Everything is Up to Date in Kansas City – Even Olivier Messiaen!

In this time of gloom, doom, and cut-backs, especially in the arts, Kansas City opened in mid-September its brave new Kauffman Center for Performing Arts ( website ). Let's hope that a grand building project like the Kauffman Center, a home for three performing arts companies, Kansas City Ballet, Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City, is a sign of good times and great performances to come.

Messiaen in Kansas City

Since the 2008 centenary of his birth, the works of Olivier Messiaen have been heard more often. In late October (28 ^th - 30 ^th ) , just weeks after the grand opening of the Kauffman Center, the Kansas City Symphony is performing one of Messiaen's most entrancing and accessible works, "Les offrandes oubliées" or …

Let's wait the twelve minutes needed to listen to the piece before we deal with the translation. By the way, they are performing it between a piece by Beethoven and a piece by Brahms ; nestled between two of the three B's (nope, I do not mean Busoni , Boccherini , and Bartók ), Messiaen's little work should not cut into ticket sales as much as twentieth century music is thought to.

"Les offrandes oubliées" is an appropriate choice for the opening weeks of the new Kauffman Center, because it was the first of Messiaen's works to be performed in public (1930). In this early piece (he was twenty-two when "Les offrandes oubliées" was first performed), Messiaen crammed a whole world into its twelve minutes.

Your first Messiaen?

"Les offrandes oubliées" is a good piece with which to "meet" Olivier Messiaen for the first time. He has a reputation for writing music that is harrowing to listen to and to perform, but this little gem is one of his most accessible pieces.

So, please sit back, relax, and remember that Messiaen called this a "meditation" - and remember that Olivier Messiaen has never bitten anyone. Click here, and then, perhaps close your eyes, but leave your mind's eye open. As you listen, try to tell how many distinct sections this little piece has. What does each section say to you?

After listening to Messiaen

Messiaen referred to "Les offrandes oubliées" as a triptych, that is a work with three parts. The first part ends, very abruptly, at about 3':15", the second at about 6':20" with the third section being about as long as the first two taken together.

The translation of the title is "The Forgotten Offerings," to me, one of Messiaen's most effective titles. Think about what you just listened to: what are the offerings? To whom and by whom were they offered, and who has forgotten them?

A title that gives us questions opens up the work to us, and I do not want to block that opening with my answers. All too often, however, Messiaen's titles tend to close off a piece, to limit our involvement with it, such specific titles as "Meditations on the Mystery of the Holy Trinity" or "Apparition of the Eternal Church."

But Messiaen would not stop with a simple title. Just as he kept piling on instruments and movements , he also added commentaries to emphasize the conservative Catholicism that he wanted to convey with his anything but conservative music.

Messiaen titled the three sections, "Cross" and "Sin" and "Eucharist." The first section reflects the grimness of the crucifixion, the sad, lonely pain of Christ. "Sin" illustrates Messiaen's statement that he was not interested in sin; he makes it sound so dreadful that I almost lose interest in it myself. In his commentary, he writes of going down into sin as into a grave. If so, it is certainly a noisy tomb.

" Eucharist" is the most Messiaen-ic of the three sections. In Messiaen's theology, the Eucharist is the eternal moment of relationship between the believer and Jesus Christ. Although the section is only about six minutes long, it illustrates Messiaen's ability to massage time, to stretch it out until the listener is almost disoriented in time.

Honestly, Messiaen's commentary on "The Forgotten Offerings" detracts from my experience of the work, but you can read it in the original French or in English translation. By the way, here is another performance of "Les offrandes oubliées," which runs a little shorter than the previous one.

Messiaen in Kansas City and in the USA

I think Olivier Messiaen would be delighted that his "Forgotten Offerings" is being performed in Kansas City. He had some very good experiences with the United States, even being commissioned to compose a piece for the Bicentennial, a glorious celebration of the Western landscape he called From the Canyons to the Stars. That led to his being given a cowboy hat, I have read (oh, how I would love to see a photo of Messiaen in that hat), and to having a mountain in Utah named for him ( photos ).

The Kauffman Center is blessed with an amazing organ, featured in a video on their site (here). Let me remind the good, adventurous folks in Kansas City that of the 32 CDs of Messiaen's complete works, six are of organ music. It seems to me like a match made in... well, made in Kansas City!

In addition to the works linked to above, I also consulted an entry in the blog "The Omniscient Mussel" ( here ) and information about "The Forgotten Offerings" at Classical Archives (here).

Special thanks to nurse, poet, and friend Mary Oberg (visit her index page here ) for calling this to my attention.