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Script for NYP 16-33: Turangalila
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(INSERT NATIONAL UNDERWRITING CREDIT #1)
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(THEME MUSIC UP AND UNDER TO "X")
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AB: And “this” week....(X)
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(MUSIC)
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AB: Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen leads
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one of the best-loved scores by Olivier
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Messiaen: the Turangalila-Symphony.
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This is Alec Baldwin. Thanks very much for
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joining us as the orchestra presents this work
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for only the third time in its history.
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Pianist Yuja Wang and Ondes-Martenot Valérie
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Hartmann-Claverie will be our soloists in a
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work the composer called a “song of love and a
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hymn to joy.” Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts…The
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New York Philharmonic This Week.
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(BILLBOARD OUT, AMBIENCE UP AND UNDER)
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(Actuality: (01-alan_01)
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AB: Music Director Alan Gilbert with a few opening
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remarks about the music of Messiaen. Mr.
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Gilbert went on to praise Esa-Pekka Salonen as
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one of the foremost interpreters of the piece
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we hear on this broadcast: the Turangalila-
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Symphony.
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(ACTUALITY: 02-alan)
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AB: Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen was
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born December 10, 1908 in Avignon, France.
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those of you keeping score, that’s one day
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before Elliott Carter—another giant of
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contemporary music—was born right here, in
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Manhattan.
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27, 1992 at the age of 83.
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would outlive him by 20 years, passing just one
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month shy of his 104th birthday.)
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it hasn’t already been done by some ambitious
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musicology student, one could probably right a
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very good paper comparing and contrasting the
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development of these two men.
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to do that right now, but one might argue that
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both they and their music had more in common
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than one might initially realize.
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For
Messiaen left this world on April
(Elliott Carter
Actually, if
We’re not going
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Messiaen grew up in a very literary family: his
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father was an English teacher and translated
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several of Shakespeare’s plays into French…and
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his mother was a poet. A precocious child,
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Messiaen was self-taught as a pianist before
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beginning formal music studies and he entered
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the famed Paris Conservetoire at age 11.
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teachers there included Paul Dukas for harmony
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(perhaps best known in this country for The
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Sorcerer’s Apprentice, though he also wrote a
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very charming Symphony) and Marcel Dupré for
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organ—one of the greatest exponents of that
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instrument of all time.
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slouch himself and was installed as the
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organist at La Trinité at just 22 years of
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age.)
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His
(Messiaen was no
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Messiaen also began his first forays into
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composition while still very young.
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influences included Ravel and Debussy and
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perhaps due to his parents’ love of words, he
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became attracted to opera.
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child, he even started a collection of opera
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scores—and would ask for additions to it for
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birthdays and holidays.
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that getting a copy of Debussy’s opera, Pelleas
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and Melisande was one of the most defining
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moments in his life.
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Messiaen never strayed too far from the Paris
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Conservatory.
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returned as a teacher in 1941, where he
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remained until his retirement in 1978.
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amongst his pupils were Pierre Boulez,
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Karlheinz Stockhausen, Quincey Jones, and his
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wife, Yvonne Loriod, who for many years was the
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only person that played Turangalila—often with
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her sister, Jeanne on the Ondes Martenot.
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on that in just a bit.
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Early
While still a
The composer recalled
He left as a student in 1930 and
Notable
More
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AB: Messiaen is one of the most original voices in
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all of music.
He certainly doesn’t fit into
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the mold of his contemporaries, but neither is
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he in any way a pastiche of his French
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predecessors.
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way:
Mr. Salonen summed him up this
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(CLIP)
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[tell anecdote about raiding his apartment?]
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AB: So now we get to the music at hand:
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The Turangalîla Symphony was commissioned by
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Serge Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony
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Orchestra in the mid-1940's
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Koussevitzy told Messiaen quote, “'Write me the
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work you want to, in the style you want, as
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long as you want, with the instrumental
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formation you want…”
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basically gave the composer carte blanche. This
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that was an attractive enough offer to persuade
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Messiaen to accept one of his first commissions
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as a composer.
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led the Boston Symphony in the work’s premiere
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in December, 1949 with the composer’s wife,
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Yvonne Loriod as piano soloist.
As the story goes,
In other words, he
It was Leonard Bernstein who
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Despite the Bernstein connection, Turangalila
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didn’t turn up at the Philharmonic until it was
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mounted for the composer’s 80th birthday in
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1988.
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Esa-Pekka Salonen was there:
(ACTUALITY: EPS)
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Turangalila has only been given one other time—
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in 2000, when Hans Vonk conducted it as part of
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the Lincoln Center Festival.
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Turangalîla is a Sanskrit word.
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notes prepared for the premiere of the work,
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the composer wrote the following about the
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title to his symphony: quote “Like all words
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belonging to ancient Eastern languages,
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[Turangalîla] is very rich in meaning.
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literally means play, but play in the sense of
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divine action on the cosmos...the play of
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creation, of destruction and reconstruction,
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the play of life and death.
