Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 08/02/2005, uploaded on 01/16/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Thème et Variations     Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen's music is among the most influential and distinctive, with material he drew from a variety of sources, among them the plainchant modes, octatonic scales, and birdsong.

Composed in 1932, Thème et Variations displays a transitional style in his music and in the music of France. It echoes the past with its impressionistic tonality while anticipating aspects of Messiaen's later, more elaborate musical language. The opening presents a simple theme accompanied by triadic harmonies. The following five variations function to disguise the theme so that their relationship becomes increasingly difficult to discern. The first variation adds neighboring notes. Variation 2 distorts the rhythm and uses a contrapuntal treatment of three voices. The third variation rearranges elements of the theme while its meter is manipulated to throw the rhythmic symmetry off balance. It leads into the fourth variation, where all traces of the thematic idea disappear before increasing speed and agitation bring the last variation, where the main theme returns climactically in its entirety.   Eugenia Choi

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.