LDV49.1

76 MESSIAEN_THE ORGAN WORKS One could multiply such examples. I would just like to add that Messiaen himself, while deploring the fact that he could not find the registers of the organ of La Trinité elsewhere, was nonetheless open to different solutions insofar as he recognised his ‘ideal organ’ in them. In the relationship that Messiaen’s music maintains with the organ, there is a question that deserves our attention: that of acoustics. As we know, the quality of an organ resides largely in the way it fits in with the venue in which it is heard. Now, generous music like Messiaen’s needs rich acoustics, a space where it can develop, where the bass register assumes its full amplitude, where near and far answer each other, where slow tempos can expand in long-breathed phrases. Messiaen, moreover, was very conscious of these acoustic realities, and this is undoubtedly the reason for the absence of metronome marks in his organ works: he knew perfectly well that the choice of a tempo depends largely on the sonic characteristics of the performance venue. To play this music in too dry an acoustic would be like playing Chopin or Debussy on a piano without pedals.