Messiaen's Monument

Lisbon's vast Coliseu concert hall was in tumult. For 20 minutes, the audience of 5,000 at the Gulbenkian Festival simultaneously hailed and hooted as French Composer Olivier Messiaen, thin gray hair disheveled and glasses askew, went through the ritual of kissing the conductor and instrumental soloists on both cheeks. Then, perplexed by the audience's contradictory response, he discreetly withdrew as both applause and a drumming pateada--the foot-stomping Portuguese sign of displeasure --roared on.

The reaction to the world premiere of Messiaen's 1-hr. 45-min. oratorio, The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was typical of the contradictory emotions that this avant-garde composer has stirred during his career. Now 60, Messiaen has both enthralled and antagonized audiences for three decades with his innovations in serialization, unorthodox rhythms, and attempts to give musical expression to the sounds of nature, as in the complex Turangalila-Sym-phonie (1948) and Chronochromie (1960). Those techniques, plus his conviction that "colors and sound are the same thing" and his devout, mystical Catholicism, all were brought into play in Transfiguration. One Lisbon critic hailed it as "a unique monument in the music of our time." Another suggested that it would have been better if it had lasted 20 minutes instead of nearly two hours.

Complex Counterpoint. It took Messiaen nearly four years to compose the oratorio, which requires 109 players, seven instrumental soloists and a 105-voice choir. Sung in Latin, the opening narration from Matthew (17: 1-2) sets the scene: "And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them." Subsequent movements carry through the theme of divine splendor and light, as Messiaen indulges his feeling for color and bird song. Thus Messiaen's program notes describe one musical phrase as "gold and violet, red and purple, blue-gray studded with gold and deep blue, green and an orange shade. The cello solo sings of the simple brightness of eternal light. The piano solo adds the blue robin of America, the group of soloists give the song of the blackbird of the rocks."

Under the direction of Serge Baudo, the Orchestre de Paris and soloists (flute, clarinet, xylorimba, vibraphone, grand marimba, cello and piano) interwove a complex counterpoint of bird songs with the Desi-Tala rhythms of ancient Indian music. Gongs reverberated, bells rang and castenets clicked, the climactic clamor held together by the strong swell of the chorus.

Messiaen considers the work the culmination of a lifetime of eclectic musical research. Undeterred by the mixed reception in Lisbon, he plans to present Transfiguration in Paris next October.

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