Messiaen to Murail, or, What Sounds Become

Tristan Murail was twenty years old in 1967 when he wrote the piano solo Comme un œil suspendu et poli par le songe… in partial fulfillment of application requirements for the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris. Although he had devoted his university studies thus far to Arab languages and economics, ¹ Murail had become increasingly serious about composition and hoped to work privately with Olivier Messiaen. A few years later, as his studies with Messiaen ended, he would be awarded the Conservatoire's Premier Prix de composition as well as the Prix de Rome. Upon returning to France from Italy two years after that, Murail co-founded the Ensemble L’Itinéraire in January 1973, with fellow Messiaen students Gérard Grisey, Hugues Dufourt, Roger Tessier, and Michael Levinäs. The group would be responsible for introducing to the French public the work of the spectral composers and their influences.