Messiaen - Quatuor pour la fin du temps

Here’s a short clip of Messiaen describing – and imitating – the song of the nightingale and the corncrake; while his wife, the pianist Yvonne Loriot, plays his piano ‘transcriptions’ of the calls of the two birds.

We have already heard the Liturgie de cristal with its solos for nightingale (violin) and blackbird (clarinet): birdsong also appears in the third movement of the Quatuor, the Abîme des oiseaux (Abyss of birds), written for unaccompanied clarinet.

We will also examine some of the composer’s references to colour (synaesthesia) in the Quartet: is there such a thing as ‘blue and mauve’ or ‘gold and green’ music?

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