“Turangalila” is a Sanskrit compound word: turanga - literally the speed of a horse - denotes rhythm or the passage of time, while lîla means sport or play, on a divine, cosmic scale. Perhaps Messiaen’s greatest achievement in this work is his fusion of these elements with a profound non-Western influence (both technical and aesthetic), as symbolised by the other word in his double-barrelled title. This kind of conflict and progression, entirely absent elsewhere in Messiaen, is surely a response to the subject matter - the pain and ecstasy of human love, as expressed in one of Western culture’s most potent myths. Much more importantly, there are elements of thematic construction and transformation (though not true development), and of a goal-directed symphonic argument, especially in movements II, IV and VIII. There are clear echoes of symphonic structures, both within individual movements and even spanning the work as a whole (Paul Griffiths has suggested that the first, fifth, sixth and tenth movements constitute a conventional four-movement design). On the other hand, when viewed in the context of Messiaen’s output as a whole, it is by far the composer’s closest approach to that tradition. Judged objectively, the work, with its sectionalised structures and sprawling ten-movement design, bears little resemblance to the ideals of the symphonic tradition. It has generally been asserted that the presence of the word “symphony” in the work’s title is not to be understood in any conventional sense.

Firstly, ideas and even styles could be cross-cut with great rapidity and flexibility, accentuating the music’s eclecticism (already an essential feature of his creative personality) and secondly, it became possible to superimpose several discrete layers of music, and to use the accumulation and recombination of such layers as a new means of formal construction.Īt the same time, however, the Turangalîla-symphonie is in many ways one of Messiaen’s most traditional works. While it served as a summary of Messiaen’s technique and vocabulary to that time, the size and timbral range of the forces also enabled him to consolidate two far-reaching advances in the way he manipulated his material.

It remains the only one of the composer’s orchestral works to have done so. Despite its daunting length and peculiarities of instrumentation, Turangalîla has carved itself a regular niche on concert programs.

Turangalila symphony score pdf