Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
Olivia Montecchi
Honors Project: Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time
Honors Course: Honors U.S. History Since 1877
Instructor: Wendy Adele-Marie
My name is Olivia Montecchi. I'll be graduating from Oakton in Spring 2026 with an Associate in Arts and completing the Honor Scholar Designation. I created this arrangement of the fifth movement from the Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen because it has long been on my bucket list of pieces to play. I learned about the Holocaust in Dr. Adele-Marie’s Honors U.S. History from 1877 class. I thought it would be a great opportunity to play the viola, clarinet, and piano and to process some of the heavy emotions that came with learning about WWII. I also think it is a beautiful piece with so much sorrow and grief written into the solo part and accompaniment.
My project (below) was on Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen, one of the twentieth century's greatest composers, who was a Holocaust survivor.
I transcribed the fifth movement of Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen, who wrote this piece inside of a Nazi Prisoner-of-War camp. He only had access to a cello that was missing a string, some newspaper for writing, a clarinet, a broken piano and violin. He performed this piece with accomplished musicians inside the camp for the fellow prisoners and guards.
I have been wanting to play this piece for ten years, so now that I started learning viola three months ago I have been given the chance to play it! I first recorded the keyboard part. I chose to use the choral effect because I wanted to remember all of those who passed away in a Nazi camp. I used my Yamaha workstation to record it through my audio interface, which was connected to my computer. In GarageBand, I layered the solo part, originally for cello but I transcribed it for clarinet. Then I added the viola. This movement is originally for two instruments but I added viola playing the bass notes to emphasize the poor quality of the instruments.
