In 1975, Takemitsu met Messiaen in New York, and during "what was to be a one-hour 'lesson' which lasted three hours ... Messiaen played his "Quartet for the End of Time" for Takemitsu at the piano", which, Takemitsu recalled, was like listening to an orchestral performance. Takemitsu responded to this with his homage to the French composer, "Quatrain", for which he asked Messiaen's permission to use the same instrumental combination for the main quartet, cello, violin, clarinet and piano (which is accompanied by orchestra). As well as the obvious similarity of instrumentation, Takemitsu employs several melodic figures that appear to "mimic" certain musical examples given by Messiaen in his "Technique de mon langage musical", (see ex. 4). In 1977, Takemitsu reworked "Quatrain" for quartet alone, without orchestra, and titled the new work "Quatrain II."