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Visible and Audible Structures: Spatio-Temporal Compromise in Ligeti's Magyar Etüdök

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Luminita Aluas
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Extract

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate, by examining György Ligeti's cycle of three pieces for double choir, what I call his compromise between temporal forms that possess their own microcosmic history and latent drama, and architectural patterns of his music that are endowed with a purely spatial coherence. I hope to demonstrate that an analysis of the aesthetic concepts at work in Ligeti's pieces might lead to a somewhat non-traditional approach in elaborating analytical strategies of modern music.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 183 , December 1992 , pp. 7 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 Michel, Pierre, György Ligeti, compositeur d'aujourd'hui (Paris: Minerve, 1985), pp.219–20Google Scholar, translation and emphasis mine.

2 Ligeti, György, György Ligeti in Conversation with Péter Varnai, Josef Hausler, Claude Samuel and Himself (London: Eulenburg Books, 1983), p. 16 Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., p.17.

4 Ibid., p.29.

5 Ibid., p.28.

6 Eisikovits, Max, lntroducere in polifonia vocala a secolului XX [Introduction to Twentieth-Century Vocal Polyphony] (Bucharest: Editura muzicala, 1976), p.181 Google Scholar. The whole passage reads as follows: ‘The distantial principle, characterized by the identity and symmetrical partition of elements, has been present for centuries in European music under both its vertical and horizontal aspects. While the acoustical principle [i.e., the triadic harmony, according to Eisikovits] is based on the dissimilarity and asymmetry of elements, the distantial principle [stipulates] their homogeneity and symmetry. Starting with the beginning of our century, distantial phenomena such as the whole-tone scale impose themselves with increased frequency.’

7 Ibid., pp. 195–96. Eisikovits describes this principle as it applies to Bartók's Cantata profana and to Kodály's Nights on the Mountain.

8 Ligeti, , György Ligeti in Conversation, p.29 Google Scholar.

9 Mârza, Traian, ‘Simetria de oglinda in folclorul românesc’, [The mirror-symmetry in Romanian folklore] Revista de emografie si folclor 5 (1979): 243 Google Scholar.

10 Eisikovits, , Introducere in polifonia vocala, p.182 Google Scholar.

11 Ghyka, Matyla C., Estetica si leoria arid [Aesthetics and Theory Of Art] (Bucharest: Editura Stiinrifica si Enciclopedica, 1981), pp.395–96Google Scholar.

12 Ligeti, , György Ligeti in Conversation, p.43 Google Scholar. The composer talks about how zones of dense counterpoint induce ‘mistiness’ in his music and asserts his preference for ‘dirty patches’ that emerge from singers' mistakes in the intonation of chromatic scales.

13 Hasty, Christopher F., ‘On the Problem of Succession and Continuity in Twentieth-Century Music8, Music Theory Spectrum 8 (1986): 59 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Eisikovits, , Introduare in polifonia vocala, p. 196 Google Scholar.

15 Griffiths, Paul, György Ligeti (London: Robson Books, 1983), p.26 Google Scholar.

16 Michel, , György Ligeti, compositeur, pp.204–5Google Scholar: my translation.

17 Ibid., p.185.

18 Ligeti, György, Magyar Etüdök (Mainz: Schott, n.d.), p.21 n.3Google Scholar

19 Because of different metronome indications I had to choose a single voice of reference: I selected the bass line as it is the first voice to enter, and thus easier to follow (although Ligeti indicates the alto voice as the coordinator of the piece).

20 Ligeti, , Magyar Etüdök, p.28 Google Scholar.

21 Colazzo, Salvatore, ‘Il modernismo di oggi’, Nuova Rivista Musicale luliana 3 (1978): 450 Google Scholar. My translation.