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What is the connection between the works by Helena Winkelman and Olivier Messiaen? Time. The Swiss-Dutch composer set Shakespeare’s 12th sonnet to music and titled it The Clock. The poem examines the passage of time from the ticking of the seconds through Nature’s decline to the inevitability of death. It was written for Winkelman’s string quartet, Merel Quartet, and premiered at the Engelberg Chamber Music Festival. The standout moment of the performance was when alongside the musical imitations, the actual church bell of this picturesque town started to toll, ruthlessly reminding all of the passage of time. Time is also present in Messiaen’s quartet written and performed while a POW in 1941, although instead of the passing of time the focus is on perfection. In its spirituality, the work, which is completely divorced from worldly things, has an affinity with the Order, the secretive brotherhood of Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game.