an optional accompaniment of an organ (ad libitum), which is unusually flexible for him. The tempo indication at the beginning of the piece is lent et expressif (slow and expressive) and performers are asked to count eighth notes, as no time signature is provided (as became usual in future Messiaen compositions). The number of eighth notes per bar varies greatly making the piece feel free and flowing when executed correctly.

Last modified 22 November 2023 14:41:21 EST by Webmaster –