Trompette d'un ange secret: Olivier Messiæn and the culture of ecstasy
Robin Freeman
Contemporary Music Review 1996 DOI: 10.1080/07494469600640301 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | MDMA |
| Key points | Argues that Olivier Messiaen's fascination with time, often attributed to heterodox modernism, has roots in Jacques Maritain's accommodation of Bergson's concept of durée with an existentialist reading of St. Thomas. Using philological methods and the composer's public statements, Robin Freeman situates Messiaen's œuvre within a post-revolutionary resurgence of Catholic art in France, a context possibly unfamiliar to those who viewed it as purely musical. |
Abstract
Olivier Messiæn was perhaps the last great figure in that post revolutionary resurgence of Catholic art heralded by Chateaubriand and brought to its height in its aftermath of the France Prussian War. Aside from the revival of the liturgy carried out by Dom Guéranger and his followers at Solesmes the key roles in this movement were played by Catholic laymen for its most part with encyclopaedic interests and a surprising knowledge of the world and its problems. Thus Messiæn's fascination with time, often attributed to a heterodox modernism has its roots in Maritain's accomodation of Bergson's concept of durée with his existentialist reading of St. Thomas. Using an essentially philological method to supplement the composer's public statements Robin Freeman places Messiæn's œuvre in a context of which those who have viewed it as a purely musical phenomenon may have been unaware.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on MDMA, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Differences Between the Mechanism of Action of MDMA, MBDB, and the Classic Hallucinogens. Identification of a New Therapeutic Class: Entactogens | 1986 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Background and Chemistry of MDMA | 1986 | Historical analysis | |
| The origin of MDMA (ecstasy) revisited: the true story reconstructed from the original documents* Original documents in Merck's historical archive in Darmstadt, Germany, years 1900–1960 | 2006 | Historical analysis | |
| Distinct neural mechanisms for the prosocial and rewarding properties of MDMA | 2019 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How could MDMA (ecstasy) help anxiety disorders? A neurobiological rationale | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |