Klarinet Archive - Posting 000333.txt from 1994/12

From: Timothy Tikker <tjt@-----.ORG>
Subj: Re: Messiaen: "Quatuor pour la fin du temps"
Date: Sat, 17 Dec 1994 20:55:51 -0500

As an organist, Messiaen is one of my specialties. Here are some tidbits
about _Quatuor_ from Alain Perier's book on Messiaen:

Messiaen went to the Stalag in Goerlitz with some 30,000 other
prisoners. He was allowed to keep his pack containing orchestral study
scores ranging from the Bach Brandenburg Concerti to Berg's Lyric Suite.
As the Nazis found him to be quite harmless, they eventually provided him
with pencils and music paper. Then he came across fellow musicians: a
clarinettist, violinist and cellist. The first movement he composed for
them was the "Intermede", which they first play in the latrine!

The two "louange" movements are taken from earlier works: the cello one
from the Diptyque for organ, and the violin one from the Fete des belles
Eaux for six ondes martenots (unpublished).

Quatuor represents Messiaen's first use of actual birdsong transciptions
in a composition.

Perier's account doesn't give a specific temperature for the premiere on
15 January 1941, but 40 below sounds familiar - I must have read that
elsewhere. The cello lacked one string, the piano was out-of-tune and
had sticking keys which Messiaen had to keep pulling back up as he
played, and he was wearing a completely torn-up green Czech soldier's
uniform and big wooden shoes! But he did say that it was the most
attentive audience he ever had.

   
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