On 27 April 1992, Olivier Messiaen died in a Paris hospital at the age of 84. One week later, the flutist Aurèle Nicolet taught "Le Merle Noir" for flute and piano as part of a master class at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe - a homage to Messiaen; naturally, flutistic problems were in the foreground. Messiaen's personality, his tonal language, his oeuvre as a whole could only be briefly touched upon. Many questions therefore remained unanswered.

Olivier Messiaen, the composer of large-scale orchestral works, piano and organ cycles, is one of the outstanding musical personalities of the 20th century and was at the same time a trend-setting pedagogue for entire generations of composers. What is the significance of a comparatively short work like "Le Merle Noir" in the overall oeuvre of this extremely progressive composer? What musical material does he use? Can essential features of his powerfully colourful musical language be identified? Or is it rather only a second-order work, an insignificant, quickly composed occasional composition? But doesn't the ornithological title refer to Messiaen's fascinating relationship to birdsong?

Moreover, "Le Merle Noir" was written at a time of reorientation, a decisive phase both biographically and compositionally. This circumstance leads to a certain structure of the present book: "Le Merle Noir" is examined both under the aspect of the tonal language developed up to the time of the crisis and with regard to the innovations of the "style oiseau".

Le Merle Noir" is a special case in which - by means of an intensive analysis - this work and the overall oeuvre of one of the most important composers of the 20th century mutually illuminate each other.

The two-volume edition [only in German] is available at the following link. EDITION