Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen entered the Paris Conservatoire at eleven and by 1931 had landed the organist post at Église de la Sainte-Trinité, which he would hold for sixty-one years. After France fell in 1940, he spent nine months in Stalag VIII-A, where he composed his Quatuor pour la fin du temps for piano, violin, cello, and clarinet — the only instruments available — and premiered it for fellow prisoners and guards. Released in 1941, he joined the Paris Conservatoire faculty, teaching harmony and later composition until 1978, shaping a generation that included Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis. His o…