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Turanga is Time–the time which runs like a
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galloping horse...time which slips like sand
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through the hourglass.
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movement and rhythm.
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signifies at one and the same time, a love
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song, a hymn to joy, time, movement, rhythm,
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life, and death.”
In program
Lola
Lîla is also Love.
Turanga is also
Turangalîla, then,
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The Turangalîla Symphony calls for an enormous
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orchestra and a most unusual array of
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instruments; in addition to augmented,
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traditional forces, the score also calls for
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Basque drums, a Chinese cymbal, celesta,
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glockenspiel, temple blocks, and tam-tam.
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work also calls for two soloists: piano and
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Ondes Martenot.
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Of the piano part, Messiaen wrote, quote “The
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piano part is of such importance and its
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execution demands such extraordinary virtuosity
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that one might say the Turangalîla Symphony is
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almost a concerto for piano and orchestra.
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Long and brilliant cadenzas in the different
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movements draw together the elements of
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development and form part of the overall
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design.”
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The
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As mentioned, Messiaen also included a solo
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part for the Ondes Martenot–an early monophonic
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electronic instrument invented in Paris around
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1928.
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is one of the most successful electronic
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musical instruments developed before the
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synthesizer. The 7 octave range of the
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instrument and its unique texture appealed to
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the experimental nature of many composers in
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the 20th century, including Edgar Varese,
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Darius Milhaud and Artur Honegger.
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opera based on St. Francis of Assisi, Messiaen
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wrote parts for THREE Ondes-Martenot.
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The Turangalîla symphony has four cyclical
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themes or motifs that recur, in one way or
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another, throughout the ten-movement score.
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These can be roughly divided as the statue
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theme, the flower theme, the theme of love, and
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a chord progression:
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Sometimes called the ondes musicales, it
In his
[EXAMPLE]
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Two of these themes are introduced in the
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symphony’s opening movement, titled,
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“Introduction.”
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and is carried primarily by the trombones:
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[EXCERPT]
The statue theme is in thirds
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AB: This eventually gives way to the clarinets for
the much gentler, “flower theme.”
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[EXCERPT]
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AB: The second movement is marked, “Chant d’amour”
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or “song of love.”
As with the statue theme,
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you’ll hear this love theme many times
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throughout the piece; here, you’ll notice it in
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the other-worldy voice of the Ondes Martenot:
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[EXCERPT]
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AB: From here, we have Turangalîla 1 and a second
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“Song of love” before coming to the fifth
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movement, which is labeled, “Joy of the Stars’
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Blood”
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hear at the start of the movement:
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Joy is very apt description of what we
[EXCERPT]
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…later our old pal the statue theme returns,
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and you’ll hear it both in the piano part and
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in the orchestra in this next excerpt:
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[EXCERPT]
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Next, we hear the “Garden of Love’s Sleep” and
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Turangalîla 2—the shortest and arguable most
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dramatic movement in the score.
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taste:
Here’s just a
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[EXCERPT]
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AB: In “Development of Love,” we again encounter
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the love theme in all its glory, framed by the
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chord theme and the statue theme at the
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introduction and coda. Here’s a small section
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towards the end of the movement where several
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things are happening at once:
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[EXCERPT]
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We then move on through Turangalîla 3, and on
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to the Finale, which ends in a quite ecstatic
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manner, largely centered on development around
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the love theme:
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[EXCERPT]
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We leave off the pre-concert portion of this
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broadcast with a few more words of the
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composer.
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Nichol’s and Josiah Fisk’s incredible volume,
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Composers On Music:
The English translation is from Jeff
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`
“Freedom is a necessity for artists.
By
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choosing its future, freedom creates a new
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past–and that is what builds us up.
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that, too, which determines the style of the
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artist, his characters...his signature...
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All the same, one has to understand the word,
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“freedom” in its widest sense.
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about which I am speaking has nothing to do
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with fantasy, disorder, revolt, or
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indifference.
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which is arrived at through self-control,
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respect for others, a sense of wonder of that
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which is created, meditation on the mystery,
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and the search for Truth.
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freedom is like a foretaste of the freedom of
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Heaven.”
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It is
The freedom
It is a constructive freedom,
This wonderful
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Let’s pause right here for station
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identification.
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Turangalila-Symphony played without
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interruption. I’m Alec Baldwin and you’re
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listening to The New York Philharmonic This
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Week.
When we return, we’ll hear the
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(ID)
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AB: …and with our artists on stage, we’ll now hear
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the Turangalila-Syphony by Olivier Messiaen.
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Yuja Wang and Valerie-Hartman Clavarie are the
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soloists and Esa-Pekka Salonen conducts…The New
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York Philharmonic.
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(MUSIC)
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(THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE)
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AB: We just heard Olivier Messiaen’s hymn to love,
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the Turangalila-Symphony.
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Philharmonic was conducted by its Composer-in-
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Residence, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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heard Yuja Wang, piano and Valerie-Hartmann
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Claverie, Ondes-Martenot.
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(INSERT CREDITS AND CLOSERS)
The New York
As soloists, we