Prelude for Organ (Messiaen)
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| Prélude | |
|---|---|
| pour orgue | |
| by Olivier Messiaen | |
 Olivier Messiaen in 1937 | |
| Form | Prelude |
| Composed | Unknown, probably 1929: Paris |
| Published | 2002: Paris |
| Scoring | Organ |
The Prélude, usually affixed with the subtitle pour orgue, is an organ piece in E major by French composer Olivier Messiaen. The work, which dates from the 1920s, is, along with the Offrande au Saint Sacrement, the earliest surviving organ work of the composer. Scholars differ as to the exact date and purpose as to when and why it was composed.
It is usually known as the Prelude for Organ in English to distinguish it from the Preludes for piano and the posthumously published piece from 1964.
The piece along with the Offrande were discovered by Yvonne Loriod in 1997. The Prélude was published posthumously in 2002 by Éditions Alphonse Leduc.
It remains overlooked as one of the lesser-known organ works of the composer.
Dates
In 1919, Messiaen entered the Conservatoire de Paris, which was widely considered the most important musical school in the nation. He studied there until 1930. Based on the calligraphy of the manuscript, its location of Paris, style of composition, which reflects in some aspects the music of his organ teacher Marcel Dupré; and organ compass, scholars deduced that the work was composed in the second half of the 1920s.
Messiaen had written a supposedly complete catalogue of his works in Technique de mon langage musical (1944). It therefore came as a surprise to Yvonne Loriod, who found the Prélude and Offrande au Saint Sacrement in boxes by the composer's personal desk, to have discovered these pieces in 1997. She sent photocopies of these pieces to colleagues Naji Hakim, who succeeded Messiaen as titular organist of the great organ at the Église de la Sainte Trinité, and Olivier Latry, one of the titular organists of Notre-Dame de Paris.
The piece was revealed publicly for the first time on the CD Inédits and was played by Hakim at the organ of the Église de la Sainte Trinité off a facsimile of the manuscript annotated by Loriod herself.
It was published by Editions Alphonse Leduc (AL 29 914) in 2002 following the Offrande's publication the preceding year. Latry edited the music and wrote the preface, and Hakim edited the registration.[1]
In his preface, Latry implies that Messiaen wrote it while studying at the Conservatoire de Paris, citing the influences of Dupré, the Diptyque from this time, and paramountly, the inclusion of notes that were unavailable within the ranges of most organs available to him at the time (with the notable exception of the Conservatoire and several others). The compass lasted to C6 (61 note manuals) and G4 (32 note pedalboard).[2]
Paul Griffiths suggests that the piece was written contemporaneously with La nativité du Seigneur. The scholar Christopher Brent Murray, on the other hand, believes that the Prélude may have been composed in January 1928 and submitted on the 25th of that month. According to him, Messiaen may have referred to the piece as the examination submission.[3] The lack of the usual Bien, which appears on Messiaen's manuscripts as a marking of approval, also points to the theory that this is a conservatoire assignment. It, however, appears on the Offrande's manuscript.
The work's manuscript of eleven pages (six pages of music) lies in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
