György Ligeti

Romanian classical composer

• Born: May 28, 1923
• Birthplace: Diciosânmartin (now Tîrnăveni), Transylvania, Romania
• Died: June 12, 2006
• Place of death: Vienna, Austria

Ligeti rejected the dogmatism of the 1960’s avant-garde to embrace a cosmopolitan approach to composition, retaining ties to his native language and absorbing influences from non-Western music.

The Life

György Sándor Ligeti (LIHG-eh-tee) was born in Transylvania, the son of Sándor and Ilona, secular Hungarian Jews from Budapest. Because university study was restricted for students of Jewish background, Ligeti traded a career in science for one in music, entering Kolozsvár Conservatory. He studied with Ferenc Farkas and Pál Kadosa until 1943, when the Nazis sent Ligeti to a work camp in Szeged, Hungary. He eventually escaped, but his father and brother died in the concentration camps.

Ligeti entered the Liszt Academy in 1945 alongside György Kurtág and studied with Farkas, Pál Járdányi, Sándor Veress, and Lajos Bárdos. While a student, Ligeti met the poet Sándor Weöres and studied folk music in Romania. He joined the academy’s faculty after graduation, but his compositional and personal pursuits were constrained by communist censorship and the extreme privation of postwar Budapest. During the revolution of 1956, Ligeti escaped from Hungary with his second wife, Vera, and they went to Vienna. In 1957 Karlheinz Stockhausen arranged a fellowship for him at the electronic studio of the West German Radio in Cologne. There Ligeti studied electronic and serial music, published articles in the German music journal Die Reihe, and composed. He stepped to the forefront of the avant-garde with the premiere of Atmosphères, which took first prize at the Donaueschingen Music Festival in 1961.

Although based in Vienna, Ligeti taught regularly in Stockholm and at the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. He came to the attention of a mainstream audience when film director Stanley Kubrick excerpted four unlicensed works by Ligeti in the sound track to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Ligeti lived in Berlin off and on between 1969 and 1973, visiting the United States in 1971 as composer-in-residence at Stanford University. While Ligeti was in California, he was introduced to recent advances in computer music as well as to the work of Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Harry Partch.

In 1973 Ligeti accepted a post in the Hamburg Hochschule für Musik und Theatre, where he taught for seventeen years and wrote his only completed opera, Le Grande Macabre. Three discoveries of the early 1980’s profoundly influenced his later music: the polyrhythmic compositions of Conlon Nancarrow, Simha Arom’s recordings of Central African polyphony, and fractal geometry.

Ligeti’s growing importance was recognized when his Études pour Piano won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 1986. The 1989 South Bank Centre Festival in London paved the way for Sony Classical’s groundbreaking decision (with support from Vincent Meyer) to issue Ligeti’s complete oeuvre (the project was abandoned in 1999 but was continued by Teldec in 2001). Subsequent awards include the Ernst-von-Siemens Music Prize (1993), the UNESCO International Music Council Prize (1996), the Sibelius Prize (2000), the Kyoto Prize (2000), the Theodor W. Adorno Prize (2003), and the Polar Music Prize (2004). Complications from a neurological illness forced Ligeti to stop composing in 2002. He died in his home in Vienna on June 12, 2006, survived by his wife Vera and son Lukas, a composer and percussionist.

The Music

Ligeti’s early works owe a great debt to Béla Bartók, but they were also influenced by Renaissance polyphony, Hungarian literature, and the Second Viennese School. Experience in the analog electronic studio affected Ligeti’s treatment of orchestral timbre, while his study of serialism led him to search for precise but nondeterministic compositional methods. His micropolyphonic technique—the superimposition of highly chromatic canons, each with a different durational pattern—became a palpable sign of Ligeti’s aesthetic: the “blossoming of isolated structural details into a transforming global structure.” A flirtation with the Fluxus movement, which advocated blending different artistic media, and immersion in music-theatrical works occupied the early 1960’s. Subsequent multimovement chamber and orchestral works included micropolyphonic, meccanico (machinelike), and kaleidoscopic textures and demonstrated the growing importance of the lament theme and nontempered tuning to Ligeti’s evolving style.

His postopera chamber works for piano and harpsichord incorporated additive rhythmic principles, while the later works reflected an increasing rhythmic sophistication influenced by chaotic processes and non-Western music. Ligeti characterized his harmonic language in these works as non-atonal but nondiatonic. His final works combined new influences with his earliest concerns: the large work composed of short, succinct movements (Hamburg Concerto), the poetry of Weöres (Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel), and strict canon (Étude No. 18).

