Livre du Saint Sacrement ("Book of the Holy Sacrament") is a collection of pieces for organ on the subject of the Eucharist by the French composer Olivier Messiaen.
[1] Livre du Saint Sacrement was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists for its 1986 National Convention in Detroit, Michigan.
[2] Ray Ferguson, the convention program chair, was largely responsible for acquiring the commission in 1982-1984, with help from the eventual premiere organist, Almut Rössler [de].
[3] Messiaen had been the organist at the Église de la Sainte-Trinité, Paris since 1931; by his own account, the Livre brought to summation his years of experience in improvising organ music for the liturgy.
La manne et le Pain de Vie (The Manna and the Bread of Life) "You nourished your people with the food of angels.
You unfailingly gave them ready-made bread from heaven, capable of granting every pleasure and satisfying every taste.
And the substance that you gave manifested your tender love for your children, since it accommodated the tastes of everyone who ate it and transformed according to the needs of each."
(John 8:12) "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."
La Transsubstantiation (The Transubstantiation) "Sight, touch, taste in Thee are each deceived: hearing alone assures my belief.
(Thomas Aquinas, Adore te) "Under diverse species, which are no longer substances but only signs, sublime realities are hidden."
(Thomas à Kempis, De Imitatione Christi) Messiaen utilizes all the tools in his compositional kit, including his modes of limited transposition (modes à transpositions limitées); special chord forms (accords spéciaux), also called "color chords"; and non-retrogradable rhythm (rythme non-rétrogradable).
Other elements of his musical language are employed in particular movements: Greek meters (movements 4, 7, 8, and 17); Hindu rhythms (5, 6, and 11); birdsongs (3, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, and 15); plainchant melodies (3, 5, 12, and 14); a serial row structure, (mode de valeurs, 12); and communicable language (langage communicable), a self-invented musical alphabet (7, 11, and 18).
[6] Livre du Saint Sacrement was premiered at Metropolitan United Methodist Church in Detroit on 1 July 1986 to an audience of about 1,500, with the composer and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, seated in the balcony.
[7] Despite the extreme heat, the unfavorable acoustics, and mechanical problems with the organ, the reviews of Rössler's performance in the Detroit Free Press, The Diapason, and The American Organist were positive.
Over the following three years, the complete Livre du Saint Sacrement was presented 45 more times around the world by Rössler, Jennifer Bate, Thomas Daniel Schlee, Jon Gillock, Olivier Latry, and Erik Boström, as listed in the published score.
[10] Paul Jacobs became the first organist to win a Grammy Award in 2011 when his Naxos recording of Livre du Saint Sacrement was named Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra).
There are a lot of cd's and albums with Livre du Saint-Sacrement (Jennifer Bate, Marie-Bernadette Dufoucet, Jolanda Zwoferink).