FRANK MORANA
AmerOrganist 33/12

(AL 28917). If Messiaen's second mode were still a novelty,

then this piece would qualify as a classic. But it is no novelty, and an

audience of cognoscenti might be apt to dismiss the piece as a mere case

study. This mode is, essentially, a diminished-seventh chord

with appoggiaturas, and the psychological after-effect of the piece

(which, from halfway into the introduction to the end, is in

second mode throughout) is that of a single harmonic color. But the

stylistic purity is deliberate and earnest, and the onward momentum

never lags for a moment. Helmschrott himself describes the piece as

"an allegorical fantasy in two parts, with a slow introduction giving

birth to a virtuoso whirlwind of bright tonalities." The second part

is, in fact, strikingly akin to the last movement of Vierne's G-minor

Symphony, and the French premiere of Dans le luminière was,

coincidentally, performed by the composer at Notre-Dame Cathedral,

surely a perfect venue for a work of this kind.