In Memoriam: György Ligeti (1923-2006)
On Monday the 12th of June the world of new music lost one of its truly great masters. György Ligeti, the Austrian-Hungarian composer whose works flew in the face of the dogmatic ideas held by the establishment, died at the age of 83 after suffering from a serious illness.
Ligeti’s music explored the world of texture more than melody, and he lived by a philosophy developed from having survived the fate of his father and brother who both died in a concentration camp during the Second World War. He escaped having to serve in the Hungarian Army in 1941, and fled to Austria during the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
This crystallized Ligeti’s disdain for anything having to do with dictatorships and intellectual oppression. In his own words, “I am an enemy of ideologies in the arts. Totalitarian regimes do not like dissonances.” For Ligeti composing was about finding inspiration in the things that seemed furthest from music; fractal geometry, biochemistry, and research into chaos theory were all things that opened up new creative vistas for him.
A page with Ligeti’s biography and works can be found here. More here (from the "Essentials of Music").
My friend, Robert Frederick Jones, who also happens to be a fine Canadian composer, sent me the following video clip; the clip is a tribute to Ligeti. It presents a performance of his Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes. When you press play be patient. The video starts right away, but before the music starts it loads quite a bit, and that takes some time, but it is well worth listening (and watching).
On Monday the 12th of June the world of new music lost one of its truly great masters. György Ligeti, the Austrian-Hungarian composer whose works flew in the face of the dogmatic ideas held by the establishment, died at the age of 83 after suffering from a serious illness.
Ligeti’s music explored the world of texture more than melody, and he lived by a philosophy developed from having survived the fate of his father and brother who both died in a concentration camp during the Second World War. He escaped having to serve in the Hungarian Army in 1941, and fled to Austria during the 1956 Hungarian uprising.
This crystallized Ligeti’s disdain for anything having to do with dictatorships and intellectual oppression. In his own words, “I am an enemy of ideologies in the arts. Totalitarian regimes do not like dissonances.” For Ligeti composing was about finding inspiration in the things that seemed furthest from music; fractal geometry, biochemistry, and research into chaos theory were all things that opened up new creative vistas for him.
A page with Ligeti’s biography and works can be found here. More here (from the "Essentials of Music").
My friend, Robert Frederick Jones, who also happens to be a fine Canadian composer, sent me the following video clip; the clip is a tribute to Ligeti. It presents a performance of his Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes. When you press play be patient. The video starts right away, but before the music starts it loads quite a bit, and that takes some time, but it is well worth listening (and watching).
posted by Unknown at 7:29 PM
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