Le Merle noir

Le Merle noir ("The Blackbird") is a chamber miniature by the French composer Olivier Messiaen for flute and piano.

Written and first performed in 1952[1] it is one of the composer's shortest independently published works, lasting just over five minutes.

The composition originated in a 1952 commission for a test piece for flute for the Conservatoire de Paris, where Messiaen served as professor of harmony and musical analysis.

[2] For that year, the first-prize winners in the Concours de flûte were Daniel Morlier, Jean-Pierre Eustache, Jean Ornetti, Régis Calle, and British flautist Alexander Murray.

Messiaen's fair copy lies amongst the collections of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City; his sketches are now possessed by the Parisian Bibliothèque nationale de France.