Jos Janssen wrote:

>Tim writes:
>
>>Messiaen said that the opening solo "should sound like a strangled
>>chicken".  I wonder if Messiaen with his love of bird song ever used
>>the strangled chicken motif in any of his works?
>
>Not to my knowledge Tim, there's is a turkey though wandering around
>somewhere in act 5 of St. Francis of Assisie.  The subject of the opera
>makes it of course highly improbable that we would strangle the poor
>creature.

Yes Messiaen seems to regard birds as more spiritual than as tasty morsels
at least in his compositions.

Tim Horwood