Music of Ligeti

Os ateliers, seminários e encontros realizados com Claude Ledoux se inscreveram no âmbito de atividades acadêmicas desenvolvidas na Unicamp e na Usp na área de Análise Musical e compreenderam: Reflexão sobre a Análise Musical relacionada a tradições populares; Impacto do conhecimento de tradições populares no ato da composição musical; Claude Debussy e as tradições do Sudeste Asiático; Ligeti e a influência de músicas subsaarianas; Feldmann, tradições do Oriente-Médio e filosofias orientais; Scelsi, Murail e Harvey: interesse mutuo em músicas tibetanas, mongólicas e outros rituais budistas; Eötvös e Kurtag em relação às tradições da Europa Central; Claude Ledoux: influência das músicas da Índia do Norte e Indonésia; Relações com etnomusicologia e improvisação musical em extensão às reflexões analíticas; Levy Strauss e a Sinfonia de Berio; Relação entre música e texto em Berio e Kurt Schwitters.

Hungurian Rock was written by Gyorgy Ligeti in May of 1978. The piece has a subtitle Chaconne. It is interesting how these three words -Hungary, Rock, and Chaconne, -go all together in the one title. Rock in Hungary was prohibited since its beginning in 1960s 1 . Censors would check the music for any anti-governmental ideas. The chaconne was a popular dance and song in the 16 th and 17 th centuries and was considered immoral popular music at that time. So the provocative title Hungarian Rock, coupled with the old genre of chaconne seems to state some kind of political message. Perhaps Ligeti aimed to show that something cannot be rejected because it has a negative connotation and later on everything may earn artistic value. I strongly believe that the choice of the genre and the instrument was made by Ligeti not randomly, and that Ligeti found similarities between rock music and chaconne, which seem to be so different at the first glance.

This monograph is an authoritative study of the oeuvre of one of the most important composers of our time. For the first time, Ligeti’s key works are presented in the context of their drafts and sketches. His personal and artistic development is set forth and illuminated, and his principal compositions are analyzed and reinterpreted, based on detailed studies of the scores and drafts, as well as on personal conversations with the composer. In addition, numerous questions concerning today’s composing are raised and discussed. Music does not have to be puristic: Ligeti’s spheres of interest are close to universal, embracing history, natural science, and visual arts, as well as music of diverse eras and ethnicities.  This expanded world of the musical comprises not just tones and sounds, speech and music, the vocal and the instrumental: Ligeti conceives music as a cosmos of acoustic form.

O estudo da música, não somente do presente como também do passado, como um método de compreensão do pensamento e processo composicional. A análise musical pode ser praticada com essa finalidade, não buscando uma verdade absoluta, mas uma projeção do individuo na obra que estuda. Diversas questões, problemas, perguntas referentes à música de hoje e mesmo questões e preocupações individuais dos compositores contemporâneos podem ter respostas e soluções encontradas durante o estudo de músicas do passado. Portanto, os processos criativos possuem aspectos que podem transcender tempo, estilo, gênero e suporte.

Referências a Theodor Adorno (Teoria da estética) e Edgar Morin (Complexidade).

Ledoux destacou os seguintes aspectos da composição musical:
• Material (escalas, temas, motivos etc);
• Técnica;
• Projeto musical.

Bem como a simbologia presente de diversas maneiras nas obras musicais, variando conforme épocas, estilos mas também de um compositor a outro.

Foram estudadas representações musicais nos períodos barroco, clássico e romântico através de obras de :

• Bach: Fuga nº 1 a 4 vozes, Cravo bem temperado, vol. 1 ‐ BWV 846
• Haydn : Sinfonia nº 98 (Sib Maior) – 1º movimento; Quarteto Op. 76 – nº 2 (ré menor)),
• Mozart : Cosi fan tutte 3 (ópera) ; Sinfonia Praga4; Sonata K. 330 – 2º movimento
• Beethoven: Quarteto nº 13 – Op. 130 – 1º movimento

Il presente volume esamina il pensiero musicale di György Ligeti da diverse prospettive. La prima parte è dedicata alle vicende biografiche, alla rete di relazioni, al contesto culturale e politico. I quattro capitoli della seconda parte ripercorrono l’intero arco produttivo di Ligeti, integrando le informazioni generali sulle opere con l’illustrazione degli aspetti più significativi della tecnica compositiva; alla base di questa indagine vi è uno studio approfondito di manoscritti musicali, carteggi inediti e annotazioni di poetica conservati presso la Fondazione Paul Sacher di Basilea. Il capitolo conclusivo è dedicato al contributo di Ligeti nel campo della teoria musicale e al ruolo che egli svolse nel dibattito tra i maggiori esponenti dell’avanguardia. Il volume si configura come un lavoro ampio e aggiornato sul compositore ungherese e sugli ambienti in cui operava, includendo numerosi scorci sulla cultura e sugli orizzonti musicali della seconda metà del XX secolo.

“Rings,” the first movement of Adès’s violin concerto Concentric Paths, evokes the physical process of planetary motion and it is from this process that multiple time-scales arise: the lower-speed outer-orbits of planetary motion correspond to higher registers of pitch where melodies tend to unfold more slowly. The texture of Rings generalizes passages in Bach’s Presto to a post-tonal pitch process: pitches undergo processes that evolve at different rates, causing harmonies to expand, contract, and explode in hexatonic syzygies.

This study aimed at deciphering the inner logics of György Ligeti's Piano Etude No. 11 and its relations with form. Two parameters were derived from pitch-class set theory and used for statistical analyses: the sum ∑ of the six components (ic1 to ic6) of the interval vector, which measures the complexity of a chord, and the ratio (ic1 + ic2 + ic6)/∑, which measures its dissonance. The results have shown that the music is polyphonic and constructed from two complementary guidonian hexachords. The melodies generated from two short motifs, phrase structures, rhythms, average dissonance and complexity of harmony all vary between the parts and contribute internally to the tripartite form and progression. Polyrhythms result from the superposition of cyclic rhythms whose periods are coprime integers. The relations between hidden cyclic patterns of sound and pitch are reminiscent of the medieval motets. The outcome is complex but coherent. Download at URL: http://hugues.bedouelle.free.fr/music.html

This dissertation examines the music of contemporary composer György Ligeti and 15 th century composer Johannes Ockeghem who have in common the musical construction of an invisible framework upon which they built undifferentiated progressions of massive counterpoint. The result of their musical output stands in stark contrast to "classical" musical ideals which have held dominion over musical culture since the 16 th century.

A partir de un estudio detenido de algunos de los postulados de las teorías cuánticas y de sus relaciones con el campo electroacústico (Rocha Iturbide, 1999), el autor de este artículo establece un campo comparativo más arriesgado que involucra al campo filosófico de la estética, específicamente el que se relaciona con la música contemporánea de mediados del siglo XX. Se intenta definir una estética cuántica que nos daría como posibilidad el surgimiento de distintos estilos válidos (Zohar 1990), pero haciendo énfasis en los que más se acercan - de manera consciente u inconsciente - a estos principios cuánticos. El resultado de esta investigación le ha permitido al autor establecer una nueva manera para percibir y analizar la música contemporánea, la electroacústica y el paisaje sonoro, así como para crear obras sonoras nuevas dentro de estos distintos ámbitos.

Despite the still-prevalent but essentially nineteenth century perception of
the Western creative artist, an algorithmic approach to music composition has been in
evidence in Western classical music for at least one thousand years. The
history of algorithmic composition---from both before and after the invention
of the digital computer---will be presented along with specific techniques and
musical examples from the distant and recent past.

