|
|
 The Composer's Text  |
Main - Movements I - II - III - IV - V - VI - VII - VIII “I saw a mighty angel descending from heaven, clad in mist, having around his head a rainbow. His face was like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire. He placed his right foot on the sea, his left on the earth, and standing thus on the sea and the earth he lifted his hand toward heaven and swore by Him who liveth for ever and ever, saying: “There shall be time no longer, but at the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be consummated.” REVELATION, X Conceived and written in the course of my captivity, the Quartet for the End of Time was performed for the first time in Stalag 8-A on January15, 1941, by Jean Le Boulaire, violinist; Henri Akoka, clarinetist; Etienne Pasquier, cellist, and myself at the piano. It is directly inspired by this excerpt from “The Revelation of St. John.” Its musical language is essentially transcendental, spiritual, catholic. Certain modes, realizing melodically and harmonically a kind of tonal ubiquity, draw the listener into a sense of the eternity of space or time. Particular rhythms existing outside the measure contribute importantly toward the banishment of temporalities. (All this is mere striving and childish stammering if one compares it to the overwhelming grandeur of the subject!) This quartet contains eight movements. Why? Seven is the perfect number, the creation of six days made holy by the divine Sabbath; the seventh in its repose prolongs itself into eternity and becomes the eighth, of unfailing light, of immutable peace. 4 Olivier Messiaen |
|||||||||||||||
|
323 West 108th Street · New York, NY 10025 · (212) 663–6021 · Contact Us |
||||||||||||||||
