I wrote:

>What is really funny about this is that the later Penderecki and Messiaen
>are hardly atonal, although Messiaen did, unhappily, hang out with some
>atonal birds, and was unduly influenced by them.

On a less frivolous note, Messiaen has written some fine (yeah, IMHO)
music, starting with the Quartet for the End of Time.  Angela Hewitt's cd
of a sampling of his piano music is a great introduction.  The big symphony
(Turangalila?) takes some getting used too but that is as it should be.
Labelled as atonal by the onion comedians, he is surel one of the most
eclectic of modern composers.

Bernard Chasan