Latvian composer Aivars Kalējs (b. 1951) wrote Lux aeterna, Op. 51, as a tribute to composer Olivier Messiaen upon his death in 1992. Its slowly unfolding chordal passages and eerie modal melodies and scales reflect the sacred nature of a traditional text from the Requiem ritual. The conscious blending of religious sentiments of both the composer and Messiaen produces lush harmonies and grand ecstasy. 

– Gregg Wager is a composer and critic. He is author of Symbolism as a Compositional Method in the Works of Karlheinz Stockhausen. He has a PhD in musicology from the Free University Berlin and a JD from McGeorge School of Law.