Early Works. Ligeti’s earliest songs and choral works show the influence of folk and Renaissance music, set to plaintive traditional or poetic Hungarian texts. Solo piano works are neo-Baroque (Invention) or neoclassical (Capriccio No. 1 and Capriccio No. 2) in style. Under communist strictures Ligeti wrote publicly performed choral works, including Inaktelki nóták, Pápáiné and Mátraszentimrei dalok, Éjszaka, Reggel, as well as compositions “for the desk drawer,” such as the String Quartet No. 1. The eleven-part Musica ricercata for piano builds a new musical language from a single note. The first movement ends with two notes; each subsequent movement adds a pitch and a new style to close with a twelve-note ricercar dedicated to Girolamo Frescobaldi.

Lontano. The micropolyphonic technique of Apparitions, Atmosphères, and the kyrie of the Requiem came to fruition in Lux aeterna for sixteen-part chorus and its contrafact Lontano, for large orchestra, based on the same canon. Lontano begins on a single A-flat played almost inaudibly from which multiple canonic lines fan out, each with a unique durational series. Pillar tones and trichords trisect the twelve-minute form, with individual chromatic lines subsumed by a slowly rising, shimmering cloud, shaped by timbre, dynamics, and extreme registral shifts.

Chamber Concerto. The Chamber Concerto for thirteen musicians is based on a Baroque model, but it refines ideas explored in the String Quartet No. 2 and Ten Pieces. Whereas Lontano begins with a single pitch, the Chamber Concerto begins on a soft five-note cluster, elaborated by distinct lines with different rhythms. Sustained E-flat octaves announce a second half with varied texture and dynamics. The second movement is subdued, with varied series drawn from a repertoire of pitches. Clusters and energetic melodic lines disturb the initial calm, as each line descends toward a sustained close. The third movement features Ligeti’s meccanico texture, reminiscent of ticking clocks which—as in Poème symphonique for a hundred metronomes—wind down separately to close. The final movement combines shimmering repeated patterns with clearly stated melodies that pass from horn to strings, oboe, and piccolo, capped by a humorous riposte from trombone.

Le Grand Macabre. Ligeti’s first attempt at opera (a nonnarrative retelling of the Oedipus myth) stalled with the death of its commissioning director, Göran Gentele of the Royal Swedish Opera. Ligeti decided that rather than an “antiopera,” he would compose an “anti-antiopera” based on the surreal, expressionistic La Balade du grand macabre by Flemish dramatist Michel de Ghelderode. The opera’s theme of a decadent and barely functioning world on the brink of an apocalypse allowed Ligeti to incorporate musical allusions within “comic-striplike” musical and dramatic action. He wrote the libretto in German with Michael Meschke, who directed the Swedish premiere in April, 1978. The original two acts were revised in 1996 to produce a leaner, more dramatically satisfying four-act structure.

Trio. The Trio for violin, horn, and piano was widely hailed as a return to tradition, if not tonality proper. Its four movements achieve a new expressiveness and exploit the texture and intonation of natural horn on a modern double horn. A warped version of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Lebewohl motive signals the traditional thematic logic and aba form of the first movement. In the second movement, an ostinato in aksak 3+3+2 meter recalls Bartók, and it also evokes the rhythmic drive of Latin American music. A third movement, recalling Beethoven, sketches a three-part march: A cyclic pattern with piano and violin in hocket is interrupted by the linear trio, with horn joining the reprise. The final Lamento was the first of Ligeti’s lament-ostinato movements, in which a lament topic reminiscent of Baroque and East European folk idioms forms the basis of continuous variations.

Études pour Piano. Ligeti’s first book of piano études was widely praised for its deft combination of diverse influences. In the tradition of the nineteenth century étude, each foregrounds a compositional device and introduces one or more technical challenge. Désordre maps a recursively structured melody onto both white (right hand) and black (left hand) key collections, against the background of a steady eighth-note pulse. Both hands move out of phase as the cyclic melody repeats at different pitch levels, to reflect a chaotic process that Ligeti calls tempo fugue. Subsequent études combine open fifths, blocked-key technique, ostinato, and the lament topic, with musical (jazz pianist Bill Evans in Arc-en-ciel) and extramusical (“Warsaw Autumn” and Boris Vian in “Automne à Warsaw”) allusions. The pieces in Études pour Piano, Book 2 demand high levels of performer virtuosity (the original version of No. 14 was published for player piano) and betray an even wider range of influences, from the music of the Indonesian gamelan (“Galamb Borong”) to the computer phenomenon of Shepard tones (“Vertige”). Three of the four works in Études pour Piano, Book 3 are canons, but they all are based on modal themes and proceed in even-note values that, in the manner of a proportional canon, shift value and tempo to create formal divisions emphasized by terraced dynamics.

