Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Encyclopedia
Quatuor pour la fin du temps, also known by its English
title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music
by the French
composer
Olivier Messiaen
. It was premiered in 1941. The piece is scored for clarinet (in B-flat)
, violin
, cello
, and piano
; a typical performance of the complete work lasts about fifty minutes.
in June of 1940 and was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.While in transit to the prisoner of war camp, Messiaen showed the clarinetist Henri Akoka, also a prisoner, the sketches for what would become Abîme des oiseaux. Two other professional musicians were also among his fellow prisoners (violinist Jean le Boulaire and cellist Étienne Pasquier), and Messiaen wrote a short trio
for them; this piece developed into the Quatuor for the same trio with himself at the piano. The combination of instruments is unusual, but not without precedent: Walter Rabl
had composed for it in 1896, as had Paul Hindemith
in 1938.
The quartet was premiered in Stalag VIII-A
in Görlitz
, Germany (currently Zgorzelec
, Poland
) on January 15, 1941, to an audience of about four hundred fellow prisoners of war and prison guards (Rischin, 2003: 62). Messiaen later recalled of the occasion, "Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension." (Stevenson 2005: 843)
(Rev 10:1-2, 5-7, KJV):
. Quotations are translated from Messiaen's Preface to the score.
of crystal", for the full quartet.) In his Preface to the score, Messiaen describes the opening of the quartet:
The opening movement begins with the solo clarinet imitating a blackbird's song, and the violin imitates a nightingale’s song. The underlying pulse is provided by the cello and piano: the cello repeats the same fifteen-note melody continuously, using only the notes C, E, D, F-sharp and B-flat. The piano part consists of a seventeen-note rhythm which is permuted strictly through twenty-nine chords, as if to give the listener a glimpse of something eternal.
, for the Angel who announces the end of time", for the full quartet.)
A test for even the most accomplished clarinetist, with an extremely slow tempo marking .
", for violin, cello, and clarinet.)
The music is arranged from an earlier, unpublished piece, "Oraison" from "Fêtes des belles eaux" for 6 Ondes Martenot
s, performed at the Paris World Fair in 1937. The tempo marking is infiniment lent (literally "infinitely slow").
The theme returns fortissimo in augmentation and with wide changes of register towards the end of the movement.
The music is an arrangement of the second part of his earlier organ
piece, "Diptyque", although raised in pitch by a major third from C to E.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
title Quartet for the End of Time, is a piece of chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
by the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
. It was premiered in 1941. The piece is scored for clarinet (in B-flat)
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
, and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
; a typical performance of the complete work lasts about fifty minutes.
Composition and first performance
Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Germany.He was captured by the German army during World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in June of 1940 and was imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.While in transit to the prisoner of war camp, Messiaen showed the clarinetist Henri Akoka, also a prisoner, the sketches for what would become Abîme des oiseaux. Two other professional musicians were also among his fellow prisoners (violinist Jean le Boulaire and cellist Étienne Pasquier), and Messiaen wrote a short trio
Trio (music)
Trio is generally used in any of the following ways:* A group of three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.* The performance of a piece of music by three people.* The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
for them; this piece developed into the Quatuor for the same trio with himself at the piano. The combination of instruments is unusual, but not without precedent: Walter Rabl
Walter Rabl
Walter Rabl was a Viennese composer, conductor, and teacher of vocal music. Largely forgotten today, Rabl left only a small number of works, all of them early ones, from the twilight of the Romantic era...
had composed for it in 1896, as had Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
in 1938.
The quartet was premiered in Stalag VIII-A
Stalag VIII-A
Stalag VIII-A was a World War II German POW camp just east of Görlitz, Germany Prior to the outbreak of war it was a Hitlerjugend camp.-Timeline:...
in Görlitz
Görlitz
Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...
, Germany (currently Zgorzelec
Zgorzelec
Zgorzelec is a town in south-western Poland with 33,278 inhabitants . It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship . It is the seat of Zgorzelec County, and also of the smaller district of Gmina Zgorzelec...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
) on January 15, 1941, to an audience of about four hundred fellow prisoners of war and prison guards (Rischin, 2003: 62). Messiaen later recalled of the occasion, "Never was I listened to with such rapt attention and comprehension." (Stevenson 2005: 843)
Inspiration
Messiaen wrote in the Preface to the score that the work was inspired by text from the Book of RevelationBook of Revelation
The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament. The title came into usage from the first word of the book in Koine Greek: apokalupsis, meaning "unveiling" or "revelation"...
(Rev 10:1-2, 5-7, KJV):
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire ... and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth .... And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever ... that there should be time [chronos in Greek; tempus in Latin] no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished ....
Structure
The work is in eight movementsMovement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
. Quotations are translated from Messiaen's Preface to the score.
Liturgie de cristal
(I. "LiturgyLiturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
of crystal", for the full quartet.) In his Preface to the score, Messiaen describes the opening of the quartet:
Between three and four in the morning, the awakening of birds: a solo blackbird or nightingale improvises, surrounded by a shimmer of sound, by a halo of trills lost very high in the trees. Transpose this onto a religious plane and you have the harmonious silence of Heaven.
