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Quartet for the end of

Time - Messiaen

1

"As the four men tackled this extraordinarily difficult work, their technique, their musicality, their

relationship, and their thinking became transformed. At the center of their musical universe revolved a

mysterious composer whose brilliance reflected wonder, radiated light, but whose unshakeable faith in the

face of the seemingly hopeless surroundings often raised puzzling questions." 2 1 2

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.37)

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These notes are solely prepared to aid you in your preparation to teach the comparison of the two interpretations as set on the VCE syllabus. Please do not reproduce in any form. I have tried to reference clearly so that you can access the sources yourselves for further investigation.

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Olivier Messiaen (1908

-1992)

Born in Avignon on the 10

th

December, 1908

French composer, organist and teacher

Influenced by composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky and Bartók From the very beginning of his composition developed an individual modal system that he stayed true to throughout his compositional career

Was a committed Catholic

Between the ages of 7 & 9 he began to compose and play the piano and was said to have instructed himself a great deal in the beginning Was said to have demanded operatic scores of great works for Christmas presents. Because of this he became familiar with the work of Mozart,

Gluck, Berlioz and Wagner

In 1919 he entered the Conservatory and was one of its youngest students. "...a photograph of Jean Gallon's harmony call in 1923 shows a child in the company of young men and women" 3

In September 1931 he took the post of organist at La Trinité in Paris. He was to work here for more than 60 years (Griffiths, 2009, pg.1)

Much of his music is religious and was said to "manifest the doctrines of the Christian faith." 4 3 Griffiths, Paul "Messiaen, Olivier." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 17 Feb. 2009 (Griffiths, 2009, p g.2) http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18497 (pg. 1)

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In 1936 he began teaching at the Ecole Normale de Musicque and the

Schola Cantorum

He was called to military service in May 1940 and was captured and taken to a prisoner-of-war-camp at Gorlitz in Silesia. This is where he completed the Quartet for the end of time. He was released in 1941.

Messiaen taught many influential composers

He was incredibly interested in the study of bird song (ornithology) and used their songs as impetus for his compositions. He could identify by ear

50 species of birds in France and with visual aids he could identify some

550 other species living in France and Europe. He travelled all over the

world transcribing birdsong as though taking musical dictions. Messiaen had to adapt his transcriptions to accommodate the limitations of the human ear and musical notation. While

La Nativité du Seigneur

(1935) was his first reference to birdsong the

Quartet was his first attempt at

depicting particular species 5 “...he devoted himself to copying the songs of particular species he had heard in nature, and from this point on he journeyed throughout France and later throughout much of the world - collecting birdsongs by ear" 6 “It is not just the songs of birds that are projected through this music but also the intense colours of avian plumage, and the awe Messiaen felt for birds as being, like angels of resurrec ted souls, free in flight and one with God." 7 Messiaen often talked about how certain sounds and harmonies evoked a sense of colour for him. For example the use of an A major chord with an added 6 th was always bright blue He cited paintings and tapestries by Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) as being influential to his idea of sound colour He also cited his meeting with Charles Blanc-Gatti - a painter of sounds who suffered from a disorder of the optic and auditory nerves that 4 Griffiths, Paul "Messiaen, Olivier." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 17 Feb. 2009 http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18497 (pg. 2) 5

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pp.57

-58) 6 Griffiths, Paul, "Messiaen, Olivier." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 17 Feb. 2009 http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18497 (pg.4) 7 Ibid

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permitted him to see colours as he heard sounds and stained glass windows 8 "The Quartet is unique among Messiaen's compositions in that its 'sound- painting' stems not merely from the composer's lifelong fascination with colour, but from his physical deprivation as a prisoner in Stalag VIIIA." "In later compositions, the brush worked hand in hand with the pencil, serving as one of Messiaen's principal guiding instruments." 9

Robert Delaunay Painting

10 In 1978 he reluctantly resigned from his teaching position 11 8

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.56)

9

Ibid (pp. 56-57)

10

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Conception of "Quartet for the end of

Time" "...Messiaen's apocalypse has little to do with history and catastrophe; instead, it records the rebirth of an ordinary soul in the grip of extraordinary emotion. Which is why the Quartet is an overpowering now as it was on that frigid night in 1941" 12

It was his first composition to include bird song

Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time was significant for musicians and

Messiaen himself.

