Messiaen's Tui has landed

It has taken a very long time, but the hard copy of the critical edition of Messiaen's Un oiseau des arbres de Vie (oiseau Tui) is finally available. Drawing its material from the Tui bird from New Zealand,?this short piece for very large orchestra was originally intended for éclairs sur l’Au-delà… (1987-91), Messiaen's last completed work. Despite having written all of the music in short score, the composer reluctantly decided to omit this remarkable movement from éclairs at a relatively late stage.?My realization of the orchestration draws on Messiaen's own annotations (my LinkedIn article from April 2015 revealing the orchestration gives more detail). It received its world première on 7th August 2015 at the BBC Proms, performed by the BBC Philharmonic and conducted by Nicholas Collon.

If I thought even for a moment at that point that I had done the hard work, I was very soon proven wrong. You can probably guess some of the numerous 'challenges' that have prevented the critical edition of the score appearing until now, not least a certain pandemic, to the extent that I had wondered whether it would happen at all. I was immensely lucky that Editions Alphonse Leduc (Messiaen's own publisher) took the piece on before the première, and Agnes Klingenberg (editorial manager) has been an absolute star. I must also mention the sustained support of my wonderful colleagues at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and Birmingham City University.

Well, as can be seen from the picture, I now have my copy and very smart it is too (and yes, that's a toy Tui bird inspecting the score). In addition to the music, there is an extensive preface giving information on the work and the orchestration, information for performers and full critical notes. You can now order copies from your favourite music shop! I should mention Music Room, which is the online shop of Wise Music, the owners of Leduc, while I notice, also, that Presto currently have 25% off all Leduc scores until the end of June.

Much of this has been about the process and practicalities. I am blessed, though, that my job involves working in music. Whatever the hassles, I only needed to go back to the music to remind myself why I started on this in the first place nearly 10 years ago. It is utterly extraordinary music and that is entirely down to Messiaen. Being Messiaen, it is music that is about something. It celebrates the remarkable song of a bird and, as with essentially all of his works, éclairs reflects his faith. Whatever your beliefs, though, it is a reminder of the precious wonder of nature and to lift our eyes periodically from everyday mundanities and challenges. That is something we all need and I am very lucky to have spent so long immersed in that vision.