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Quartet For The End Of Time
2018-10-25

Quartet For The End Of Time

By Olivier Messiaen (1908 – 1992)

25 October 2018

Odeion

19:30

“THE IDEA OF THE END OF TIME AS THE END OF PAST AND FUTURE AND THE BEGINNING OF ETERNITY”

Anmari van der Westhuizen and Samson Diamond (members of the renowned Odeion String Quartet), will join with the award-winning soloists Grethe Nöthling and Danrè Strydom to perform one of the 20th century’s most compelling chamber music works, Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. These musicians need no introduction to Bloemfontein audiences.

Composed while he was a prisoner of war, Messiaen's Quartet has continually wowed audiences since its creation. The oppressive conditions within which the work was conceived - set against the backdrop of wartime conditions in Nazi Germany - contribute to the work’s inner narrative. In this unsettling time of global political and social uncertainty, we aim to reframe this work from the past in order to contemplate the present. Music woven together with other art forms elicit and explain a range of emotions where words often fail.

A selection of striking WWII photos will be projected behind the musicians - reflecting the theme and history of the composition.

About the composition
Olivier Messiaen (1908 - 92)
Quatour pour le fin du temps (1940 - 41)

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time was written in perhaps the most incongruous spot any great score has been composed in: an unheated barrack in Stalag VIII-A, a German prisoner-of-war camp, during the second winter of World War 2. Messiaen wrote this mystical quartet for the instruments available in the camp (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano) in a setting that is arguably among the least conducive for creative work.

The quartet is Messiaen's musical depiction of and rumination on Revelation 10:1-7, which the composer included as a heading to the score:

“I saw a mighty angel descending from heaven, clad in mist, having around his head a rainbow. His face was like the sun, his feet like pillars of fire. He placed his right foot on the sea, his left on the earth, and standing thus on the sea and the earth, he lifted his hand toward heaven and swore by Him who liveth forever and ever, saying: "There shall be time no longer, but at the day of the trumpet of the seventh angel the mystery of God shall be consummated."

ADMISSION

  • R120 (adults)
  • *R80 (pensioners)
  • *R70 (UFS staff)
  • *R50 (students, learners and block bookings of 10+)

Tickets available at Computicket or online at http://online.computicket.com/web/

*Please note that tickets for pensioners, students, learners and UFS staff can only be purchased at a Computicket outlet (Shoprite Checkers) or at the doors since a valid card or ID has to be presented to qualify for the above-mentioned discount.

ENQUIRIES
Ninette Pretorius (tel. 051 401 2504)


Back
Lecture: “Mandela, You Are Finally Free: Music, Memory, and Madiba”

presented by Prof. Gregory Melchor-Barz (senior professor: Odeion School of Music)

28 February 2014

Odeion

12:10

Abstract:

Asimbonanga, asimbonang' uMandela thina [We have not seen him, we have not seen Mandela]

Laph’ekhona, Laph'ehleli khonal [In the place where he is, in the place where he is kept]

Johnny Clegg and Savuka

Over the years Nelson Mandela inspired musicians to write about his life and perform challenging musical responses to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. In this brief presentation, we will engage a variety of performers who performed musical tributes and challenges to the life and career of Madiba. We will also focus on the problematic issue of music for and about Mandela that was consumed outside in the South African diaspora (whether due to prohibitions or bans within the country or otherwise) vs. music produced as an internal musical commodity. 

Gregory Melchor-Barz, PhD

Alexander Heard Distinguished Service Professor

Associate Professor of Musicology/Ethnomusicology (Blair School of Music)

Associate Professor Music and Religion (Divinity School)

Associate Professor of Anthropology (Anthropology)

Faculty Head of North House, The Ingram Commons

Admission: Free

Enquiries: Ninette Pretorius (051 401 2504 / pretoriusn@ufs.ac.za)

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