The ecstatic musical time of Olivier Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5965/2525530410022025e0207

Abstract

Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) composed Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum for winds orchestra and metallic percussion in 1964. The piece has five movements of hieratic and monumental, static and ecstatic character, and yet, of great formal simplicity. This study is an analysis concerned with how this simplicity is constructed by means of a compositional principle that is common to the five movements, the intention of each being to produce in the listener an experience of the sacred through sound. This, the sound, is presented in a practically absolute way both as silence and as a glorious and splendid sound potency.

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Author Biography

Prof. Dr., UDESC

Luigi Antonio Irlandini: composer and performer (shakuhachi and piano). Research interest: the interaction of 20th- and 21st centuries music composition with Japanese, Indian and Tibetan musical, mythic and philosophical traditions (emphasis on Zen and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vedanta, Vedas). Studied Composition with H.J. Koellreutter, Franco Donatoni and Brian Ferneyhough. M.F.A. in Composition (CalArts), Ph.D. in Composition (UCSB), and is currently Music Professor at UDESC, Florianópolis, Brazil.

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Published

2025-09-22

How to Cite

IRLANDINI, Luigi Antonio. The ecstatic musical time of Olivier Messiaen’s Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum. Orfeu, Florianópolis, v. 10, n. 2, p. e0207, 2025. DOI: 10.5965/2525530410022025e0207. Disponível em: https://www.revistas.udesc.br/index.php/orfeu/article/view/26943. Acesso em: 25 sep. 2025.

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2025): Special Issue: Border Musics

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Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Luigi Antonio Irlandini

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