The opening movement begins with the solo clarinet imitating a blackbird's song, and the violin imitates a nightingale’s song. The underlying pulse is provided by the cello and piano: the cello repeats the same fifteen-note melody continuously, using only the notes C, E, D, F-sharp and B-flat. The piano part consists of a seventeen-note rhythm which is permuted strictly through twenty-nine chords, as if to give the listener a glimpse of something eternal.
Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps
(II. "VocaliseVocalise
A vocalise is a vocal exercise without words, which is sung on one or more vowel sounds.-In classical music:Vocalise dates back to the mid-18th century...
, for the Angel who announces the end of time", for the full quartet.)
The first and third parts (very short) evoke the power of this mighty angel, a rainbow upon his head and clothed with a cloud, who sets one foot on the sea and one foot on the earth. In the middle section are the impalpable harmonies of heaven. In the piano, sweet cascades of blue-orange chords, enclosing in their distant chimes the almost plainchant song of the violin and cello.
Abîme des oiseaux
(III. "Abyss of birds", for solo clarinet.)The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The birds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.
A test for even the most accomplished clarinetist, with an extremely slow tempo marking .
Intermède
(IV. "InterludeIntermezzo
In music, an intermezzo , in the most general sense, is a composition which fits between other musical or dramatic entities, such as acts of a play or movements of a larger musical work...
", for violin, cello, and clarinet.)
ScherzoScherzoA scherzo is a piece of music, often a movement from a larger piece such as a symphony or a sonata. The scherzo's precise definition has varied over the years, but it often refers to a movement which replaces the minuet as the third movement in a four-movement work, such as a symphony, sonata, or...
, of a more individual character than the other movements, but linked to them nevertheless by certain melodic recollections.
Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus
(V. "Praise to the eternity of Jesus", for cello and piano.)Jesus is considered here as the Word. A broad phrase, "infinitely slow", on the cello, magnifies with love and reverence the eternity of the Word, powerful and gentle, "whose time never runs out". The melody stretches majestically into a kind of gentle, regal distance. "In the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God." (JohnGospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
1:1 (KJV))
The music is arranged from an earlier, unpublished piece, "Oraison" from "Fêtes des belles eaux" for 6 Ondes Martenot
Ondes Martenot
The ondes Martenot , also known as the ondium Martenot, Martenot and ondes musicales, is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot. The original design was similar in sound to the theremin...
s, performed at the Paris World Fair in 1937. The tempo marking is infiniment lent (literally "infinitely slow").
Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes
(VI. "Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets", for the full quartet.)Rhythmically, the most characteristic piece of the series. The four instruments in unison imitate gongs and trumpets (the first six trumpets of the Apocalypse followed by various disasters, the trumpet of the seventh angel announcing consummation of the mystery of God) Use of added values, of augmented or diminished rhythms, of non-retrogradable rhythmNon-retrogradable rhythmIn music or music theory, a non-retrogradable rhythm is a pattern of note durations that is read or performed the same either forwards or backwards, i.e., it is a rhythmic palindrome. The term is used most frequently in the context of the music of Olivier Messiaen...
s. Music of stone, formidable granite sound; irresistible movement of steel, huge blocks of purple rage, icy drunkenness. Hear especially all the terrible fortissimo of the augmentation of the theme and changes of register of its different notes, towards the end of the piece.
The theme returns fortissimo in augmentation and with wide changes of register towards the end of the movement.
Fouillis d'arcs-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps
(VII. "Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time", for the full quartet.)Recurring here are certain passages from the second movement. The angel appears in full force, especially the rainbow that covers him (the rainbow, symbol of peace, wisdom, and all luminescent and sonorous vibration). - In my dreams, I hear and see ordered chords and melodies, known colors and shapes; then, after this transitional stage, I pass through the unreal and suffer, with ecstasy, a tournament; a roundabout compenetration of superhuman sounds and colors. These swords of fire, this blue-orange lava, these sudden stars: there is the tangle, there are the rainbows!
Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus
(VIII. "Praise to the immortality of Jesus", for violin and piano.)Large violin solo, counterpart to the violoncello solo of the 5th movement. Why this second eulogy? It is especially aimed at second aspect of Jesus, Jesus the Man, the Word made flesh, immortally risen for our communication of his life. It is all love. Its slow ascent to the acutely extreme is the ascent of man to his god, the child of God to his Father, the being made divine towards Paradise.
The music is an arrangement of the second part of his earlier organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
piece, "Diptyque", although raised in pitch by a major third from C to E.
External links
- Abyss of Birds – Sheet music for clarinet solo on Wind Orchestra Sheet Music
- Preface by Olivier Messiaen
- Nigel Simeone on Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Analysis
- "Sur le Quatuor pour la fin du temps" – extensive analysis by François Nicolas (in French).
- oliviermessiaen.net – Boston University Messiaen Project: performances, studies and information.
Listening
- Audio samples of each movement from Atopos Contemporary Classical Music (mp3 format).
Revelation, Chapter 10
- King James Version from Blue Letter Bible (links to other versions, including VulgateVulgateThe Vulgate is a late 4th-century Latin translation of the Bible. It was largely the work of St. Jerome, who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 to make a revision of the old Latin translations...
and Greek, plus concordance, etc.). - BibleGateway.com presentation of the French translation of Revelations by Louis Segond Messiaen may have known this version best of all. Links to other versions of which many are in English.