...This chapter attempts to answer the question about what Olivier Messiaen exactly had in mind with his compositions of religious music. It shows that there was a gradual shift in Messiaen's musical localization of religion. While his earlier works emphasize the sincerity of feelings, his later...

...This chapter examines the compositional side of the music of dazzlement of Olivier Messiaen's religious music. It analyzes five passages from La Transfiguration and suggests though that there are great mutual differences between them there are also a number of tendencies...

...This chapter examines the music of dazzlement in Olivier Messiaen's religious music composition based on the phenomenology of Jean-Luc Marion. It explains that Marion contrasts everyday experience to two exceptional phenomena that constitute a frame that may help interpret the phenomenon...

...This introductory chapter explains the coverage and objective of this book, which is to examine the role of French composer Olivier Messiaen on the reinvention of religious music. This book is driven by the conviction that one can aspire to come close to the phenomenon of the musicosacral...

...This chapter examines the connection and convergence between the religious music composition of Olivier Messiaen and the works and philosophy of Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Messiaen considers von Balthasar a major influence. However, the music of Messiaen appears to fall beyond...

...This chapter examines an aspect of breakthrough in Olivier Messiaen's religious music composition concerning listening “here” and listening in the “beyond”. It analyzes the Judeo-Christian tradition relevant to music hearing and listening. These are the circumcision of the ear and the notion...

...On the basis of a careful analysis of Olivier Messiaen's work, this book argues for a renewal of our thinking about religious music. Addressing his notion of a “hyper-religious” music of sounds and colors, it aims to show that Messiaen has broken new ground. His reinvention of religious music makes...

... of the repetitions of it. This chapter asserts that the technical is a constitutive part of what Messiaen calls breakthrough and that that singularity of religious experience is always contaminated with the artificiality and repeatability of technics. Olivier Messiaen religious music composition technics...

...This epilogue sums up the key findings about the religious music composition of Olivier Messiaen. It suggests that Messiaen's is far from exemplifying a Christian music of asceticism or contemptus mundi and that it remains deeply affirmative. In this respect, his work is close...