Ivan Hewett on Messiaen

So much of what we think we know is often rehashed second hand opinion. It takes a brave man to reconsider. That's why Ivan Hewett's article in the Telegraph is so interesting :
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/07/17/bmweir117.xml
if it doesnt work go to music then scroll to bottom of page

We're so accustomed to taking Messiaen's music on surface terms that it's not easy to hear past the obvious signposts, like birdsong, religion and exotica. But Messiaen wasn't revered by people like Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis etc. for nothing. What he does in his music is actually fundamentally radical. From birds, he rethinks the idea of melody and rhythm. Birds don't do "songs" they jerk, twitch and fly off in odd tangents. Nature is dissonant, many voices in cacophony. Thus the exotica. You don't "need" a single thread, things happen at different levels at the same time, you process them in your mind. The very idea of space is "sculpted", by the place we hear, by the open-ended horizons. Even his loopier dead ends are fun because they don't fit the idea that everything has to be neat and "right".

Then, the timelessness. Messiaen makes us slow down and reflect. His silences, turn you back into yourself. Hence the vignette form, small portions on which to contemplate, on their own and in context, breaking down the idea of music as one impenetrable, structured edifice. No symphonies ! In Catholic Churches there's something called the Stations of the Cross where people look upon an image but silently meditate. You don't "have" to think about the image, you are alone with your thoughts and no one knows but you and God (assuming you believe). What it does to you and to your soul is far more important than what's depicted. And Messiaen is happy ! Not in the idiot grin sense but Seligkeit, eternal bliss which allows that there are things we will never know : it's OK to acknowledge powers greater than the self. In our times, cynicism and meanness of spirit seem to be the rule. Yet Messiaen subverts that too, by sheer simple purity. No wonder he confounds. We need his gentle challenge more than ever !