Olivier Messiaen
France, 1928–1992
French composer and organist. Quartet for the End of Time, the Turangalîla-Symphonie. A synthesis of total serialism, Indian rhythms and Catholic mysticism — and a crucial teacher of the avant-garde.
MusicRoots documents 1 artist who influenced Olivier Messiaen and 8 artists Olivier Messiaen influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.
Who influenced Olivier Messiaen?
- Claude Debussy — Messiaen said the score of Pelléas et Mélisande, given to him at age ten, was 'the decisive influence of my life'.
Which artists did Olivier Messiaen influence?
- Henryk Górecki — Messiaen was the model of spiritual composition and colouristic use of simple harmonies that influenced Górecki's late style.
- Karlheinz Stockhausen — Messiaen was Stockhausen's direct teacher in Paris and shaped his early compositional thinking.
- Radiohead — Messiaen's modes and the ondes Martenot entered Radiohead directly through Jonny Greenwood, who has named him a key modern-classical influence and plays the instrument on their records.
- Iannis Xenakis — Messiaen was Xenakis's teacher in Paris and gave him the decisive advice: to abandon conventional harmony study and build music from his mathematics and architecture instead.
- Pierre Boulez — Boulez studied in Messiaen's legendary harmony class of 1944–45 — the direct classroom origin of the post-war avant-garde.
- Luc Ferrari — Ferrari studied in Messiaen's analysis class — the academy he passed through before the tape recorder.
- Pierre Henry — Henry studied with Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire — the academy behind the man who then abandoned notes for tape.
- Toru Takemitsu — Messiaen's modes and static, contemplative harmony were the other formative model for Takemitsu's language.