Olivier Messiaen drew little distinction between his work as a composer and his interest in ornithology. The titles of several works advertise their feathered subject matter, and the list of birds whose calls turn up in one or more of Messiaen's pieces contains literally hundreds of entries. In Sept Haïkaï: esquisses japonaises (Seven Haiku: Japanese Sketches) from 1962, no less than 25 species are represented.

The combination and integration of these unique gestures within this work stand as evidence of Messiaen's deep belief that the song of a bird is not a just a mating or warning call—some noise or alert of pure utility; rather, it is pure (perhaps the purest) music, created by nature as such. The numerous birdcalls are intertwined with other processes at work in the Seven Haiku.

An elaborate incorporation of Indian tâlas can be found shaping the rhythmic figurations that comprise the Introduction. Messiaen's approach to rhythm finds many concordances in Indian music, particularly with regards to the idea of additive rhythm. In many works, Messiaen's rhythmic gestures defy the grid-like boundaries of the steady meters that house them, growing instead from their own internal divisions—expanding and contracting by eighth- or sixteenth notes, or strung together end to end in modular fashion without concern for whether they add up to nice round beat-numbers.

In the Introduction to the Haiku, rhythmic complexity occurs on vertical as well as horizontal planes, as the woodwinds and piano execute the same collection of tâla figures forwards and backwards simultaneously. One also finds an underlying melodic-rhythmic structure that hearkens back to the fourteenth century isorhythmic motet of Vitry and Machaut. In fact, the terms "talea" and "color," used to describe the respective rhythmic and melodic repetition schemes that constitute Ars Nova isorhythm, are frequently invoked to describe similar processes at work in Messiaen's music.

The instrumentation for which the piece was written lends itself to all manner of sonic evocations of Japan. The eight vibratoless violins that appear in the second movement ("Le parc de Nara et les lanternes de pierre") and return in the fourth ("Gagaku") imitate the chordal accompaniment of the sho, a Japanese mouth organ. The fourth movement also finds Messiaen replicating the sound of the hichiriki by combining its western cousin, the oboe, with the trumpet and horn; likewise, the piccolo and clarinet stand in for the woteki, a kind of flute. Throughout, a variety of tintinnabula add a rhythmic, ceremonial quality.

To these evocative references must be added the numerous birdcalls that permeate the piece. In addition to the mixed choruses of calls in the winds and brass, the dramatis personae for the third movement ("Yamanaka Cadenza") includes the Narcissus Flycatcher, the Grey-headed Bunting, and the Starlet, each of whom is represented by a piano cadenza. In both the third and the sixth movement ("Les oiseaux de Karuizawa"), the trumpet plays the prominent role of the Japanese Bush Warbler. More subtle bird references can be found in the fifth movement, "Miyajima et le torii dans la mer," continuing into the sixth. Messiaen is often found speaking of alliances between certain aural pitches and visual colors. As Malcolm Troup has pointed out (The Messiaen Reader [Faber and Faber, 1994, p. 427]), while Messiaen in the preface identifies eight birds as being represented in this section, only half are represented by their songs; the rest are present only in the mysterious musical painting of their plumage.

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