Page 125 - Weiss, Jernej, ur. 2020. Konservatoriji: profesionalizacija in specializacija glasbenega dela ▪︎ The conservatories: professionalisation and specialisation of musical activity. Koper/Ljubljana: Založba Univerze na Primorskem in Festival Ljubljana. Studia musicologica Labacensia, 4
P. 125
oi: https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-7055-86-3.123-131
The role of the Conservatoire de Paris
in Messiaen’s development as a composer
Jacques Amblard
Univerza Aix-Marseille
Aix-Marseille Université
Messiaen spent 48 years – nearly half a century – at the Conservatoire de
Paris. First he stayed there for 11 years, as a student, between 1919 and 1930,
then as a professor, for no less than 37 years, between 1941 and 1978 when he
retired. His class has become legendary. Jean Boivin, one of his pupils, has
devoted an entire book on this subject.1 Another student, who entered the
Conservatoire in 1966, wrote:
I entered the Conservatoire when I was 20. I went there with an in-
credible discipline, I worked more than anyone; I learned my har-
mony right away, and then I started my counterpoint studies. Then
came May 1968, and for me this became the moment of my personal
crisis, a new awareness of society, musicians, pedagogy. I had to at-
tend the fugue class and learn to write a fugue in seventeen hours,
from 6 AM to 11 PM, we were swooping to finish it in time. But what
is the use of it now? The only thing that remains important to me is
Messiaen’s analysis class.2
Nearly half a century in the Paris Conservatory
In 1919, Olivier Messiaen was still a child. He was 11 years old. But as young
as he was, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de
1 Jean Boivin, La Classe de Messiaen (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1995).
2 Quoted by Pierre-Michel Menger, Le paradoxe du musicien: Le compositeur, le mélo-
mane et l’État dans la société contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1983), 56.
123
The role of the Conservatoire de Paris
in Messiaen’s development as a composer
Jacques Amblard
Univerza Aix-Marseille
Aix-Marseille Université
Messiaen spent 48 years – nearly half a century – at the Conservatoire de
Paris. First he stayed there for 11 years, as a student, between 1919 and 1930,
then as a professor, for no less than 37 years, between 1941 and 1978 when he
retired. His class has become legendary. Jean Boivin, one of his pupils, has
devoted an entire book on this subject.1 Another student, who entered the
Conservatoire in 1966, wrote:
I entered the Conservatoire when I was 20. I went there with an in-
credible discipline, I worked more than anyone; I learned my har-
mony right away, and then I started my counterpoint studies. Then
came May 1968, and for me this became the moment of my personal
crisis, a new awareness of society, musicians, pedagogy. I had to at-
tend the fugue class and learn to write a fugue in seventeen hours,
from 6 AM to 11 PM, we were swooping to finish it in time. But what
is the use of it now? The only thing that remains important to me is
Messiaen’s analysis class.2
Nearly half a century in the Paris Conservatory
In 1919, Olivier Messiaen was still a child. He was 11 years old. But as young
as he was, he entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de
1 Jean Boivin, La Classe de Messiaen (Paris: Christian Bourgois, 1995).
2 Quoted by Pierre-Michel Menger, Le paradoxe du musicien: Le compositeur, le mélo-
mane et l’État dans la société contemporaine (Paris: Flammarion, 1983), 56.
123
