# olivier messiaen and anton webern similar??? your view on this



## deprofundis (Apr 25, 2014)

*Olivier Messiaen *was my first self incursion in classical, but i was baptise by Mozart bach and Beethoven strongly did not get it at a Young age . Then years later if not decade in my late 20 i discover Messiaen.

Once again it did ain't turn me off but honnestly it scared the hell out of me i had still have em . 
1-* quartet for the end of time*
2-* tarangulila symphony*
3*- fauvettes de jardin*

Olivier Messiaen wrote the darkest symphonies (well in my eye).My dad said this composer was among the most ecletic of the era. i would says from quiet to plain sinister ( the orchestral work i have like this).

The only composer that match Messiaen to me is some work by* Anton Webern *that fit for a funeral .
Messiaen is good in small dose too mutch of is work like Webern can be* annoying.* i'm saying this to drawn a parallel between both if there is on to be made.

Messiaen for creeping you and Webern for the lack of life or joy of life, but strangely enought sometime it fit in apropriated time(when your depress or in a state of isolation) .Needless to says you can lisen to this all the time or anywhere , but i think both are great .

I know it seem i have a fixation whit modernism, well it's what i like, but still love Berlioz la symphonie fantastique and Albinoni's adagio.I dont snob Mozart Beethoven Bach Brahms ect...


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## GreenMamba (Oct 14, 2012)

I don't consider them similar sounding at all. Messiaen's Quartet is certainly not a barrel of laughs, but Turangalila doesn't sound dark at all. Same with most of his other works.

Anyway, I'm not really sure your poll gets at your topic. And Messaien wasn't really a serialist, was he? Maybe a few nods to it here and there.


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## Krummhorn (Feb 18, 2007)

I can't vouch for the orchestral works of Olivier Messiaen, but his organ works are stunning (for me) and I can listen to them for hours on end ... but ... always in a darkened room so as to take in all the sonority of those works.

Kh ♫


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Gods (small g) of music, both of them, they are! I adore nearly everything both of them have done. Sure, Webern did a lot of Lieder, that are not up on top of my playlist, and Messiaen really got carried away with works for organ (but I like all of the ones I have heard), but these two composers are integral members of my top dozen or two (of the 20th Century, perhaps even of all time). The late romantic period and well into the modern period is likely my favourite time in music. I love that mix of classical form and breakdown. FWIW, I never held Berlioz in much esteem, although I have recently thought Symphonie fantastique isn't all that bad, after all 

Oh, I forgot your question: similar? I don't think so, not at all. Webern is still strongly rooted in the classical tradition, which he expresses through serial technique, while Messiaen has evolved a new and personal music that expresses his thought-world: Christianity, birds, nature... Some of their music is stark and surreal, but depressing? How it makes you feel is in the ear of the beholder (why don't we have a word like 'behearer', since hearing is such an important sense?).


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Messiaen dipped his toes into the waters of multiple serialism (or integral serialism, take your pick) with his _Mode de valeurs et d'intensités_, but that's it. Nothing else in his work uses serial techniques, although he was interested in some process-type techniques: the first movement of Quartet for the End of Time makes use of several unsynchronized layers and just lets them run.

Webern is the composer of the Second Viennese School that Messiaen probably had the most sympathy for, but he ranked Varese and early Stravinsky far higher, to say nothing of Debussy. Those were his principal modern influences.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Both Messiaen and Webern are favorites. I suppose I can see why a lot of the former's work would 'scare' you as it can be quite unabashedly rhythmic and 'powerful' sounding. I personally don't find that off-putting but appealing. Anyway, both are great and if you keep listening, you will come to appreciate and perhaps even 'love' their work.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

I don't love or like all the music by all the serialist composers (there are hundreds, at least.)

I don't love or like all the music by all the common practice era composers (also numbering in the hundreds.)

Lumping them together as a sweeping generality in a poll has no value at all.


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