Olivier Messiaen composed the Quartet for the End of Time in a German prisoner-of-war camp and premiered it for four hundred freezing inmates in January 1941. He found joy in birdsong, Catholic theology, and rhythmic patterns borrowed from ancient India, and he turned all of it into music that sounded like nothing anyone had heard before.

This episode traces Messiaen from his childhood reading of Shakespeare and fairy tales through the Paris Conservatoire, his wartime captivity, and the decades of organ music, orchestral works, and birdsong transcriptions that made him one of the most original composers of the twentieth century.

• He composed and premiered the Quartet for the End of Time in a German POW camp in 1941
• He transcribed birdsong from across the world and incorporated it into his compositions as a primary musical language
• He taught at the Paris Conservatoire for over forty years, influencing Boulez, Stockhausen, and Xenakis
• His massive opera Saint Francois d’Assise took eight years to compose and runs over four hours