Olivier Messiaen: Fête des belles eaux (1937)
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- Опубліковано 7 лют 2025
- Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Fête des belles eaux, per sestetto di Ondes Martenot (1937).
Sextet Jeanne Loriod:
Nelly Caron, Monique Matagne, Renée Recoussine, Karel Trow, Henriette Chanforan, Ondes Martenot
Jeanne Loriod, Martenot solo and Musical Direction.
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Whenever I hear Messiaen's music, I remember this quote by Albert Einstein:
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
😊
Wow, thanks for sharing that. You make me wonder if there's a paper or a book to be written about Einstein as a humanist.
And I bet you have no idea what it means
@@villain7140 no need to talk to yourself in the comments
@@Jschmel Einstein's mysterious, which is most eminently found in Bach and Mozart, Einstein's favorite composer, is clearly different from your idea of mysterious, a superficial adjective to describe music like that of Messiaen and unlike that of Mozart.
It is very sad that this work is never performed today. The score just gathers dust somewhere. Tragic.
Como tantas cosas de alto valor estético que nos brindaron los siglos pasados. Estamos en la edad del feísmo y de la pobreza cultural e intelectual.
Solo nos vale la técnica y el mundo bajo el prisma de la tecnología.
I met a beautiful woman named Violet, many years ago, who loved this music and encouraged me to listen-I just heard that she passed away. I will continue to listen, learn, and explore in her memory.☮️❤️
Was it Violet Fraser?
She will know, and appreciate, that.
Pretty revolutionary. Electronic music in the 30s must have seemed almost alien like.
Watch Forbidden Planet for examples of "weird" "alien" music/sound effects. The Barrons undoubtedly knew about the ondes Martenot and possibly about Messiaen.
@@bostonseeker Are the sound effects in that movie the work of an Ondes Martenot or a theremin?
@@hexagonalawareness3584 Neither. Bebe and Louis Barron used their purpose built studio which featured many devices built by Louis. They had various oscillators producing sine, square, sawtooth waves, filtering devices, spring reverbs, custom built loudspeakers, (one made especailly to emphasise bass frequencies) and of course, tape machines. They worked very much like the early days of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
@@Synthnerd11 Thanks for the knowledge
@@ChrisHenry-bj2oi they are hetting smaller each year I think. 😏
I played this at a pond and 20 geese came flying in, then later on 2 ducks and 20 more flew down to listen.
Now THIS is a comment of real value. Thank you. I will try this one day. I'm not surprised the birds came down.
I hope you had some orange sauce handy to go with the duck. mmmmmmm delicious. 😂
i like this thread
@@tango_doggy музыка вполне могла быть симфонической , а вначале - органной.
How fitting, Messiaen was an ornithologist.
It's just a theory. the birdsong is not the most beautiful sound but it's full of life. It's the same about human acts and prayers. They're not always beautiful but they prove the life and sentiments of humanity. Messiaen was very spiritual. His music, especially the religious one, is full of life and spirituality. At first, I thought "Fête des belles eaux" was sad, but, after listening to it several times I can feel the life and joy behind it. C'est beau!!
You might love the music of Susie Ibarra.
i agree with you. for him to accurately reflect some of the misfortune in the air at that time can be unpleasant to hear at first, but since it's relatable to the present i feel it has a healing quality, since we know Messiaen always kept his faith and was able to keep going in life
When we finally have time machines I am going to visit Paris in the 30s and experience the original performance of this remarkable music.
This is strangely nostalgic, and ive never even heard of this piece until now
This is ahead of its time. I've been on a classical music binge as of late, and I can't recall hearing anything this futuristic as far back as the 1930s.
may be try binging back on big mac n netfcks then eh
@@DrBe-zn5fv huh
At the very tip of his time.
Olivier Messiaen wrote: It was the year 1937. In addition to the magnificent Exposition which was attracting the curious from the world over, Paris had organized festivals of sound, of water, and of light which, at night-fall, unfolded across the Seine vast audio-visual spectacles where sky-rockets exploding in the sky and the spouting of great jets of water mingled with the harmonies of symphonic scores. For the musical ornamentation of these soirees, Paris commissioned 20 scores from 20 composers.
I was one of the 20. My colleagues chose orchestral works, choral works, or chamber works. I had the idea of writing for an Ondes Martenot sextet. The sounds were to be amplified through loud-speakers placed on all the buildings bordering the Seine. The Ondes Martenot was perfectly suited to such open-air music... The night is mysterious, the deep waters has a funereal aspect, the rockets are gay, playful, light, the fireworks show the same playful character. On the other hand the fountains of water are furious and terrible, or dreamy and contemplative. It is this latter feeling which predominates, and the two moments of climax and the Festival of Beautiful Water, that is, two times when the water maintains its maximum height, one hears a long, slow phrase, nearly a prayer, which makes the water a symbol of Grace and Eternity, according to the words of the Gospel according to St. John: "The water which I shall give will become a spring of water rising up to Eternal Life."