This article deals with the philosophical idea of worldmaking pursued through techné, meaning the fusion of the technical means of artistic creation, theorizing, and analysis, but specifically occurring in a feedback loop involving introspection and computation (cybernetic phenomenology). The discussion ranges over a wide variety of topics, including (1) the history of music theory from Ancient Greece to the present (including a rebuttal to Daniel Chua’s (2001) account of music history); (2) emergent properties in music arising from self-organization (explored through the Ancient Chinese abstract strategy board game go); (3) the ontology of musical qualities (properties) and categories (including their relation to visual, tactile, and olfactory qualities and categories). 
Various repertoires, artists, and philosophies are referenced. The essay analyzes aspects of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto, Carter’s String Quartet No. 5, and Lachenmann’s Kinderspiel.  Connections to the author’s own previous analytical and theoretical work are also discussed in relation to his interactive algorithmic audio-visual works (such as Fluxations and FluxNOISations). The techné of these is discussed in terms of logistics as well as aesthetic influences, including Wagner, Liszt, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Crawford, Babbitt, Carter, Xenakis, Parker, Reich, Ligeti, Truax, Oliveros, Kandinsky, Miro, Pollock, Pollock, Hofmann, Rothko, Louis, Frankenthaler, Moholy-Nagy, Newman, Richter, and Brakhage.  The essay touches on philosophical ideas of Bergson, Whitehead, Deleuze, Harman, and Bogost, and more fully engages the philosophies of Nelson Goodman and Hannah Arendt in connection with artistic creation as relating to the theorizing and analysis of artistic works.     

Contact the author at jmailman@alumni.uchicago.edu
Download the article through JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.54.1.0005
or http://tinyurl.com/zdvkllr

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a particular piece of music, "Chromatische Phantasie" by György Ligeti, using an eclectic analysis technique which incorporates historical research, theoretical analysis, and open listening interpretation. There are ten steps taken to compile the analysis: 1)Historical Background, which incorporates research into the background of the composer and the piece; 2) Open Listening, which is an unbiased listening of the piece with reflection; 3)Syntax, which incorporates partial transcription, tonal analysis, and structural analysis of the music; 4)Sound in Time, which is an analysis of the time, in seconds, over which the piece is displayed; 5)Representation, which incorporates a historical analysis of the particular influences on the composer at the time of the composition; 6)Virtual Feeling, which is a stream of consciousness reflection on the emotional aspects of the piece; 7)Onto-Historical World, which is a creative interpretation of the musical meaning; 8)Open Listenings, which is a reflection on multiple open listenings; 9)Performance Guide, which delineates suggestions for performance; 10)Meta-Critique, which is a final reflection on the analysis.

György Ligeti’s late style epitomises a vivid dialogue with the traditions of East European folk music and with those of the classical-romantic era. Beyond its being an explicit Hommage à Brahms, the Horn Trio’s allusion to the farewell motif of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, Op. 81a (Les Adieux) has already been widely discussed, and Ligeti’s references to Hungarian and other folkloristic practices have also been identified. Some commentators have traced the multi-movement form of the work back to the overall structure of Béla Bartók’s Quartet No. 6. These musical references can be associated (in themselves, or, at least, in the context of Ligeti’s life and oeuvre) with such meanings as nostalgia, homesickness, loss, farewell, and lateness. The author argues, however, that the Horn Trio’s intertextual web is also enriched by its structural and textual references to Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, which is a work whose meanings can be justifiably labelled with the aforementioned categories. The idiosyncratic order of the movements of the Horn Trio and the individual characters of those seem to follow the overall structure of Mahler’s work with remarkable consistency. What is more, the Ninth Symphony is also famous of its allusion to Beethoven’s Op. 81a. Actually, the way in which Ligeti ‘mistunes’ Beethoven’s farewell motif seems to be modelled on the Mahlerian distortion of the same motif. Ligeti’s strong interest in Mahler’s music can be documented with various sources, among them, by his inspired essays on that topic. The intertextual connection between the two works enriches the meanings of Ligeti’s work with the complexities of Central European identities of the modern era.

