Turangalîla Symphony

The Turangalîla-Symphonie is a large-scale piece of orchestral music by Olivier Messiaen. It was written from 1946-1948, being commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered by that orchestra in 1949, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

The piece is one of several works by Messiaen to feature the Ondes Martenot; it also contains a demanding solo piano part.

Messiaen stated that the title of the piece derived from two Sanskrit words, turanga and lîla, together meaning something like "love song and hymn of joy, time, movement, rhythm, life and death." At the time of its composition, Messiaen was fascinated by the myth of Tristan and Isolde, and the Turangalîla Symphony forms the central work in his trilogy of compositions concerned with the themes of love and death, the first of which is the song cycle Harawi (poème d'amour et de mort) and the third Cinq rechants for unaccompanied choir.

The Turangalîla-Symphonie is scored for triple woodwind, 4 horns, 5 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, piano solo, Ondes Martenot solo, glockenspiel, celesta, vibraphone, 5 percussionists and strings.

The work is in ten movements, as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Chant d'Amour I (Love Song I)
3. Turangalîla I
4. Chant d'Amour II
5. Joie du Sang des Étoiles (Joy of the Blood of the Stars)
6. Jardin du Sommeil d'Amour (Garden of Love's Sleep)
7. Turangalîla II
8. Développement d'Amour
9. Turangalîla III
10. Final

Influence on popular culture

In the television series Futurama, the character Turanga Leela is named in reference to the symphony.