It's very interesting. Where did you read this information? Thank you a lot
@@joseantoniogaar7005 Notes for the LP album of this recording.
Wow! Now I'm going to search what is an "Ondes Martenot" and imagine how six of those would look, then I'm going to search for the speakers they could have used in those times, to visualize them on the side of the river with fireworks over and fountains in front of them. Such a good idea to write this stuff on the disc cover, adds an amazing visual trip to it
@@Twentythousandlps thanks for the info! I discovered the world of Ondes Martenot!
From Wikipedia: The ondes Martenot, ("Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard as well as by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player of the ondes martenot is called an ondist.
AMAZING! now i want to try it!!!
Thanks again my friend ;)
@@wanderingdoggo You should check out "How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead. It uses an Ondes Martenot as well
These sounds actually predict some of the textures from modern (last 10 years) high resolution synth and other sounds. What a gem.
The Ondes Martenot produced a single sine wave, which is in fact, the basis of all sounds, not just electronic. Fourier Theorem states that every complex sound is the sum of a bunch of those waves.
@joe curtin Igor Stravinsky, ever ready with snarky comments, called the sound of the Ondes Martenot "the aural equivalent of a high colonic."
@@trevorclover there's a lot more in there than a sine wave. square waves, clipped triangle waves, rectified sine waves, a lowpass filter.... you don't get those rich bass overtones at 25:43 with a sine wave.
@@dbkarp What he said is that all types of waves are composed of the sum of sine waves...
@@Ader1 it seems to me, he's saying that multiple Ondes Martenot are creating those waves by combining their sine waves, because he said "The Ondes Martenot produced a single sine wave". but that is not true. each individual Ondes Martenot is capable of many waves. and the tube oscillators of early Ondes Martenot, like in this video, could not produce single sine waves anyway.
There is always something unpredictable and thrilling in his music...he's a once in a lifetime genius, the kind that can't be imitated...there is the power of strangeness in his art...a kind of strangeness that transports us to new places...and yet never loses the soul and beauty of music.
Gratitude
1. Premières fusées 0:00
2. L'eau 2:47
3. Les fusées 6:01
4. L'eau 7:15
5. Les fusées 15:28
6. L'eau à son maximum de hauteur 17:06
7. Superposition de l'eau et des fusées 24:18
8. Feu d'artifice final 26:05
have fun
"les fusses" ? lol
1. Premières fusées
2. L'eau
3. Les fusées
4. L'eau
5. Les fusées
6. L'eau à son maximum de hauteur
7. Superposition de l'eau et des fusées
8. Feu d'artifice final
Thank you.
Lo he oído o acaso lo he soñado? Puse esta música mientras preparaba un lienzo para un nuevo cuadro y hubo un punto en donde se confundió lo que hacía con lo que sentía, como en los sueños. Que grande Messiaen.
@@ferminporcel9012 wow
The former 'Les fusées' (the third movement) actually starts at 6:02.
'Feu d'artifice final' (the eighth and final movement), in turn, actually starts at 26:05.
Timings referenced from the copyist's manuscript in the hand of Claire Delbos and the published score (Leduc, 2003).
Messiaen comme toujours, mirifique et fascinant ! .. Et cet arc-en-ciel qui se mire dans le vitrail, et ce cristal qui scintille .. La lumière ici surgit lentement des ténèbres et diffuse un halo de sérénité :) Il existe très peu de moments où l’intensité de ce qui se présente ici s'impose à ce point , parfois on peut douter l'espace d'un instant béni par cette architecture sonore, que dieu ne soit qu'un admirable concept qui mesure nos peines et nos joies
Try to listen to this while reading Algernon Blackwood. Fantastic.
The instrument being played (well, there are a few of them in this composition being played) is the Ondes Martenot, which is an early synthetic keyboard instrument that allows electronically produced frequencies (pitches) to be bent and their wavelengths altered to create interesting, spacial timbres and sounds.
That is utterly fascinating. As a fan of the Moody Blues with their use of the much later Mellotron, I had no idea that an instrument with a similar function had been invented in France so much earlier.
