Editing Olivier Messiaen (section)

===La Trinité, ''La jeune France'', and Messiaen's war===
[[File:Église de la Sainte-Trinité de Paris Face.JPG|thumb|upright|alt=A 19th-century church in the French style, in light coloured stone, with a central tower with rounded top and smaller towers set back to left and right.|[[Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris]], where Messiaen was titular organist for 61 years]]

In the autumn of 1927, Messiaen joined Dupré's organ course. Dupré later wrote that Messiaen, having never seen an organ console, sat quietly for an hour while Dupré explained and demonstrated the instrument, and then came back a week later to play [[Johann Sebastian Bach]]'s ''[[Fantasia and Fugue in C minor, BWV 562|Fantasia in C minor]]'' to an impressive standard.<ref>Hill & Simeone (2005), p. 22</ref> From 1929, Messiaen regularly deputised at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité for the ailing [[Charles Quef]]. The post became vacant in 1931 when Quef died, and Dupré, [[Charles Tournemire]] and Widor among others supported Messiaen's candidacy. His formal application included a letter of recommendation from Widor. The appointment was confirmed in 1931,<ref>Hill & Simeone (2005), pp. 34–37</ref> and he remained the organist at the church for more than 60 years.<ref>Heller (2010), p. 68</ref> He also assumed a post at the Schola Cantorum de Paris in the early 1930s.<ref>Dingle (2007), p. 45</ref> In 1932, he composed the ''[[Apparition de l'église éternelle]]'' for organ.<ref>Gillock (2009), p. 32</ref>
[[File:Claire Delbos and Olivier Messiaen.jpg|thumb|upright|With Claire Delbos]]
He also married the violinist and composer [[Claire Delbos]] (daughter of [[Victor Delbos]]) that year. Their marriage inspired him both to compose works for her to play (''Thème et variations'' for violin and piano in the year they were married) and to write pieces to celebrate their domestic happiness, including the song cycle ''[[Poèmes pour Mi]]'' in 1936, which he orchestrated in 1937. ''Mi'' was Messiaen's affectionate nickname for his wife.<ref>Sherlaw Johnson (1975), pp. 56–57</ref> On 14 July 1937, the Messiaens' son, Pascal Emmanuel, was born; Messiaen celebrated the occasion by writing [[Chants de Terre et de Ciel]].<ref>Gillock (2009), p. 381</ref> The marriage turned tragic when Delbos lost her memory after an operation toward the end of World War II. She spent the rest of her life in mental institutions.<ref>Yvonne Loriod, in Hill (1995), p. 294</ref>

During this period he composed several multi-movement organ works. He arranged his orchestral suite ''[[L'Ascension]]'' for organ, replacing the orchestral version's third movement with an entirely new movement, ''Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne'' (''Ecstasies of a soul before the glory of Christ which is the soul's own'').<ref>Benitez (2008), p. 288</ref> He also wrote the extensive cycles ''[[La Nativité du Seigneur]]'' (''The Nativity of the Lord'') and ''Les Corps glorieux'' (''The glorious bodies'').<ref>Hill & Simeone (2005), p. 115</ref>

In 1936, along with [[André Jolivet]], [[Daniel Lesur]] and [[Yves Baudrier]], Messiaen formed the group ''[[La jeune France]]'' ("Young France"). Their manifesto implicitly attacked the frivolity predominant in contemporary Parisian music and rejected [[Jean Cocteau]]'s 1918 ''Le coq et l'arlequin'' in favour of a "living music, having the impetus of sincerity, generosity and artistic conscientiousness".<ref>From the programme for the opening concert of ''La jeune France'', quoted in Griffiths (1985), p. 72</ref> Messiaen's career soon departed from this polemical phase.

In response to a commission for a piece to accompany light-and-water shows on [[the Seine]] during the ''[[Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)|Paris Exposition]]'', in 1937 Messiaen demonstrated his interest in using the [[ondes Martenot]], an electronic instrument, by composing ''[[Fêtes des belles eaux]]'' for an ensemble of six.<ref>Hill & Simeone (2005), pp. 73–75</ref> He included a part for the instrument in several of his subsequent compositions.<ref>Dingle (2013), p. 34</ref>

[[File:Messiaen 1937 4.jpg|thumb|left|Messiaen by [[Studio Harcourt]] (1937)]]

At the outbreak of World War II, Messiaen was drafted into the French army. Due to poor eyesight, he was enlisted as a medical auxiliary rather than an active combatant.<ref name="Griffiths (1985), p. 139">Griffiths (1985), p. 139</ref> He was captured at [[Verdun]], where he befriended clarinettist [[Henri Akoka]]; they were taken to [[Görlitz]] in May 1940, and imprisoned at [[Stalag VIII-A]]. He met a cellist ([[Étienne Pasquier (cellist)|Étienne Pasquier]]) and a violinist ({{ill|Jean le Boulaire|fr|Jean Lanier}}) among his fellow prisoners. He wrote a trio for them, which he gradually incorporated into a more expansive new work, ''[[Quatuor pour la fin du temps|Quatuor pour la fin du Temps]]'' ("Quartet for the End of Time").<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Brown |first=Kellie D. |title=The sound of hope: Music as solace, resistance and salvation during the holocaust and world war II |publisher=McFarland |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-4766-7056-0 |pages=168–175}}</ref> With the help of a friendly German guard, {{ill|Carl-Albert Brüll|de}}, he acquired manuscript paper and pencils.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/quartet_for_the_2.html |title=The Rest Is Noise: Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time |first=Alex |last=Ross |author-link=Alex Ross (music critic) |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=22 March 2004|access-date=17 May 2012}}</ref> The work was first performed in January 1941 to an audience of prisoners and prison guards, with the composer playing a poorly maintained upright piano in freezing conditions and the trio playing third-hand unkempt instruments.<ref>Rischin (2003), p. 5</ref> The enforced introspection and reflection of camp life bore fruit in one of 20th-century classical music's acknowledged masterpieces. The title's "end of time" alludes to the [[Apocalypse]], and also to the way that Messiaen, through rhythm and harmony, used time in a manner completely different from his predecessors and contemporaries.<ref>See extended discussion in Griffiths (1985), Chapter 6: ''A Technique for the End of Time'', particularly pp. 104–106</ref>

The idea of a European Centre of Education and Culture "Meeting Point Music Messiaen" on the site of Stalag VIII-A, for children and youth, artists, musicians and everyone in the region emerged in December 2004, was developed with the involvement of Messiaen's widow as a joint project between the council districts in Germany and Poland, and was completed in 2014.<ref>{{cite web | title=European Center Memory, Education, Culture | website=Meetingpoint Music Messiaen e.V. | date=17 April 2020 | url=https://www.meetingpoint-music-messiaen.net/en/european-center-memory-education-culture/ | access-date=27 May 2020}}</ref>