Catalogue d'oiseaux

Catalogue d'oiseaux ("Catalogue of birds") is a work for piano solo by Olivier Messiaen consisting of thirteen pieces, written between October 1956 and September 1958.

It is devoted to birds and dedicated to his second wife Yvonne Loriod.

The work was premiered by Yvonne Loriod on 15 April 1959 in Paris, Salle Gaveau, for the concerts of the "Domaine musical" organized by Pierre Boulez.

For these pieces, Messiaen did not want to be limited to the evocation of the bird of which each of it bears the title.

It is not alone: its habitat neighbors surround it and also sing (...) - its landscape, the hours of day and night that change this landscape, are also present, with their colors, their temperatures, the magic of their perfumes