Turangalîla Symphony
The Turangalîla Symphony ( French Turangalîla Symphony ) is a 10- movement piece of music for large orchestra , piano and Ondes Martenot by the French composer Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992).
Emergence
Messiaen composed the work between 1946 and 1948 for the Boston Symphony Orchestra , whose director at the time was commissioned by Sergei Kussewizki . Messiaen put it at the center of a trilogy on the " Tristan theme " (sensual love and love death ); the other two pieces in the trilogy are the vocal works Harawi for soprano and piano from 1945 and Cinq rechants for 12 solo voices from 1949.
The score was published in 1953 , and the last revised version was published in 1990 .
Surname
Turangalîla is a Sanskrit word and in the music encyclopedia Sangita Ratnakara by the Indian music theorist Sarangadeva from the 13th century, it describes a certain rhythmic pattern (a so-called deçi tala ; see also: Tala ). This pattern is also used by Messiaen in the first sentence (number 12). He translated turanga freely with Tempo (literally translated it means horse i. S. with the meaning of German: Renner ), lîla means play, lightness, grace. Sarangadeva's rhythmic pattern is musically reflected in movements III, VII and IX ( Turangalîla I, II, III , see below).
Performance history
The first performance took place on December 2, 1949 in Boston by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Leonard Bernstein , who represented the sick Kussewizki. The soloists were Yvonne Loriod (piano) and Ginette Martenot ( Ondes Martenot ). The German premiere took place in December 1951 in Baden-Baden with the Great Orchester des Südwestfunk under Hans Rosbaud with the soloists from the world premiere.
The Turangalîla Symphony is one of the works of new music that has also survived in the concert hall, even if the elaborate line-up, the unusual instrumentation and the long playing time (approx. 80 min. ) Fall outside the scope of usual concert events and a frequent performance oppose. There are now a number of recordings with well-known conductors (including Ozawa , Salonen , Rattle , Chung , Chailly , Nagano ).
Classification: genre and form
The term symphony in this work is to be understood in a general sense of an extensive, multi-part work for a large orchestra. The first, fifth, sixth and last movements could be interpreted as the first movement, scherzo , slow movement ( Adagio ) and final movement of a classical symphony. The Turangalîla Symphony is very different from a formal point of symphonies of the classical and romantic, especially by the absence of the sonata form typical processing of the topics in a carrying . Movement 8 “Développement de l'Amour” is designed as a large development for this purpose. As is often the case in late Romantic symphonies, recurring themes ("cyclical themes") are used in all movements. The obbligato piano part is very demanding and contains numerous cadences such as those found in piano concertos .
occupation
2 flutes , piccolo flute , 2 oboes , english horn , 2 clarinets , bass clarinet , 3 bassoons , 4 horns , 3 trumpets in C , piccolo trumpet in D, cornet , 3 trombones , tuba , keyboard glockenspiel , celesta , vibraphone , tubular bells , large group of percussion instruments ( triangle , 3 temple blocks , wooden block , small Turkish cymbal , hanging cymbal , Chinese cymbal , crash cymbal , 2 tambourines , maracas , tam-tam , snare and bass drums ; a total of 10 percussionists) and a large string section , plus piano and ones martenot as solo instruments.
sentences
The sentences and their titles:
| Original French title | German translation | French tempo indications | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
I.
|
Introduction | introduction | modéré, un peu vif |
|
II
|
Chant d'Amour I | Love song i | modéré, lourd |
|
III
|
Turangalîla I | presque lent, rêveur | |
|
IV
|
Chant d'Amour II | Love song II | bien modéré |
|
V
|
Joie du Sang des Étoiles | Joy of the Star Blood | vif, passionné avec joie |
|
VI
|
Jardin du Sommeil d'Amour | Garden of the sleep of love | très modéré, très tendre |
|
VII
|
Turangalîla II | un peu vif, bien modére | |
|
VIII
|
Développement d'Amour | Development (1) of love | bien modéré |
|
IX
|
Turangalîla III | bien modéré | |
|
X
|
Final | final | modéré, presque vif, avec une grande joie |
(1) Can also be translated as "implementation" because this sentence represents the major implementation of the cyclical topics.