Christian Waldhagen: “Everything is material, but material is not everything. The meaning of the adage that universal scholarship is no longer possible today depends on the concept of the universality: the example of the musicologist Constantin Floros” in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, January 6, 2010.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar os processos composicionais do Kyrie, segundo movimento do Réquiem (1963-65), de György Ligeti. Segundo seu compositor, essa peça é uma “estranha fuga” e, como tal, receberá durante nosso trabalho a terminologia correspondente a essa declaração.
No primeiro capítulo, investigaremos a microestrutura da obra e perceberemos aí o caráter direcional das alturas do Sujeito 1, Kyrie eleison, (Cohn, 1998; Douthett & Steinbach, 1998; Lewin; 1982) e as simetrias que descrevem o Sujeito 2, Christe eleison (Weyl, 1997; McManus, 2005). No segundo capítulo, discutiremos o conceito de ilusão sonora (Caznok, 2008; Vitale, 2013; Menezes, 2004), sua recorrência na obra de Ligeti e na compreensão da superfície audível do Kyrie. No terceiro e último capítulo, retomaremos alguns aspectos da história do termo “fuga” (Mann, 1987) na busca de reflexos dessa história na escrita de Ligeti.
Durante todo o nosso texto, lembraremos de outras obras artísticas que, em diálogo com o Kyrie, nos ajudarão a exemplificar, contrapor ou ratificar procedimentos composicionais da obra de Ligeti. Nossa investigação tende a situar a obra desse compositor na questão da Tradição e Ruptura, problematizada pela modernidade (Arendt, 2013; Compagnon, 2010), a partir de uma abordagem prática: a da análise musical.

In this paper a systemic-semiotic analysis of György Ligeti's first Étude for piano, Désordre, is presented. In this contribution, a method for interpreting the score and understanding the dynamics of its underlying structure is developed. The method of synthetic microanalysis, which derives from Systems Theory, is ideal for this approach. The analysis is displayed in two phases; the phase of decomposition of the system will be carried out with the principles of segmentation from the linguistics paradigm. In the phase of systemic composition we will observe the interrelations among the components and what they generate, as consequences for the whole system.

Musica Ricercata XI by Ligeti was composed in the form of Fugue based on twelve-tone system that can be considered as atonal music and with paying attention to the 5th intervals relative overall the piece can be considered that this piece is an atonal music with materials from tonal music disguised inside. Ligeti paid attention since creating the prime row by using groups of chromatic notes which are symmetry sets related in many dimensions. Ligeti used tone row straightforwardly by using row by row through the exposition of subject theme, he mostly used perfect 5th intervals and transposition row such as T7 row. However, he didn’t strictly in the rule of twelve-tone system. In part of fugal counterpoint process proceeded simply,  the composer still use traditional structure of fugue to compose this piece.

This paper focuses on parallelism between compositional techniques and ideas of György Ligeti and Steve Reich, with additional reference to Terry Riley. I will be covering the period in Ligeti's career between 1973 and 1976, while also referring to older pieces of the two American composers. My aim will be to reflect on common concerns of all three of these composers in order to identify trends and techniques of this period.

Bu çalışmada, 20. yüzyılın önemli bestecilerinden György Ligeti'nin solo viyolonsel için yazmış olduğu sonatının teknik açıdan incelemesi yapılmıştır. Eserin özellikle ikinci bölümü çalgıda teknik anlamda iyi bir beceri gerektirdiğinden, viyolonsel repertuvarı için oldukça önemlidir. Ligeti ve müziğine değinildikten sonra solo sonatın bestelenişi, eserin müzikal incelemesi ve eseri yorumlama ile ilgili teknik konular ele alınmıştır. Besteci halk unsurlarını andıran modal yapılar kullandığı bu eserinde, geleneksel formu modern bir anlayışla yeniden şekillendirmiştir. Bu doğrultuda eserin inceleme kısmında sadece teknik değil müzikal ögeler de ele alınmıştır. Çalışma bestecinin ele alınan eseri ile sınırlandırılmış olup, literatür tarama ve ilgili eser üzerinden veriler toplanarak hazırlanmıştır.

