This series of videos reads through 'Techniques of my Musical Language' by Olivier Messiaen. I like to think of Messiaen's piano score as choreography - instructions for how the hands and the body should move to create the requisite sounds. So in this episode, taking a tiny bit of a tangent. The 'tacticity'; the 'haptics' of Messiaen at the piano (with a guest appearance from Charles Ives, no less than!)

0:00 Introduction
3:02 Charles Ives. Let's start at the beginning
8:30 Alfred Cortot. The Rational principles of Pianoforte Technique, as I remember them
12:40 Come on man, where's our Messiaen?
18:44 A couple of examples played from 'Vingt Regards'
20:15 The score is a psychological artefact attesting to the relationship between composer and instrument.
21:46 Reading a few paragraphs from my essay on Haptics

In each episode, I'll work through the text and also play the many musical examples Messiaen provides. Occasionally I'll work on some homework assignments, setting myself the task to write short practice pieces based on the material at hand.

Studying music is a fair analogy for examining the human condition. The music of Olivier Messiaen is particularly suited for this study. I'll often wander into an extra-musical tangent hoping to explore more about composition, listening, performing and practicing.

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