Violin Concerto. The final version of the Violin Concerto continues the polyrhythmic and timbral explorations of the Piano Concerto, to produce a hybrid work indebted to Guillaume de Machaut and Dmitri Shostakovich in turn. A solo violin and viola tuned to match the seventh and fifth partials of the double bass respectively create piquant discrepancies in tuning, evident in the subtly beating arpeggios of the opening Praeludium. The second movement begins with an Aria adapted from Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, No. 3 followed by Hoquetus and Choral sections in which ocarinas, slide whistles, and the retuned strings gradually join soloist and orchestra. The third movement, Intermezzo, features a keening violin solo over a barely perceptible chromatic descent in strings, with echoes of String Quartet No. 1 and the ninth piano étude. The quiet beginning of the fourth movement, Passacaglia, builds to an intense climax that spans six and a half octaves and recalls the final scene of Le Grande Macabre. The final Appassionato combines the lament motive with spectral harmonies and rhythmic cycles in percussion and brass to culminate in a furious cadenza.

Musical Legacy

Ligeti eschewed all ideologies, but he held to a modernist aesthetic. Ligeti was criticized for retreating from progressive ideals after 1982, and he often spoke of feeling trapped between the strictures of the avant-garde and the past. He found a third way in non-Western indigenous music, which offered novel rhythmic and formal models and new types of intonation (and of tonality). Ligeti’s music evinced nostalgia for the European classical tradition even as it acknowledged the pluralism and complexity of contemporary culture.

Ligeti was widely lauded for combining intellectual sophistication with a respect for the sensual attributes of his materials, a perception supported by his writings and interviews. The championing of his music by leading performers such as pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen contributed to the growing influence of his music.

Principal Works

chamber works:Andante and Allegro, 1950; Baladăşi joc, 1950 (for two violins); Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet, 1953; Sonata, 1953; String Quartet No. 1, 1954 ( Métamorphoses nocturnes); String Quartet No. 2, 1968; Ten Pieces, 1968; Chamber Concerto, 1969-1970; Hommage à Hilding Rosenberg, 1982; Trio, 1982 (for violin, horn, and piano).

choral works:Idegen földön, 1946; Three Weöres Songs, 1947 (for voice and piano); Lakodalmas, 1950; Hortobágy, 1951; Haj, ífjúság!, 1952; Inaktelki nóták, Pápáiné, 1953; Mátraszentimrei dalok, Éjszaka, Reggel, 1955; Aventures, 1963; Nouvelles Aventures, 1965; Lux aeterna, 1966; Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel, 2000 (for mezzo-soprano and four percussionists).

electronic works:Glissandi, 1957; Artikulation, 1958.

opera (music): Le Grand Macabre, 1978 (libretto by Michel de Ghelderode).

orchestral works:Régi magyar társas táncok, 1949; Concert Românesc, 1952; Apparitions, 1959; Atmosphères, 1961; Requiem, 1965; Lontano, 1967; Ramifications, 1969; Melodien, 1971; Clocks and Clouds, 1973; San Francisco Polyphony, 1974; Piano Concerto, 1985-1988; Violin Concerto, 1992; Hamburg Concerto, 1998-1999, revised 2003 (for horn and chamber orchestra).

piano works:Induló, 1942; Allegro, 1943; Polifón etüd, 1943; Capriccio No. 1, 1947; Capriccio No. 2, 1947; Invention, 1948; Három lakodalmi tánc, 1950; Sonatina, 1950; Musica ricercata, 1953; Trios Bagatelles, 1961; Études pour Piano, Book 1, 1985; Études pour Piano, Book 2, 1994; Études pour Piano, Book 3, 2001.

writings of interest:Gesammelte Schriften, 2007.

Bibliography

Griffiths, Paul. György Ligeti. 2d ed. London: Robson Books, 1983. A renowned critic’s brief but engaging account of Ligeti’s life and works.

Ligeti, György. Gesammelte Schriften. Edited by Monika Lichtenfeld. Mainz, Germany: Schott Music, 2007. A two-volume collection of Ligeti’s articles, essays, and program notes.

Richart, Robert. György Ligeti: A Bio-Bibliography. New York: Greenwood, 1990. An annotated bibliography of works by and about Ligeti.

Sallis, Friedemann. An Introduction to the Early Works of György Ligeti. Berliner Musik Studien 6. Köln: Studio, 1996. This study of Ligeti’s early works unearthed forgotten manuscripts and shed new light on Ligeti’s influences. Includes English translations of Ligeti’s articles published in Hungary.

Steinitz, Richard. György Ligeti: Music of the Imagination. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2003. This definitive look at the composer’s life and works reflects the author’s long acquaintance with Ligeti. Includes biographical and professional details absent from earlier accounts.

Toop, Richard. György Ligeti. London: Phaidon Press, 1999. This fine introduction to Ligeti’s work sets it in the context of his avant-garde contemporaries.

Willson, Rachel Beckles. Ligeti, Kurtág, and Hungarian Music During the Cold War. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Situates Ligeti’s work alongside that of his compatriot Kurtág from the perspective of Hungarian nationalist and Cold War politics.