Le musiche in questo programma di concerto coprono quasi 200 anni, nonché stili e personalità molto diverse: da Schubert a Lachenmann, attraverso Beethoven, Bartók e Ligeti. Eppure esse sono attraversate da un filo di continuità, che si è cercato di sviscerare imperniando l'analisi su concetti, problematicamente intesi, di "semplicità" e "brevità".
Schubert, 12 Walzer D 145
Lachenmann, 5 variazioni su un tema di Schubert
Lachenmann, Wiegenmusik
Bart6k, Mikrokosmos, vol. V: nn. 128, 138
Ligeti, Études pour piano, I vol.: nn. 2, 6
Beethoven, Sonata n. 32 op. 111

The technical and aesthetic foundations of György Ligeti's concept of micropolyphony, which he employed most prominently in his 1961 orchestral work, Atmosphères, can be credited, in part, to his post-emigration experiments with electronic composition at the studios of the NWDR in Cologne in the late 1950s. Although Ligeti had already theorized general concepts of musical texture and space prior to his emigration to the West in 1956, the nature of the micropolyphony he employs in his later work is characteristically distinct, exhibiting a greater sensitivity to density and timbre in addition to processes of aural integration and interaction. To this end, this analysis examines the way, and more importantly the extent to which, Ligeti’s often overlooked work in electronic music directly influenced his approach to the implementation of sound-mass in his later methodology. This is done through a comparison of Pièce Électronique No. 3, an electronic work begun in 1957, and Atmosphèr...

Resumo: Após passar um período trabalhando nos estúdios de Música Eletrônica em Colônia, nos últimos anos da década de 1950, o compositor György Ligeti adquire novos e importantes substratos teóricos e técnicos para a confecção de sua poética composicional. Este artigo pretende apontar algumas dessas técnicas que o compositor se utilizou para elaborar modelos de síntese instrumental e tecno-morfismo na confecção de sua obra Atmosphères (1961). ABSTRACT: After a working time period on the Electronic Music Studios, in Cologne, in the last years of 1950, the composer György Ligeti acquires new and important theoretical and technical substrates to construct his own compositional poetics. This article aims to point out some of these technical and theorical support and to demonstrates how Ligeti has applied these techniques to create models of instrumental synthesis and techno-morphism on his work Atmosphères (1961).

Cette communication se propose de questionner le rôle de la géométrie fractale et d’autres théories scientifiques dans la conception des formes musicales chez Ligeti, en adoptant un point de vue théorique et analytique, et en le resituant dans son contexte historique. Elle s’intéressera aux stratégies compositionnelles, mais également perceptives, utilisées par Ligeti, et qui renvoient de façon plus ou moins libre à certains aspects des théories scientifiques – la géométrie fractale notamment – auxquelles il portait un intérêt particulier. Les exemples musicaux qui illustreront le propos seront tirés du Concerto pour piano et orchestre (quatrième mouvement) et des Études pour piano (Livre II notamment).

Das vorliegende Buch nimmt seinen Ausgang vom Gegensatz zwischen Etablierten und Außenseitern in der Wissenschaft. Es porträtiert mehrere prominente Komponisten, Dirigenten und Wissenschaftler und versucht, das Wesen des Phänomens Musik von verschiedenen Aspekten her zu beleuchten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen kulturgeschichtliche, biografische, psychologische, philosophische, kritische, ästhetische und axiologische Fragen.  In der Zeitschrift DAS ORCHESTER ist (Heft 1, 2018) eine anerkennende Rezension des Passion Musik.

