Composer Oliver Messiaen, a soldierfor the French army during WorldWar II, was interned in the Germanprison camp Stalag VIIIA in June 1940. Heturned to music for salvation. Cobblingtogether a musical quartet of fellow prisoners,Messiaen composed the “Quartet forthe End of Time,” which he debuted in thecamp on January 15, 1941. This premierehas been called one of the great stories of20th century music, says Associate Professorof Music Rebecca Rischin, the author ofa new book about the creation of thislegendary composition.

Messiaen, one of the most significant composers of the 20th century, mixedsounds as a painter mixes colors, associatingspecific shades with certain modes andchords, Rischin says.

She first heard Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” — a mammoth composition of eight movements that typically takes 50 minutes to perform — while a student at Yale University. She was surprised to learn that no one had ever examined the piece in depth, given its musical popularity and unusual history. In 1995, three years after Messiaen’s death, Rischin began to uncover the history of the piece through conversations with witnesses to the premiere and members of the Messiaen circle, including the original cellist and violinist, relatives of the clarinetist, and Messiaen’s widow. The project also took Rischin to the site of the formerprison camp, now in Poland.

Rischin’s book — illustrated with photographs of the musicians, press releases from the premiere, autographs, letters, and wartime photos from the camp — is not a technical analysis accessible only to musicians, she says. “It is the narrative of a remarkable memoir of the principals from the premiere performance of the ’Quartet for the End of Time’ whose testimonies change our understanding not only of this musical composition, but of the culture of the prison camp in World War II.”