Fête des belles eaux
Fête des belles eaux, or Festival of the beautiful waters in English, is a 1937 composition by French composer Olivier Messiaen.[1] The work is scored for six ondes Martenots and was commissioned for the 1937 Paris Exposition.[2] The work was written to accompany the movement[3] of the fountains at the Exhibition.
Structure
[edit]This composition is in eight movements and takes approximately 30 minutes to perform. The movement list is as follows:
- Premières fusées (First rockets)
- L'eau (The water)
- Les fusées (The rockets)
- L'eau (The water)
- Les fusées (The rockets)
- L'eau (à son maximum de hauteur) (The water (at its maximum height))
- Superposition de l'eau et des fusées (Superposition of the water and the rockets)
- Feu d'artifice final (Firework finale)
The melodic theme used in the fourth movement was also used later in the fifth movement ("Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus") of Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps.
References
[edit]- ^ "Music Obituaries - Yvonne Loriod". The Daily Telegraph. 18 May 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
- ^ Christopher Dingle (2013). Messiaen's Final Works. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754606338. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
- ^ Ivan Hewett (15 March 2005). "Strange echoes of another world". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
