LXXX. MESSIAEN, Olivier: Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time)

 LXXX. MESSIAEN, Olivier (1908-1992)

Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) (1941)
1. "Liturgie de cristal" (Crystal liturgy)
2. "Vocalise, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps" (Vocalise, for the Angel who announces the end of time)
3. "Abîme des oiseaux" (Abyss of birds)
4. "Inermède" (Interlude)
5. "Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus" (Praise to the eternity of Jesus)
6. "Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes" (Dance of fury, for the seven trumpets)
7. "Foillis d'arc-en-ciel, pour l'Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps" (Tangle of rainbows, for the Angel who announces the end of time)
8. "Louange à l'Immortalité de Jésus" (Praise to the immortality of Jesus)
Richard Nunemaker, clarinet
Trio Oriens
(54:32)

Wikipedia.

Messiaen was captured by the Germans in 1940 and sent to a prison camp. A sympathetic guard gave him a pencil and some paper and he devotedly wrote this music -- originally just a trio, but then expanded to all of the four instruments here.

On January 15, 1941, they performed before an audience of prisoners and guards (the Nazis loved adding a little culture to the hell of the camps), and shortly thereafter -- due to the intercession of the great Marcel Dupré -- Messaien was released.

In the preface to the published score, Messiaen wrote that he was inspired by text from the Book of Revelation (Rev 10:1-2, 5-7):

"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 if 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 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 ..."

In the sixth movement, all the instruments play in unison. When I first discovered this piece, I delighted in learning this part and playing it in unision with my friends. It is World War II rock-and-roll.