Chronochromie is an orchestral work by French composer Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen

Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

, completed in 1960. It consists of seven movements: Introduction, Strophe I, Antistrophe I, Strophe II, Antistrophe II, Epode and Coda. The sixth movement consists of 18 string instruments playing different birdsong

Birdsong

Birdsong may refer to:* Bird vocalization, the sounds of birds* Birdsong , a 1993 novel by Sebastian Faulks* Birdsong, Arkansas, USA* Birdsong , a channel on the UK Digital One digital radio multiplex...

. The first performance was in Donaueschingen

Donaueschingen

Donaueschingen is a German town in the Black Forest in the southwest of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg in the Schwarzwald-Baar Kreis. It stands near the confluence of the two sources of the river Danube ....

 on 16 October 1960, conducted by Hans Rosbaud

Hans Rosbaud

Hans Rosbaud , was an Austrian conductor, particularly associated with the music of the twentieth century....

.