Power to Burn

Is there any finer musical evocation of the entire cast of the Christmas story than Messiaen's 'Dieu parmi nous', the toccata with which he ends La Nativité du Seigneur? I must admit that it's something of a touchstone for me, having been my audition piece for the organ scholarship to Oxford. Yet each time I hear it, as I just did (almost complete) from the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge, I am wowed.

First there is the gruff interruption of God the Father, stamping his plan on time itself, with a quadruple forte descent to earth. Then the image of the Mother and Child, lying in a manger, soothed by an gorgeous if uneven, swell string lullaby. And then the jangle of angels, telling the news of God's appearance on earth – 'The Word became Flesh'. It is followed by one of the trickiest passages in the score: a kind of journey, an escalation, as all come to worship.

And then the riotous conclusion, full organ, dancing, the like of which Messiaen would only top in the Turangalîla-Symphonie. The descent theme now sounds exultantly. Finally, after a staggering ascent, there are a series of chords which are pulled magnetically towards E major (with a dazzling added sixth). It is preceded by harmonies of such iridescence that it is, as my erstwhile organ teacher David Goode once said, like looking straight into the sun, with all its glorious warmth and its power to burn. For those of you who don't know, however, here is Naji Hakim, Messiaen's successor at La Trinité in Paris, playing 'Dieu parmi nous' on Messiaen's organ.

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