How to judge a masterpiece.

I earlier commented that I had read Alex Ross's "And the Rest is Noise", an intriguing book. It's a bit of a tome, but well worth the effort. When writing about Olivier Messiaen, Ross gives somewhat short-shrift to his Turangalila Symphony and doesn't have a lot to say about Vingt Regards su L'Enfant Jesus, but at one point he refers to Des Canyons aux Étoiles (The Canyons and the Stars) as Messiaen's masterpiece. Well, after getting a copy, I have to say it really does sound like Messiaen with his distinctive percussiveness and stange chords and plent of bird-like sounds. But his masterpiece? Both Turangalila and Vingt Regards are much more impressive to me, but Ross must have some reason for favoring Des Canyons. Beats me why, though.

Given that December 10th, 2008 is the 100th anniversary of Messiaen's birth, here in Boulder we have been luck to hear quite a bit of his music. I've tracked down and listened to a lot of Messiaen lately. He's been featured by Hsing-ay Hsu several times at the University of Colorado. Wouldn't you expect some of the FM radio stations to play some of his music? Well, not yet this year. KVOD, in Denver hasn't played anything yet, nor have many of the other stations I monitor. When they do play something by him, it's typically his Quartet for the End of Time, historically significant and penetrating, but not on my all-time favorite Messiaen list.

Boulder has many music lovers, a strong music faculty at the university, several critics and a bunch of musical organizations. Surprisingly, I haven't found anyone yet that has also read Ross's book. I've lent my copy to a friend who promises to read it and give me feedback, but he hasn't yet. That's surprising for an often written-about book that made the Pulitzer finals this year.