Messiaen the Theologian

Andrew Shenton holds bachelor, masters and doctoral degrees from London University, Yale and Harvard respectively. A renowned performer, scholar and educator, Dr. Shenton is currently a member of the musicology faculty at Boston University where he directs the Messiaen Project. He was a contributor to Olivier Messiaen: Music, Art, Literature (Ashgate, 2007) and his monograph Olivier Messiaen’s System of Signs (Ashgate, 2008) won the 2009 Miller Book Award.

Contents: Introducing Messiaen the theologian, Andrew Shenton; Part 1 Messiaen the Theologian: Religious literature in Messiaen's personal library, Yves Balmer; Messiaen as preacher and evangelist in the context of European modernism, Peter Bannister; Messiaen's saintly naïveté, Sander van Maas. Part 2 Messiaen's Relationship with Theologians: Olivier Messiaen and Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger: 2 views of the liturgical reform according to the 2nd Vatican Council, Karin Heller; Messiaen's relationship to Jacques Maritain's musical circle and neo-Thomism, Douglas Shadle; Messiaen and Aquinas, Vincent P. Benitez. Part 3 Messiaen, Poets and Theological Themes: Dante as guide to Messiaen's Gothic spirituality, Robert Fallon; Five quartets: the search for the still point of the turning world in the war quartets of T.S. Eliot and Olivier Messiaen, Andrew Shenton; The charm of impossibilities: mystic surrealism as contemplative voluptuousness, Stephen Schloesser. Part 4 Theology in Messiaen's Music: 'Une Å“uvre simple, solonnelle...': Messiaen's commission from André Malraux, Nigel Simeone; Olivier Messiaen and the avant-garde poetics of the Mess de la Pentecôte, Robert Sholl; Messiaen as explorer in Livre du Saint Sacrement, Luke Berryman; Buddhist temple, Shinto shrine and the invisible God of Sept Haïkaï, Cheong Wai Ling; Glossary of people; Select bibliography; Index.