Des canyons aux étoiles…

"Des canyons aux étoiles…" (From the Canyons to the stars...) is a twelve-movement work by the French composer Olivier Messiaen. It was written to a 1971 commission by the American Alice Tully for a work to celebrate the bicentenary of the United States Declaration of Independence. It was first performed in 1974.

While preparing the work, Messiaen visited Utah in 1972, where he was inspired by the landscape and its birds, and particularly Bryce Canyon and its colours. The work is also notable for its use of modern instrument techniques.

The ensemble is scored for piano solo, french horn solo, Xylorimba solo and glockenspiel solo. The small string section consists of 6 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, and 1 double bass. The woodwind requires 1 piccolo, 2 flutes, 1 flutes in g, 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais 2 bassoons, 1 contrabassoon, 1 e flat clarinet, 2 b flat clarinets and 1 bass clarinet. In addition to the french horn solo, the brass also consists of 2 french horns, 1 trumpet in d, 2 trumpets in c, 2 trombones, 1 bass trombone. The large Percussion section is divided for 5 percussionists which consists of Messiaen's own invented instrument the Geophone (percussion instrument), 1 wind machine, 1 gong, 1 set of tuned gongs, 1 set of tubular bells, 1 pair of maracas, 1 whip (instrument), 1 bass drum, 1 triangle, 1 wood block, 1 thunder sheet and 1 set of wooden wind chimes, 1 set of crotales, 1 reco reco (instrument) and 1 tumba (drum) among other percussion instruments.

The movements are as follows:

# "Le désert" ("The desert")
# "Les orioles" ("The orioles")
# "Ce qui est écrit sur les étoiles" ("What is written in the stars")
# "Le cossyphe d'Heuglin" ("The white-browed robin-chat")
# "Cedar Breaks et le don de crainte" ("Cedar Breaks and the gift of awe")
# "Appel interstellaire" ("Interstellar call")
# "Bryce Canyon et les rochers rouge-orange" ("Bryce Canyon and the red-orange rocks")
# "Les ressucités et le chant de l'étoile Aldebaran" ("The resurrected and the song of the star Aldebaran")
# "Le moquer polyglotte" ("The mockingbird")
# "La grive des bois" ("The wood thrush")
# "Omao, leiothrix, elapaio, shama" ("Omao, leiothrix, ‘elepaio, shama")
# "Zion Park et la cité céleste" ("Zion Park and the celestial city")

The piano is treated as a solo instrument throughout the work, while the sixth movement "Appel interstellaire" is for horn alone. Messiaen specified that the work is in three sections: the first section contains movements 1-5, the second contains movements 6 and 7, and the third section contains movements 8-12.

References

*cite book|title=Messiaen|author=Hill, Peter and Simeone, Nigel|publisher=Yale University Press, New Haven and London|year=2005|id=ISBN 0-300-10907-5
*cite book|title=Olivier Messiaen and the Music of Time|author=Griffiths, Paul|publisher=Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York|year=1985|id=ISBN 0-8014-1813-5, particularly chapter 13, "From the Canyons to the Stars"