Martenot's invention may be the rare exception of an electronic instrument that DOESN'T tire my ears. Maybe the secret is in the fact that, as with the cello (the instrument I recall that he sought to emulate), there is a presupposition of silence and a practical limit of phrase duration. There is no unending stream of sound, but rather, arcs of it that inevitably retreat. Many thanks for posting this fascinating piece highlighting the work of Jeanne Loriod, younger sister to the second Mrs. Messiaen. BTW, am I nuts or at the 8:00 mark am I hearing a precursor version to the cello-piano duet in the Quartet for the End of Time, i.e., Praise to the Eternity of Jesus? (And yes, I'm forever getting mixed up - Immortality of Jesus is the violin-piano duet at the end, no?)
You're right. Messiaen later reused the movement for his Quartet.
Even interesting-er, from Wikipedia on the 1930 Diptyque for organ: "The second section of the Diptyque was rearranged for violin and piano for the last movement in Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps. However, Messiaen decided to use a much slower tempo on Quatuor: he marked it 'extrêment lent' and slowed it down to ♪ = 36, much slower than the ♪ = 58 marked on Diptyque." I guess writing the Quartet while a German POW was an impetus to re-visit some earlier works.
C'est merveilleux!
The work is scored for six ondes martenots and was commissioned for the 1937 Paris Exhibition.
The ondes Martenot is an early electronic musical instrument invented in 1928 by Maurice Martenot.
Bazar
Thanks for the valuable info!
my question is: how do you get SIX Ondes Martenot (and six Ondes players) together for this?
For a long time, there was program for this instrument at the Paris Conservatory. I wager it's still going, as I can't find another school where it's taught.
Merci beaucoup pour les précisions.
C'est chouette de rencontrer (même virtuellement) des gens qui aiment et comprennent la musique contemporaine. Je me sens moins seul ;-)
I love Messiaen. He's so spiritual!
That's great then .. cuz ur not very
@@DrBe-zn5fvvery?...
The Ondes always immediately evokes the mysterious, sheer beauty 🙏🏼
This music touches on snares of my heart I didn't even know I had.. Maddingly amazing.
Meget bra musikk, en av verdens beste komponister 😊
Fantastic music. Wonderful performances. Bravo!
Oeuvre superbe dans laquelle on entend déjà quelques thèmes du "Quatuor pour la fin du temps" que Messiaen réalisera trois ans plus tard, dans un Stalag.
Había detestado esta composición hace unos meses, pero ahora la he sentido especialmente placentera.
Wonderful! So this is where Hans Wurman (The Moog Strikes Bach) got his influence! Thank you for posting.
This music is magical! So glad I found this! Thanks for sharing it
Splendid.
Che meraviglia!! Grazie!
GOOD!!
Beautiful music on this summer morning. Thank you
So beautiful and haunting ...
I'm literally blown away by this man's music; so glad I discovered this.
You mean, like, if we played this music and you happened to be nearby, we'd look up 2 seconds later, and see you flying through the air in the sky above us? Cool!
Incredible concept and development considering the time of its inception. Loriod always the best of Messaien's interpretors and superb Ondist.
Absolutely fantastic. The Ondes Martinot could have been a bit... ; A Rarity Revealed!
La musique de Messiean est tr(eau) profonde pour n'être qu'illustrative. "Fête" des intensités et des contrastes. Mélancolie joyeuse; les oiseaux ne sont jamais loin!
This Wpork of Messiaen is Super
Interesting and enjoyable Avant-Garde Music---- of the
FIRST RANK !!@@
Warm sound, beautiful work
Genius. Absolutely boggles the mind! The bass line in the last few minutes and its rhythm is stunning and seems futuristic.
Powerful and masterful
Viendo los comentarios en este extraordinario descubrimiento musical que he hecho, sólo puedo decir que "megustan las cosas claras". Messiaen, gracias por habernos legado estas sublimes notas. Un fontanero de Ubrique.
Everyone's heard an Ondes Martenot in every cheap sci-fi film of the 50's, but even in oterh classical pieces I'd heard one in, it was just "wiggly noise". I'm astonished at the control and speed and precision with which a skilled player can play diatonic music with one, and this is the first piece I've ever even heard of where the composer actually demands that of the instrument. I'm pretty amazed.
No, the sci-fi films of the Thirties, Forties, and Fifties used the Theremin, not the Ondes Martenot. The Theremin is what you are thinking of.
They're distant cousins. The Ondes has a piano-style keyboard, which is why it can be played with speed and precision, and a "riband metalisee", metalized ribbon, used for glissandos and "expressive" melody. The Theremin is much simpler than the Ondes, although there were Theremin virtuosos who could play it amazingly well.
