Need some writing music this cold and dark month?
Exactly 72 years ago today, the composer Olivier Messiaen debuted “Quartet for the End of Time” in German prison camp during World War Two. The chamber music makes for some powerful writing music and we’ve embedded a Spotify playlist below.
Here’s more about the music: “I have been lost in ‘Abyss of the Birds,’ a mournful seven-minute clarinet solo that sounds like a songbird lost in the frozen darkness of a January night … The melody must leave the clarinet player dizzy from its long passages, stretching the loveliest notes for seemingly endless measures. In the best recordings you can hear the clarinetist gulping for air.
Rebecca Rischin wrote the definitive book about this historical moment in music history, For the End of Time: The Story of the Messiaen Quartet.
Spotify Playlist for Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Liturgie de cristal
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Vocalise, pour l’ Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Abîme des oiseaux
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Intermède
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Louange à l’ Éternité de Jésus
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Danse de la fureur, pour les sept trompettes
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Fouillis d’ arcs-en-ciel, pour l’ Ange qui annonce la fin du Temps
Olivier Messiaen – Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps: Louange à l’ Immortalité de Jésus