{"product_id":"9781787331853-quartet-for-the-end-of-time","title":"Quartet for the End of Time","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOn Music, Grief and Birdsong\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e'This is a rich, lively, profound book' ROWAN WILLIAMS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA personal reckoning with grief, doubt, faith and poetry set to one of the most celebrated musical works of the twentieth century, from the award-winning poet and librettist. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe story goes like this: on a freezing winter night in 1941, a new piece of chamber music was performed to a crowd of prisoners of war on a three-stringed cello, clarinet, violin and pub piano with sticky keys. It was the premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s \u003ci\u003eQuatuor pour la fin du Temps. \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eListeners since then have been captivated by the ecstatic music and mythology of Messiaen’s masterpiece. Michael Symmons Roberts’ own lifelong fascination with the \u003ci\u003eQuartet\u003c\/i\u003e– having chanced upon it in a record shop in his late teens and fallen in love with its title - leads him on a quest to understand its enigmatic power. His fascination – at times frustration – with Messiaen’s vision opens into an exploration of grief, of personal faith and doubt, of the end of time and what may lie beyond it. Interwoven with poetry and wit, this book is an expansive evocation of music, loss, hope and time, seen through the lens of the \u003ci\u003eQuartet'\u003c\/i\u003es technicolour, apocalyptic vision.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eQuartet for the End of Time\u003c\/i\u003e is a moving, intimate and unforgettable book, attentive to ways of listening – in our noisy world – to birdsong, music, poems and radio silence, and to the call and response that we may find.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A properly engrossing exploration of music, place, religion and what it is to be human' SARAH TARLOW, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Archaeology of Loss\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41761080344673,"sku":"9781787331853","price":17.3,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/stand_29979321.jpg?v=1726054203","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781787331853-quartet-for-the-end-of-time","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}