Chants de Terre et de Ciel
Bail avec Mi (pour ma femme); Antienne du silence (pour Ie jour des Anges gardiens); Danse du bebe-Piluie t'pour mon petit Pascal); Arc-en-ciel d'innocence (pour mon petit Pascal); Minuit pile ct face (pour la Mort); Resurrection (pour It jour de Paquea) sung by Adele Leigh (soprano) with Peter Gellhorn (piano)
(Adele Leigh broadcasts by permission of the General Administrator, Royal Opera House Covem Garden, Ltd.; Peter Gellhorn , by permission of Glyndebourne Opera)
These songs, which appeared in 1939, are settings by the composer of his own words. The 'Mi' of the first song is Messiaen's wife; the 'petit Pascal' in the third and fourth is his son, who was still a child when the songs were written. The songs as a whole reveal that preoccupation with rhythmic and textural complexities which, carried to extreme lengths in his recent music, has caused Messiaen to be a controversial figure in contemporary music. D.C.