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COMPOSER

Olivier Messiaen

1908 - 1992

Photo of Olivier Messiaen

Icon of person Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (UK: , US: ; French: [ɔlivje øʒɛn pʁɔspɛʁ ʃaʁl mɛsjɑ̃]; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from the systems of material generated by his early compositions and improvisations. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Olivier Messiaen has received more than 1,267,428 page views. His biography is available in 58 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 56 in 2019). Olivier Messiaen is the 86th most popular composer (up from 90th in 2019), the 330th most popular biography from France (up from 333rd in 2019) and the 13th most popular French Composer.

Olivier Messiaen is most famous for his compositions for organ and orchestra, including the Turangalîla-Symphonie.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.3M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 70.17

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 58

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.34

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.02

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Olivier Messiaens by language


Among COMPOSERS

Among composers, Olivier Messiaen ranks 86 out of 1,216. Before him are Nino Rota, Hans Zimmer, Luigi Boccherini, César Franck, Leoš Janáček, and Alban Berg. After him are François Couperin, John Cage, Leonard Bernstein, Pietro Mascagni, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, and Luigi Cherubini.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1908, Olivier Messiaen ranks 13. Before him are Claude Lévi-Strauss, Herbert von Karajan, Lyndon B. Johnson, Otto Skorzeny, Ian Fleming, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. After him are Lev Landau, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Bette Davis, Simon Wiesenthal, Geli Raubal, and Anna Magnani. Among people deceased in 1992, Olivier Messiaen ranks 9. Before him are Alexander Dubček, Willy Brandt, Friedrich Hayek, Grace Hopper, Astor Piazzolla, and Menachem Begin. After him are John Cage, Mikhail Tal, Francis Bacon, Barbara McClintock, Aribert Heim, and Giovanni Falcone.

Others Born in 1908

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Others Deceased in 1992

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In France

Among people born in France, Olivier Messiaen ranks 330 out of 6,011. Before him are Antonin Artaud (1896), Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau (1749), Denis Papin (1647), Marcel Marceau (1923), Henry VII, Holy Roman Emperor (1275), and Claude of France (1499). After him are Georges-Eugène Haussmann (1809), François Couperin (1668), Robert Guiscard (1016), Jean-Baptiste Say (1767), Mireille Mathieu (1946), and Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (1674).

Others born in France

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Among COMPOSERS In France

Among composers born in France, Olivier Messiaen ranks 13. Before him are Erik Satie (1866), Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683), Charles Gounod (1818), Josquin des Prez (1450), Jules Massenet (1842), and Gabriel Fauré (1845). After him are François Couperin (1668), Léo Delibes (1836), Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1645), Francis Poulenc (1899), Adolphe Adam (1803), and Arthur Honegger (1892).

French born Composers

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