Inside Rather Than Under the Composer's Skin: Another Tilt at Being Authentic 1

Intensive research had taken up every moment of Messiaen's spare time, ever since the inception of a great birdsong project for solo piano in October 1953. The cahiers are held in a private collection in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Departement de la musique, Paris, and at the time of writing are not available to scholars. Bernard-Delapierre's article on Messiaen, entitled "Souvenirs sur Olivier Messiaen" appeared in the Lausanne art periodical Formes et couleurs in 1945. The 1948 interview came less than a year before a crisis in Messiaen's life. Loriod had long been an indispensable presence in Messiaen's public and private worlds. In 1949, a year after the France-Soir interview, Messiaen spent a month in the United States teaching at Tanglewood. Under Delamain's influence Messiaen decided to make a more systematic approach to his research.