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Current mood:  productive
Those of you, who are interested in contemporary/avantgarde music or film music might have been listening to György Ligetis wonderful music already. He was born in Hungary (*1923) and escaped to Austria and later Germany during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Shortly after his emigration he met radical young composers like Karlheinz Stockhausen, Gottfried Michael König and Pierre Boulez who were very important collegues and friends during these early years. Stockhausen introduced Ligeti to the methods and principles of electronic music. In the 1960s Ligeti wrote several big orchestral scores – Atmospheres (1961), Requiem (1966) and Lontano (1967) – static music with massive and colorful transformations of sounds, something unheard and completely new back then. This made Ligeti one of the most influential young composers over night.
Stanley Kubrick used some of Ligetis orchestral and vocal compositions in movies like "2001" and "The Shining" (and later "EyesWideShut"), which made Ligeti also widely known in the U.S.. In the early 1980s he changed his musical style in a surprising way, writing pieces in a more traditional, yet very individual style (e.g. 3 Solo Concertos, virtuosic Piano Etudes, choir music). In this time he was heavily influenced by such divergent phenomena like fractal geometry, the rhythmic complexity of African and South East asian music, the compositions for player piano by American composer Conlon Nancarrow.
I have been a music researcher for some years now and work/teach at the University of Hamburg. I am currently writing a book on Ligetis latest works, meaning a group of pieces that were written around 2000 (Ligeti died in 2006), e.g. the Hamburg Concerto (1999). In this piece for a solo-horn, 4 natural horns and ensemble, Ligetis experiments with different tuning systems that are layered upon each other, very very cool piece, full of harmonic invention!! Also there is a vocal piece for a female singer and drummers called With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles (2000) based on texts by hungarian poet Sandor Weöres - plus the last book of Piano Etudes (No. 15 White on white, No. 16 Pour Irina, No. 17 A bout de souffle, No. 18 Canon). Ligeti planned to compose a stage work after Lewis Carrols "Alice in wonderland" but he died before finishing it.
All these pieces are still quite unknown to musicology as well as to the public, so writing this is a big challenge and I hope I can finish it in 2010. Tons of reading and writing to do till then ; )...
Anyway - whenever you get the chance to listen to Ligetis music - go for it : ) It is an indescribable experience. He is one of the most interesting and fantastic composers of 20th century music.
Peace out to all of you and best wishes for 2009!
Freddy (pOnk)
10:06 PM
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