ABSTRACT
Olivier Messiaen donated three different versions of Visions de l'Amen to the Paris Conservatoire's library, a collection that had just become the property of the newly founded Music Department of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France. Beyond the material he planned on using and then abandoned, Messiaen's imagined form of 'Amen de la Creation' in his sketches tells us a great deal about his methods and manner of writing music. In Visions de l'Amen he wrote out his plan in words, conceiving his composition in separate sections. Each of these sections is introduced with terms typically used to navigate lists and indicate temporal transition. Among other things, these sketches reveal details about the origins of Messiaen's musical material, including compositional and formal ideas, pianistic textures, use of rhythmic pedals and the tonal or modal framework of his material. The initial form for the movement is bi-thematic and influenced by romantic models with their notions of re-exposition, variation, contrast and grandiose conclusion.