First composition to include a treatise on rhythm

It is considered one of the most significant 20

th century chamber works yet is his only chamber work. It is ironic that it emerged almost by accident. 13 "Although the Quartet was born in Stalag VIII A, it was actually conceived in Verdun, where Messiaen met two musicians, Etienne Pasquier and Henri Akoka, who would unknowingly contribute to the shape of musical history." 14 "And I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow on his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire . . . Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land . . . and, standing on the sea and on the land, he raised his right hand toward Heaven and swore by He who lives forever and ever . . . saying: 'There will be no more Time; but in the days when the seventh angel is to blow his trumpet, the mystery of God will be fulfilled.'" The Quartet for the end of Time is based upon the Revelation of Saint John, Chapter 10. 15 "This Quartet comprises eight movements. Why? Seven is the perfect number, the Creation in six days sanctified by the divine Sabbath; the seventh day of this

This piece is in eight movements:

11

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.56)

12 Ross, Alex (2004) The Rest is Noise, The New Yorker, USA. http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/quartet_for_the_2.html Acessed 24/02/09 (pg.2) 13

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.1)

14 Ibid 15

Ibid (pg. 129)

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repose extends into eternity and becomes the eighth day of eternal light, of unalterable peace." 16

It contains four main elements:

1. Catholic doctrine

2. Rhythm

3. Sound-colour

4. Birdsong

It is the second of eight compositions by Messiaen inspired by Revelation

Messiaen Preface Notes Translated from Programme

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quatuor_pour_la_fin_du_temps Accessed 23/02/09

1. Liturgy of Crystal Between three and four in the morning, the awakening of the 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.

2. Vocalise, for the Angel

who announces the end of Time 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 violoncello.

3. Abyss of the birds Clarinet alone. The abyss is Time with its sadness, its weariness. The

b irds are the opposite to Time; they are our desire for light, for stars, for rainbows, and for jubilant songs.

4. Interlude Scherzo, of a more individual character than the other movements, but

linked to them nevertheless by certain melodic recollections

5. Eulogy to the eternity

of Jesus 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, an d the Word was God." (John 1:1 (KJV))

6. Dance of the fury, for

the seven trumpets 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 rhythms. 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.

7. Tangle of rainbows,

for the Angel who Recurring here are certain passages from the second movement. The angel appears in full force, especially the rainbow that covers him (the 16

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.129)

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announces the end of time rainbow, symbol of peace, wisdom, and all luminescent and sonorous vibration). In my dreams, I hear and see ordered chords and melodies, known colours 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 colours. These swords of fire, this blue-orange lava, these sudden stars: there is the tangle, there are the rainbows!

8. Eulogy to the

immortality of Jesus Large violin solo, counterpart to the violoncello solo of the 5 th 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 dual meaning of the title, as the composer explained, rests not with the notion of the interminability of captivity, but with the composer's desire to eliminate conventional notions of musical time and of 'past and future'. The notion of time, musical as well as philosophical, is central to a basic understanding of the quartet."

Rhythm and Time

The title of the piece is actually a 'play' on words: 17 1 st movement based on 3 Hindu rhythms 6 th movement employs non-retrogradable rhythms as well as augmentation, diminuition, added values and derivation of Greek rhythm and meter

The preface "rhythm" was the 2

nd treatise on rhythm - the first being in

1935 work for organ

La Nativité du Seigneur

Non-retrogradable rhythms is one of the technical means by which

Messiaen realised the musical cessation of time

- others are: - The length of the work (approximately 52 minutes) - Reliance on rhythmic duration rather than meter (Movements

3,5,6)

- Extremely slow tempi (movements 3, 5 & 8) 18 17

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (pg.52)

18

Ibid (pp.52-54)

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First Performance

& Performers

Born June 23

rd

1912 in Palikao, Algeria

Henry Akoka (original clarinettist in Stalag VIIIA) He earned money playing in a band associated with the wallpaper factory where he was employed

At 14 he found work playing for silent films

Studied music at the Paris Conservatory and received the premier prix in clarinet in June 1935 19 In 1936 he joined the Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio - diffusion de

Strasbourg

Soon after he became a member of Orchestre National de la Radio In 1939 he was "mobilized" into the army and was sent to be part of the military orchestra at the citadel of Vaubean near Verdun It was here that all three became very good friends

It was in Verdun that Messiaen began writing his famous Abyss of the Birds for unaccompanied clarinet

Akoka's playing style had a great influence on Messiaen's future musical preferences 20 19

Rischin, Rebecca (2003), For the End of Time, The Story of the Messiaen Quartet, Cornell University Press,

New York (Figure 7)

10 | Page Akoka played a Couesnan clarinet and a Couesnan mouthpiece with aquotesdbs_dbs19.pdfusesText_25

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