jan 1, 1940 - Quartet for the End of Time
Description:
a chamber music piece by Messiaen.The Quartet for the End of Time
1. Messiaen’s most famous work, Quartet for the End of Time, was composed while he was in a prisoner-of-war camp in 1940.
2. The title can refer to the Apocalypse—the end of time and the end of conventional ideas of rhythm and meter.
3. Messiaen also sought new conventions for melody and harmony.
a. He invented “modes of limited transposition.”
b. Looking at musical ideas from India, he developed “nonretrogradable rhythms.”
4. Messiaen drew upon Medieval ideas associated with the isorhythm and complicated
fourteenth-century mensural notation.
5. The Quartet for the End of Time demonstrates several facets of Messiaen’s music.
Added to timeline:
Date:
jan 1, 1940
Now
~ 85 years ago