Download Sunday 21 December at 6pm

Luke Bond, Assistant Director of Music
looks ahead to a special organ concert this
Christmas
Two of Truro Cathedral’s organists, Luke Bond and James
Orford, will between them conjure an air of spiritualism in
the Cathedral as they perform Messiaen’s La Nativité du
Seigneur on Sunday 21st December at 6pm (£5 on the
door). Messiaen’s La Nativité du Seigneur (The Birth of
the Saviour) is arguably one of the most important organ
works of the twentieth century. Its devotional nature is
remarkably direct, for Messiaen possessed a deep-rooted
faith and a penetrating theological insight which both
illuminated his creativity and gave a strongly spiritual
dimension to all his work. Although not initially a part of
the Parisian organ tradition, Messiaen grew up artistically
within it and came to explore the organ’s sonorities and
tonalities in a radically different way.
Although Messiaen’s musical eclecticism incorporated
secular influences and the musical vocabulary of other
religions, his musical purpose was, he said, to express
‘spiritual truths of the Catholic faith’; musical creativity for
him was, above all, an act of faith. Above the titles of most
of his works are biblical passages alluding to the images
and affects he tried to evoke in the music. Audiences have
nonetheless often exhibited prejudice against and belief
that Messiaen’s music is merely discordant noise. In fact as in all music - concord and discord are relative, and
Messiaen, just as any other composer, used the former to
resolve the tension of the latter. Yet his language is often
more complex. His sound world is unique and draws upon
a diverse collection of influences: Norwegian folk song;
the impressionistic devices of his colleagues and
countrymen, Debussy and Ravel, Gregorian chant,
birdsong and Hindu rhythms, all united by a deeply-felt
Catholic faith.
All Messiaen’s organ cycles (of which La Nativité written
in 1935 is the earliest) look to deepen the listener’s
understanding of the concepts they illustrate. This one
probes deeply into meaning of God-made-man, setting the
events of the first Christmas in the contexts both of time
and of eternity, the Incarnation, the Ascension, the Holy
trinity, the Saints in glory and the Holy Sacrament. In a
series of musical tableaux, the Virgin and Child, the
shepherds, the angels, and (perhaps most memorably) the
Wise Men are depicted. Overall, it was Messiaen’s desire
to convey here an unbridled joy at the presence of God in
His Son. The music’s constant movement and virtuosity, its
rhythmic drive, variety, and impetus, convey this sense of
elation, excitement, and omnipresence. Moreover, the
musical evocation of a haze of incense or the play of light
through stained glass seems rarely far away.
It might be argued that it is unnecessary to be a practising
believer to appreciate Messiaen’s music, yet it is only within
its spiritual context that Messiaen’s music is revealed to its
fullest. It is salutary perhaps to find a composer so inspired
by both the theology and the poetry of the Christmas story
in an age when it can appear fashionable to treat so much
of the Christian tradition with scepticism, indifference or
even mockery, but Messiaen spoke of the universality of
‘three births’ - the eternal birth of the Word, the temporal
birth of Christ, and our own spiritual birth as Christians. In
La Nativité, he illustrates vividly such concepts in the
context of the Nativity story.
Olivier Messiaen
Sunday 21 December
at 6pm
£5 tickets on the door