Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps

Quatuor pour la fin du temps is an eight-movement chamber work by French composer Olivier Messiaen, composed and first performed in 1941. It employs austere textures, modal harmonies, rhythmic cycles and birdsong-inspired motifs across an unusual instrumentation, reflecting Messiaen's deeply held religious concerns and marking an important moment in his compositional development and in mid-20th-century chamber music.