Also, note that the Ondes Martenot has a pull-out "drawer" with various switches and potentiometers that serve to change the timbre and overtones of notes - a kind of crude electronic synthesizer. It looks a bit like a charming miniature spinet piano...I chuckled when I wandered over to examine it during a rehearsal of Honegger's "King David" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Roi_David) oratorio. Honegger specified that it could be used in place of the harmonium.
Ondes Martenots have (or at least had) to be rented from Durand et Cie in Paris. They owned the rental rights worldwide at least in the 80s and 90s.
The Ondes does have its own long history in film, including the Ghostbusters soundtrack.
So this is like a keyboard operated theramin/vibraphone? I like the piece...did not expect to.
@@alskndlaskndal ...I hear...Sunset Boulevard..and the original..John Williams...Lost In Space ..soundtrack.
Wherever did he find *six* such skilled players??
Six all at once! I could never imagine it’d be composed, how wonderful
Very good.
The accompaniment from 17:06 onwards is just pure beauty. And it sounds a lot like Messiaens later works. I think he reused it in "Quartour pour la fin de temps: Louange à l'Èternité de Jésus"
mensch, ole! nach dem kommentar hab ich gesucht. and he did, lol
....an Eternity with Jesus....?
@@nicovanwersch Über Messiaen hab ich meine Masterarbeit geschrieben. Da macht mir keiner so schnell was vor :D
That's right! I'm used to listen to the cello and piano version but this one really suprised me. It's oddly beautiful
I had missed your comment about the Quartet and just today said the same. I hope to encounter more of your insights.
I prefer this music to everything else I have heard of his.
Mon morceau préféré aux Ondes... et en plus, joué entre autres par ma prof !
Votre prof! Wow.
That’s soooooooooo great!!!! And the performance is the best on UA-cam (recommend me better if you know one)
Beautifully ethereal! I am so glad there is such a high quality recording of this on UA-cam! The difficulty inherent in finding 5 talented Onde Martinot players must make the performance of this piece quite a rare occurrence!!
by high quality you refer to the one metre carpet of tape hiss, or you just had too much to think ;?
@@DrBe-zn5fv He means by youtube's standards, on youtube.
Excellent!
some of the first electronic music.
OMG I love this instrument!!! ;3
¡Maravillosa música!
Beautiful !
Thanks
This is lovely! Thanks. I had only known it exists - not anywhere good enough compared to hearing it, of course. But after years of 'just knowing of it.' this was an especial treat.
I love Messiaen works
thank you
Maravilloso. Parece música “de otro planeta”.
Fantastic performance! It's still remarkable to me to listen to this and his Quartet for the End of Time. The quartet is played a lot more because of the instrumentation, but this one has incredible beauty and emotion that not enough people have heard. It captures its era perfectly. Would have loved to have heard this in Paris when it premiered.
This is exactly what I was looking for! Thanks for sharing.
monstrously good. cleansing, calm, rustic, universal.
I'm new to Olivier's music, but I think this song does have a connection with the name. This song probably alludes to the "party" of raining drops, which I assume is what he means by belles eaux. If you imagine walking on a dark, cold autumn afternoon as it just starts to rain and the wind just starts blowing, this song fits perfectly.
I really need a Ondes Martenot after hearing this. XD
08:05 that's from the Quatuor! :D Mr Messiaen... simply genius... love the beautiful sound of the Ondes :)
The WelleszCompany : you're the master of Modern Classical , no doubt about that , my favorite work of Messiaen , so happy it's here , this instrument drives me crazy , thanks!!
"The horse died from the heat. He toasted. What would a cowboy do? Would he cry?"
This sentence will make sense in a few decades, I promise...
Fantastic !
beautiful & magical!
Es un compositor singular que causa verdadero impacto. en dos palabras ¡Un genio!
Ramón Cerdà.
For some reason, while listening to this piece, I couldn't get "Carnival of Souls" (1962) out of my mind.
So glad you said that......
bien joué dans l'ensemble
that's a very enlightened way to think about that. It really puts Messiaen's music into perpestive for me. though i've always thought his music was brilliant, i now get to enjoy it in a new light. Thank You!
Exactly timbre completely changes the way you perceive music…
Astonishing!
sounds so electronic nice
A fascinating piece of newly beautiful music. Very beautiful sounds and melodies. Thank you very much for uploading.
Interesting, the part around 16:09 sound like 8-bit retro audio hahaha. Messiaen was truly ahead of his time.
It's astonishing to think that one could even assemble a grouping of six ondes martenots, in light of the scarcity of this instrument and its few players.
Multi-tracking only one....
Six players' names up at the top....
