El mirlo: onomatopeya y juego en O. Messiaen y el P. Donostia

Abstract

Olivier Messiaen, in the composition of his great "Catalogue d'Oiseaux" (1956-1958), challenges the general arbitrariness of the musical sign, and the composition of his repertoire is considered a transcription of what he calls "singers of nature", which is at the same time faithful to what he heard and what he collected in the numerous hours of recordings in forests and to his poetic nature. The type of manipulation of the sound material, given the will of the author, will be very different from the one carried out by Father Donostia in his Dance of the Blackbird, where the concept of the game is the most important element. Nevertheless, a careful look at the characterisation of the blackbird in the corresponding fragments of the Cathalogue and Petites Esquisses d'Oiseaux will reveal curious coincidences with the score written by Father Donostia