Vingt Regards sur l'enfant-Jésus

Messiaen wrote this cycle of 20 pieces contemplating the infant Jesus for solo piano in Paris, between March and September 1944, when the city was being liberated at the end of the Second World War. His music overflows with colour and invention. Inspired by the sacred writings of Dom Marmion, a priest of Dublin diocese who became a Benedictine monk, it is a profound expression of Messiaen's Catholic faith; each movement represents a meditation on the particular ways in which the newborn Christ is gazed upon—whether by the Father God (contemplation No. 1), the angels (No. 14) or by Time itself (No. 9). Movements are dramatically arranged, conjuring a wide spectrum of contemplative states, from serene to ecstatic. Messiaen’s interest in Eastern music and philosophy shines through in the cycle's Hindu rhythms and in the percussive sonorities that recall Balinese gamelan (No. 1), as does his love of birdsong (in Nos. 4 and 5). Listen out, too, for the hints of Gershwin (Nos. 10 and 15). So how does he achieve coherence across such a vast religious canvas? Overall, the work is anchored in F-sharp major—the key in which it quietly begins and resoundingly ends. His religious ideas are attached to specific musical themes, or leitmotifs, that he repeats and transforms within the work. Most prominent are the "Theme of God”; the "Theme of the Star and the Cross"; the "Theme of Chords"; and the "Theme of Love". The piece was dedicated to the pianist Yvonne Loriod, who would later become Messian's wife.