Book 1 No. 1: Le Chocard des Alpes (coracia graculus) — The Alpine Chough (Pyrrhocorax graculus)
Strophe: the Dauphiné Alps, Oisans. Climbing towards the Meije [map] and its three glaciers. First Couplet: near the Chancel sanctuary: the lake of Puy-Vacher [map], spectacular mountain landscapes, abysses and precipices. An Alpine Chough, separated from its flock, crosses the precipice, screeching. The silent and majestic gliding of the Great Golden Eagle, carried by air currents. Harsh and ferocious croaks, grunted by the Raven, lord of the high mountain. Various calls of Choughs, and their aerobatic flight (slips, dives, loops) above the abysses. Anti-strophe: before Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans [map], the Clapier de Saint-Christophe: a chaos of fallen boulders, hellish rocks, accumulated in disorder by the mountainous giants. Second Couplet: an Alpine Chough circles the landscape flying over the precipices. The same cries and the same flights as in the First Couplet. Epode: les Écrins: the circle of Bonne-Pierre, with its immense boulders, aligned like giant ghosts, or like the towers of a supernatural fortress!
— Olivier Messiaen
<== Back to Concert 3 Page
Strophe: the Dauphiné Alps, Oisans. Climbing towards the Meije [map] and its three glaciers. First Couplet: near the Chancel sanctuary: the lake of Puy-Vacher [map], spectacular mountain landscapes, abysses and precipices. An Alpine Chough, separated from its flock, crosses the precipice, screeching. The silent and majestic gliding of the Great Golden Eagle, carried by air currents. Harsh and ferocious croaks, grunted by the Raven, lord of the high mountain. Various calls of Choughs, and their aerobatic flight (slips, dives, loops) above the abysses. Anti-strophe: before Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans [map], the Clapier de Saint-Christophe: a chaos of fallen boulders, hellish rocks, accumulated in disorder by the mountainous giants. Second Couplet: an Alpine Chough circles the landscape flying over the precipices. The same cries and the same flights as in the First Couplet. Epode: les Écrins: the circle of Bonne-Pierre, with its immense boulders, aligned like giant ghosts, or like the towers of a supernatural fortress!
— Olivier Messiaen
<== Back to Concert 3 Page