Inhalt:

Etablierte und Außenseiter – Vorwort ................................................ 7

Meine Eltern ......................................................................................... 10

Saloniki, meine Heimatstadt ............................................................... 12

Musikmetropole Wien ......................................................................... 15

Mein Mentor Heinrich Husmann ......................................................... 20

Der Weg zur Interdisziplinarität ......................................................... ..25

Humane Musik ..................................................................................... 29

Gedanken über die Tiefendimension der Musik ............................. ...35

»Die Musik soll nicht schmücken, sie soll wahr sein« –

Zur Ästhetik der Zweiten Wiener Schule ......................................... ..41

Alban Berg, Anton Webern und die Neue Musik ........................... ....49

Die Zweite Wiener Schule in den Zwanzigerjahren ........................... 66

Befreundete Komponisten und Dirigenten ..................................... ...75

György Ligeti ................................................................................. .......80

Leonard Bernstein ......................................................................... ......97

Hans Werner Henze ........................................................................... 101

Luigi Nono ................................................................................... ........108

Laudatio für Wolfgang Rihm .............................................................. 112

Hans Swarowsky ......................................................................... .......118

Günter Wand ............................................................................... ........127

Karl Anton Rickenbacher .......................................................... .........131

Komponistenvergleich: Wagner und Verdi.................................... .....134

Musik und Politik – Richard Wagner und der Pazifismus ................ 150

Europäische Institutionen und persönliche Begegnungen .......... .....161

Auseinandersetzungen ...................................................................... ..175

Axiologie I.: Peter Tschaikowsky –

Der absolute Tiefpunkt der Musik? ...................................................... 179

Axiologie II: Rachmaninow – Kunst oder Kitsch? ............................... 189

Musikalische Semantik ...................................................................... ...197

Warum ist die Musik Mahlers heute so beliebt? ............................ ......202

Enthumanisierung der Welt? .................................................................. 211

Nachwort ............................................................................................ .....214

Anmerkungen .......................................................................................... 219

Schriftenverzeichnis Constantin Floros ......................................... ........237

TRANSLATION
Petersen, Peter: “Against the "dehumanization of music". On the occasion of the eighteenth birthday of the musicologist and historian Constantin Floros,” translated from: Musikforum 8 (2010), 58-59. 

“Specialisation without universality is blind. Universalism is blind. Universality without specialisation is a soap bubble.”  This is the maxim of the musicologist and historian Constantin Floros, whose academic life is now being celebrated.

À la frontière des sciences de la musique et de la pratique musicale, le timbre est une notion clé qui permet de penser d’une manière neuve l’évolution de la musique au cours des XIXe et XXe siècles. Aborder la musique sous l’angle du timbre, c’est porter son attention sur les spécificités du son instrumental tel qu’il transparaît au sein de l’objet musical lui-même, mais également aux différents niveaux de sa production et de sa réception. Cette approche timbrique est particulièrement intéressante à considérer dans le cas de la musique pour piano, tant cet instrument s’est constitué, depuis le XIXe siècle, comme un véritable laboratoire de recherches instrumentales et sonores. Ainsi, une tradition du timbre au piano peut être mise en évidence, qui établit – au-delà des spécificités de langage – une filiation entre des œuvres pianistiques de compositeurs tels que Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Ohana ou encore Ligeti. Parmi les différents genres pianistiques qui seront discutés, celui des études pour piano permettra de montrer avec une acuité particulière le chemin qui mène d’une musique de notes à une musique de sons, et de faire le lien avec le programme du concert qui suivra cette conférence.

This essay identifies three reasons that help explain why György Ligeti was highly active as a speaker and author of texts about music throughout his career. They thereby replenished his income (particularly before 1973), asserted his auctorial authority vis-à-vis musicological interpretations and – at least indirectly – secured a better “share of the market” for his own music by being present in the public eye. This essay also discusses the reliability of Ligeti’s assertions, warning against an over-reliance on composers’ views on the part of musicologists.