Catalogue d’oiseaux

Catalogue d'oiseaux is a solo piano cycle by French composer Olivier Messiaen, composed between 1956 and 1958. The work transforms transcriptions of birdsong into highly elaborate, rhythmically intricate piano writing using Messiaen's modes of limited transposition and vivid harmonic colour, and it occupies a central place in his later piano output as a culmination of his ornithological studies and exploration of the piano's orchestral possibilities.