The keyboard instruments he used included the ondes Martenot, which will be heard in a concert, “Immeasurable Space,” March 5 at 8 p.m. His work reflects this complex perception of the world, suggesting deep connectivity throughout all of nature. One of the most influential and creative musicians of the 20th century, Messiaen (1908-1992) did not just hear sounds, but also saw and felt them as specific colors – a neurological condition known as synesthesia.
It is presented by the Westfield Center for Historical Keyboard Studies, in collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Department of Music and Cornell Plantations. The festival features events across campus – five concerts, four lectures, a film screening and a sound installation – and the talents of students and faculty, guest performers and music scholars. “He’d construct an entire sound world around each bird’s voice, treating it much like a character in a play.”
“Messiaen loved birdsong,” says pianist and festival co-director Ryan MacEvoy McCullough, a graduate student in music. The sounds of the natural environment – and their inspiration on the music of composers like Olivier Messiaen, who used recordings of bird songs from Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology – will be celebrated in a music festival March 5-9 at Cornell, “ Environs Messiaen: Nature Rendered at the Keyboard.” Works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Luther Adams in the "Environs Messiaen" festival will be featured in a sound installation at the Johnson Museum and an outdoor performance at Cornell Plantations.
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