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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