Olivier Messiaen: The Music of Faith (The South Bank Show, 1985)

The South Bank Show, season 8, episode 22; 5 April 1985.
Filmed from 1982 to 1983.
This documentary is in English, with some (translated) French dialogue.
(Gold Medal, New York International Film and TV Festival)
Description: Olivier Messiaen played a leading role in the evolution of 20th-century music. In this classic interview, the late composer talks on topics such as his love of nature and his fervent Christian faith, two themes that profoundly shaped his work; his views on rhythm and tonal color; his relationship with his mother, the poet Cécile Sauvage; and his professorship at the Paris Conservatoire. Film clips of Messiaen improvising on the organ and notating birdsong for his compositions-plus excerpts of his music, some of which are performed by his wife, the celebrated pianist Yvonne Loriod-provide a deeper appreciation of his special genius.
Apologies for the low quality and desynchronised audio.
I do not own this video. This has been uploaded under fair use.

[@randomprimate]

George Benjamin is clearly such a great teacher! What a treat to have him in this doc.

[@anderonia1]

Excellent! I love Messaien even more now.

[@multimusicstudios5661]

Messiaen: A lover of octatonic melodic and harmonic colorings and clusters.

[@briancornish2076]

Taken as a whole his organ works are simply incredible, a huge corpus of creativity.

[@nadabajic1570]

Brilliant documentary . I enjoyed listening to Messiaen talking as much as to his music ❤

[@sterlinglewis5700]

Although I am antagonistic to "religion", that does not mean that I am either agnostic or atheistic. Messiaen is one of those rare composers - Bruckner is another - who can open a portal to the ineffable 'beyond'. His music can take an appreciative listener into a profound, 'transfigured' space. And I also think that he did not necessarily want people to get too wrapped up in his religiosity. For example, he said that he wrote the amazing choral work, "La Transfiguration de Notre Seigneur Jésus Christ" to a Latin text because "Nobody understands it". I've played a recording of that magnificent piece for groups, and they're in tears by the end of it. His music is stunningly beautiful, and I am so grateful for it.

[@Bawookles]

Thank you for uploading this! As a huge Messiaen fan, I thought it was great.

[@BlueBeeMCMLXI]

Man took the church modes and wrote his own - and they are brilliant ways to revitalise composition. Evan an American gets it (Rick Beato).

[@Twentythousandlps]

His comment that town-dwellers don't hear birdsong certainly doesn't apply to me, and I live on Manhattan's Upper West Side! If I wake up early enough I can hear a veritable symphony of ornithological melos. I like how the show lets Messiaen mostly speak for himself. If this were a typical dumb PBS special, we would have a talking head telling how great, how important he is every three minutes. The BBC is no longer as grown-up as it was forty years ago, of course.

[@AntoniusTertius]

The video is actually way better than that epic thumbnail ;)

[@andrewweatherhead4127]

Wonderful man. I have been looking for this since i saw it just after his passing in 1992. Thank you.😊

[@tobiasgroeneveld9892]

Very interesting documentary about this great master.

[@basedscores]

OMG, friendship ended with shostakovich, now messiaen is my new friend

[@AndresGonzalez-ll4cn]

Maravillosa grabación, para verla detenidamente y volverla a ver. Más comprendo (y más me fascina) Messiaen después de ver este hermoso documental. Thanks for uploading!

[@musiquesynthetique816]

Thank you for uploading this wonderful documentary!

[@assemblyofsilence]

Will miss you guys.

[@rize118]

Though I haven't watched the documentary yet, I know that this will be good. Bonus points for the thumbnail as well, gave me a good laugh!

[@laraepoe]

Really fascinating documentary, thank you for uploading this!

[@joshscores3360]

Love the thumbnail, great documentary, and I'll be getting back to work on my own channel shortly.

[@themoonfleesthroughclouds]

Brilliant documentary! So good in fact, that I forgot about the equally brilliant thumbnail while watching it!

[@frednicolas3811]

That intro

[@mariakalinowska5661]

Interesting comparison at 20:00. Does anyone have an idea which part of Pelléas et Mélisande this excerpt is taken from?

[@mirandac8712]

It's how Pelleas begins. There's no prelude, the curtain rises on a fairy tale forest like those that entranced the child Messiaen. George Benjamin is very perceptive in his comment on Debussy's use of juxtaposition in the Prelude, but the beginning of Pelleas is an even better example of it, as my teacher (who is another student of Messiaen) showed me once: every few measures, Debussy 'cross-cuts' between an imaginary kind of medieval modal music around a key of D, and an ambiguous modern whole-tone sonority -- and then the third thing is Debussy's own idiom. So Debussy is giving an account of the origin of his own music.

[@pseudotonal]

My first composition teacher was a failure. He tried to make me in his own mold by forcing me to write in church modes that transposed! I had already written dozens of mature works but he didn't care.

[@BetonBrutContemporary]

NGL THE THUMBNAIL IS BETTER THAN THE CONTENT ITSELF LOL

[@SacraTessan]

from the most subtle bird to stormy turmoil mountains ,opening my own sensitiviy expriens ...🤎like a revelation

[@WEEBLLOM]

LMFAO THE THUMBNAIL

[@qalaphyll]

guillom

[@stache1625]

guilo m

[@TheOneAndOnlyZeno1889]

g u
i
o l
m

[@PM_ME_MESSIAEN_PICS]

9:48 me too

[@thesceptic1018]

Missing the dotted rhythm of that Oriole

[@guscox9651]

you did NOT just make that the thumbnail...

[@SisselOnline]

the thumbnail is so clickbait LOL

[@wormswithteeth]

What was it?

[@SisselOnline]

@@wormswithteeth forgotten, but I'm sure that the thumbnail has changed already

[@eremitaorgao]

extremely cringe