Messiaen Program Note Assignment HANJIN SA
3/23/14
Olivier Messiaen
Born December 10, 1908, Avignon, France
Died April 28, 1992, Paris, France
Turangalîla-symphonie
Turangalîla was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1945, when the
Russian born American conductor Serge Koussevitzky invited Messiaen to teach composition at
Tanglewood, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was written from 1946 to
1948. Koussevitzky was to conduct the première but fell ill and instead his protégé, 31 years old
Leonard Bernstein gave the first performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra on
December 2, 1949 in Boston. Yvonne Loriod, who later became Messiaen’s second wife, was the
piano soloist who subsequently played numerous future performances and recordings of the
work, and Ginette Martenot (the sister of Maurice Martenot who invented the new electronic
keyboard instrument) played the Ondes Martenot. (an electronic instrument played either with a
keyboard and/or by moving a ring along a metal ribbon to produce long sustained notes and
otherworldly glissandos producing eerie, theremin-like keening sounds) Messiaen revised the
work in 1990.
The title Turangalîla has its origin in two Sanskrit words, “Turanga,” time-as applied to
movement and rhythm- and “Lîla,” play or love. Messiaen himself describes the Turangalîla as
love song, hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death. Messiaen further elaborates,
“joy as it may be conceived by someone who has glimpsed it only in the midst of sadness: a joy
that is superhuman, overflowing, blinding, unlimited. Love is presented here in the same manner:
a love that is fatal, irresistible, transcending, suppressing everything outside itself, a love such as
is symbolized by the philtre of Tristan and Yseult. Indeed, Turangalîla is one of a trilogy of
compositions written in 1945-9 based on the theme of the legend of Tristan and Yseult (the
others are the song cycle Harawi (“song of love and death” written in 1945) and Cinq Rechants
(for twelve mixed voices unaccompanied, written in 1949)
Messiaen Program Note Assignment HANJIN SA
3/23/14
The work is in ten movements with four cyclic themes that reappear throughout. Here is the
Messiaen’s own brief program notes.
Part I
1. Introduction: Here are heard the first two cyclic themes-the first, statue theme, in heavy thirds
on the trombones and tuba; the second, flower theme, in tender arabesque, on the clarinets
2. Chant d’amour (Love Song)1: a refrain, evoking two violently contrasted aspects of love:
passionately carnal love, and tender and idealistic love
3. Turangalîla 1: a nostalgic theme on the ondes martenot; a weightier theme on the trombones;
slow song-like melody for the oboe. Rhythmic play on three planes for the maracas, wood-
block and bass drum
4. Chant d’amour 2: a scherzo with two trios
5. Joie du sang des e’toiles (Joy of the Blood of the Stars): the climax of sensual passion
expressed in a long and frenzied dance of joy, conclusion on the statue theme (Conclusion of
Part I)
Part II
6. Jardin du sommeil d’amour (Garden of Love’s Sleep): the third cyclic theme, love theme. a
long slow melody for ondes martenot and the strings, decorated by the vibraphone, the
glockenspiel and the bird-song of the piano. Tender, idealistic and ethereal love
7. Turabgalîla 2: two orchestral effects; one gentle, expressive voice of the ondes and the
second, a terrifying rhythm, using the fourth cyclic them, chord theme
8. Développement de l’amour (Development of Love): develops the three cyclic themes
9. Turangalîla 3: a rhythmic mode, using a ‘rhythmic chromaticism‘ of 17 note-values in five
percussion instruments (wood-block, cymbal, maracas, tambourin provençal and tam-tam)
10. Finale: two themes: 1) a joyful fanfare of trumpets and horns; 2) the love theme (Conclusion
of Part II)
Messiaen Program Note Assignment HANJIN SA
3/23/14
Works Cited
Hill, Peter, Simeone, Nigel. Messiaen. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2005.
171-175
Johnson, Robert Sherlaw. Messiaen. New York: Omnibus Press, 2008. 82-94
Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. Olivier Messiaen and the Tristan Myth. London: Praeger, 2001. 70-76
Messiaen, Olivier. Turangalîla-Symphonie. Hamburg: Deutsche Grammophon, 1990. 1-7
