Fête des belles eaux

Fête des belles eaux, or Feast 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

This composition is in eight movements and takes approximately 30 minutes to perform. The movement list is as follows:

  1. Premières fusées (First rockets)
  2. L'eau (The water)
  3. Les fusées (The rockets)
  4. L'eau (The water)
  5. Les fusées (The rockets)
  6. L'eau (à son maximum de hauteur) (The water (at its maximum height))
  7. Superposition de l'eau et des fusées (Superimposition of the water and the rockets)
  8. Feux 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
  1. "Music Obituaries - Yvonne Loriod". The Daily Telegraph. 18 May 2010. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  2. Christopher Dingle (2013). Messiaen's Final Works. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9780754606338. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  3. Ivan Hewett (15 March 2005). "Strange echoes of another world". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 1 October 2013.
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