Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus


The Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus is a suite of 20 pieces for solo piano by the French composer Olivier Messiaen.
The suite is a meditation on the infancy of Jesus. It was composed from March to September of 1944 following a January commission by, wishing for a reading of his twelve poems on the nativity. The abandoned plan was later reworked with a dedication to his protégée Yvonne Loriod. A typical performance lasts about two hours. These '12 regards' appear to be incorporated into the plan of the final work, which may be described as a rondo in which the movements based on the "Theme of God", no.'s 1, 5, 6, 10, 11, 15, 19 and 20, frame four three-movement episodes. Although the work was finished shortly after the liberation of Paris in August and excerpts played in public by Messiaen and Loriod, the complete premiere took place 26 March 1945 at the Salle Gaveau with the composer reading aloud his own commentaries.

Structure

There are 20 movements:
  1. Regard du Père
  2. Regard de l'étoile
  3. L'échange
  4. Regard de la Vierge
  5. Regard du Fils sur le Fils
  6. Par Lui tout a été fait
  7. Regard de la Croix
  8. Regard des hauteurs
  9. Regard du temps
  10. Regard de l'Esprit de joie
  11. Première communion de la Vierge
  12. La parole toute-puissante
  13. Noël
  14. Regard des Anges
  15. Le baiser de l'Enfant-Jésus
  16. Regard des prophètes, des bergers et des Mages
  17. Regard du silence
  18. Regard de l'Onction terrible
  19. Je dors, mais mon cœur veille
  20. ''Regard de l'Eglise d'amour''

    Thèmes

Messiaen uses Thèmes or leitmotifs, recurring elements that represent certain ideas. They include:
  • Thème de Dieu
  • Thème de l'amour mystique
  • Thème de l'étoile et de la croix
  • Thème d'accords
For example, Messiaen has written that "The 'Theme of Chords' is heard throughout, fragmented, concentrated, surrounded with resonances, combined with itself, modified in both rhythm and register, transformed, transmuted in all sorts of ways: it is a complex of sounds intended for perpetual variation, pre-existing in the abstract like a series, but quite concrete and quite easily recognizable through its colours: a steely grey-blue shot through with red and bright orange, a mauve violet spotted with leather-brown and encircled by bluish-purple."