Larry P, how would you do that? This isn't pop music where you can play to a click track. The tempo varies tremendously throughout, so the players all need to be communicating with each other in real time.
theoretically you could arrange a click track that changes tempo constantly, most daws have the option to add tempo and time signature markers; it's just you'd get very bored making the click track.
Oh sure, you could MAKE the click track, but how would you ever be able to play along with it?
This is amazing
Música encantadora!
This is so interesting and evocative... especially evocative of an age past.
Yep
Absolutamente fantástico!!
"L'eau" 7:15 es muy similar a "Quatuor pour la fin du temps: 5 Louange à l'Eternité de Jésus".
Me gustaría escuchar las dos versiones juntas :D
maxigavilan saludos colega hispanohablante, comprobaré lo que dice.
Y tan similar, como que es lo mismo :) Esto es una versión previa de esa Louange. La otra Louang (nº 8 del Quatuor) está sacada de la segunda parte de una pieza para órgano titulada Dyptique.
@@juanmaMCMLXXXII Yes. The two movements are not exactly the same. But #8 of the Quartet is clearly derived from the earlier pieces.
They're extremely similar, thanks for confirming my thoughts!
oye... basta de jurar
Thank you for the answer ! Happy new year !
Wow!🎉
1. Premières fusées 0:00
2. L'eau 2:47⭕
3. Les fusées 4:51 ⭕
4. L'eau 7:15 ⭕
5. Les fusées 15:28⭕
6. L'eau à son maximum de hauteur 17:06⭕
7. Superposition de l'eau et des fusées 24:18⭕
8. Feu d'artifice final 25:05⭕
Cosmic piece ii love it . Advanced for the 1930s
love it!!
Yes, some of it, but I was referring to the keyboard instrument in use on this. Thanks for your comment.
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992): Fête des belles eaux, per sestetto di Ondes Martenot (1937).
so at this point, the Messiaen i really enjoy, is this and Oraison, but if anyone could recommend more of this type of music, i would appreciate it.
I've never ever heard this. Amazing upload. Thank you so much.
Bellissimo...
Sembra di ascoltare un Debussy in versione deep-psichedelica!!!
I think it's about birds. He listened to birds before composing. He wanted to show us reality from another perspective. Birds don't have the same way of making music than humans. Sometimes it seems sad but the bird is not unhappy. It's like us in front of God. We are like birds that can sing properly. The music of Ascension is really beautiful.If you listen well you'll hear like many birds singing. Sorry my english is not perfect :-(
Sestetto di onde martenot??? Fantastico!!!
This is typically a beautiful work which deserves to be recorded, but how can we hear it life? Who can gather six "ondes Martenot"?
The obvious question arises:-Is it "ondes martenots", or "ondesii martenotii", when one goes ondes martenot a-gathering for 6 of the mfs?
Dont know, contemporary Ondes martenot are pretty expensive. But there are other kind of electronic instruments that can emulate at the perfection the sound of an onde martenot. Because well, an onde martenot is a synth like any other but with a specific hardware and playing technique. So no need to bring toguether six of those instruments, you can bring together 6 synthetizers and play the pieces, the arregements needed would depend on the equipment used to play
@@martincacho8624 I think I disagree. If the piece was written for an specific insrument, the idea is to keep that spirit right? I mean, with digital instruments you could replicate some Bach's string cuartets, but it wont be the same. Synthethizers, specially ones with a particular interface, like the Martenot, are not just a sawtooth wave with vibrato (not sure of the oscillator on this one), they are an instrument by itself, with it's charachter, sound, and playability.
But well, as you say, these instruments are very expensive and rare by now, so it's difficult to gather this number of Martenots and ondists.
@@vicentecuadros1723 Of course it would be better if you can arrange together 6 ondes martenot. This was responding to the problem of not having them available, and not having enough capable players either.
And yeah, when you do an arragement from one instrument to another, the idea is to keep that spirit, i dont see the problem.
I also dont see the problem with Bach arranged for electronic and digital instruments. I have heard some before, by hands of interesting artist, and even i think i heard electronic bach´s music in Tarkovsky movies. There are some important German Bach festivals where everybody can participate with their own arranges and adaptations of Bach music, adapted to alot of instrument and generes, including electronic instruments. I can remember Thuringia Bach festival from now.
Anyway, the thing is, as you said before: Keeping the spirit.
If you dont have ondes martenot and want to play this piece live, well, do an arrange for another instrument and play it. Thats the big why arranges exist in the first place... And even if the arrange is good, it can be equal beautiful as the original.
Le Tombeau de Couperin by Ravel stands out as a true classic masterpiece of this wonderful composer.
I dont understand. What is the link with Ravel?
What
The force is strong with 26:52
Wow
Happy New Year ;-)